New data on the remaining glaciers in Europe’s Bavarian Alps has found that the glaciers have receded by more than a quarter just between 2023 and 2025, losing around one million cubic metres of ice.

Geologists at the Munich University of Applied Sciences says there’s “absolutely no chance” of saving any of Germany’s remaining glaciers and that change is entirely to blame, with most of those still remaining expected to disappear over the next few years and the last by the 1930s.

According to the EU’s Copernicus climate observatory, the last three years have been the warmest ever recorded globally, due to increased greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming.

Globally, approximately 41% of total glacier loss occurred during the decade between 2015 and 2024, according to Earth System Science Data, which notes the greatest losses in Alaska, western North America and Central Europe.

The rapid thaw of the glacier at Germany’s highest mountain, Zugspitze (2,962m / 9,700 feet),  has led the ski area operator to begin removing a lift on it, which is no longer safe to use after more than five decades of operation.

“The ice is receding, the terrain and the lift have changed drastically. The slope has become significantly steeper, and for that reason it’s no longer technically feasible to keep operating the lift,” a spokesperson for Zugspitze’s lift company explained.