The U.N. Environment Program announced Sunday that glaciers are shrinking at record rates and they could disappear in a few decades.

Apparently, average glacial shrinkage has risen from 30 centimeters per year between 1980 and 1999, to 1.5 meters in 2006. As in 2005 the glacial shrinkage was estimated at half a meter, it seems that it grew one meter more in only one year.

“Millions if not billions of people depend directly or indirectly on these natural water storage facilities for drinking water, agriculture, industry and power generation during key parts of the year,” Achim Steiner, Under-Secretary General of the UN and executive director of its environment programme (UNEP), said, according to BBC News.

“There are many canaries emerging in the climate change coal mine. The glaciers are perhaps among those making the most noise and it is absolutely essential that everyone sits up and takes notice,” Steiner added, urging people to be more thoughtful regarding the environment.

“It is not too late to stop the shrinkage of these ice sheets but we need to take action immediately,” Dr Ian Willis, of the Scott Polar Research Institute, said.

The experts analyzed 30 important glaciers across nine mountains ranges, noticing that significant shrinkage took place in European countries such as Austria, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland and Italy.

Scientists informed that the ice loss could have dramatic consequences in India, where the rivers are fed by the Himalayan glaciers, and on the west coast of North America, where most of the water comes from glaciers in the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada.

Steiner is hopeful that a pact similar to The Kyoto protocol will be issued in 2009.

“Here governments must agree on a decisive new emissions reduction and adaptation-focused regime. Otherwise, and like the glaciers, our room for manoeuvre and the opportunity to act may simply melt away,” he said.

The Kyoto Protocol, agreed on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, was issued with the objective of reducing greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.