Apart from the hot temperatures, this year’s massive glacial melt is down to a lack of winter snow. “If there is enough snowfall in winter, this can protect the ice well into summer.” However, melted areas of glacier expose darker surfaces that absorb the sunlight and warm up. “This turbocharges the melting process.” Sahara dust blowing into the Alps accentuates this effect.
Yet not even snowy winters are enough to stop the decline. Take 2024, for example, when Huss measured up to five metres of new snow covering the glaciers 3,000 metres up. “I remember thinking it would be impossible for the snow to melt completely by autumn.” Two hot summer months later, and the snow had gone. “Ultimately, summer is the key factor causing glacial melt.”
The big glaciers are also melting
Extreme years have a particularly devastating impact on small glaciers, causing them to disintegrate into smaller sections or disappear completely. Huss has himself witnessed the gradual disappearance of the Pizol glacier in the canton of St Gallen, which he has visited around 50 times in the last 20 years to take readings. “After 2022, all that was left was a rolling plateau of rocks and scree.”
Natural reservoirs in danger
The disappearance of glacier ice has major implications for water security. “There is a reason why the Alps are known as the water tower of Europe,” says glaciologist Matthias Huss. Major rivers like the Rhine, Rhône and Po begin there, fed in part by snowmelt and glacial melt. “The glaciers are like natural reservoirs; they help to keep water flowing, particularly when it is hot and dry.” People in Alpine valleys have taken advantage of glaciers for centuries, building channels to funnel meltwater towards their dry pastures and fields. Some of these ancient irrigation canals are still in use in Valais, where they are referred to as “bisses” in French and “Suonen” in German.
Hydropower generation is also likely to be affected in the long term as glaciers shrink, Huss says. Melting glaciers are currently helping to replenish reservoirs. “But the effect will diminish once these natural reservoirs have been drained.”
Switzerland’s biggest Alpine glaciers – the Aletsch Glacier in the Jungfrau region, and the Gorner Glacier near the Monte Rosa massif – suffer a moderate annual loss in thickness of around two metres, barely apparent to the naked eye. Both glaciers are hundreds of metres deep. “But if you stand in front of one of the glacier tongues, you notice the difference from one year to the next,” says Huss. The front of the Rhône Glacier is a prime example. “The ice there has retreated a long way back, leaving a lake where it has melted.”
According to Huss, the survival of high-lying glaciers depends on “whether the world turns the tide on climate change”. If we can limit global warming to 1.5°C, “then these glaciers can retreat to higher altitudes”. But this scenario is becoming increasingly unlikely. “We are currently on course for a 2.7°C increase in global temperatures. Climate projections even show the Alps getting warmer by 4°C.” If recent extreme years become the default, “it is quite possible that the ice will disappear completely even at altitudes above 4,000 metres by the end of the century.”
Comments
Comments :
Me he enterado por otros medios que un grupo de Universitarios acompañados por el Profesor Steiner, han usado pura lana de oveja para cubrir algunos espacios de los glaciares, con buenos resultados. La cría de ovejas es grande y mundial, muchas veces, luego de la esquila, se quema la lana, lamentablemente. Sería muy positivo para la humanidad usar esta lana con este fin ya que el ser humano en general parece haber olvidado de sus grandes beneficios. Gracias.
Wie immer, möchte ich meinen Kommentar als grundlegende Botschaft dafür nutzen, um ohne Umschweife auf die Ursachen der vielfältigen und immer heftigeren Auswirkungen der globalen Erwärmung hinzuweisen:
Wir müssen so schnell wie möglich damit aufhören, Öl, Benzin, Diesel, Kerosin, Gas und Kohle zu verbrennen!
Es gibt kein Entkommen vor dieser Herausforderung! Jede Ausrede ist nur Feigheit oder Bequemlichkeit. Wir müssen das tun und zwar JETZT! Ansonsten stehen unsere Nachkommen vor einer sehr, sehr schlimmen Zukunft.
Le phénomène s'est horriblement intensifié, mais il n'est pas nouveau.
J'ai connu le glacier du Trient pour la première fois en 1971. Vingt ans plus tard, les névés en bas du glacier avaient reculé de plusieurs centaines de mètres.
La comparaison de photos du glacier du Rhône entre le début des années 1970 et la fin des années 1990 est également impressionnante.
En plus de nos trop faibles mesures contre le réchauffement du climat, certains pays d'autres continents s'industrialisent de manière plus ou moins sauvage et plongent à leur tour dans la consommation. Tout cela ne facilitera pas l'affaire pour les glaciers.
J’ai connu le glacier du Trient en 2002 , lorsqu’il était à deux pas de la buvette du glacier, formant comme «une patte de lion» la langue terminale . C’est très triste de voir le recul impressionnant de ce glacier aujourd’hui.
Article très interessant et triste.
L’espirit animique se nourrit de la beauté de ce qui nous entourage. C’est une tragedie la disparition de la biosiversité et des systemes d’appui de la vie, mais la disparition de la beauté liée à l’imagination et la phantasie est une perte de plus que substitue le blanc et la lumière par la tristesse immense d’avoir comme paysage quotidienne um gris chronique.