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The glaciers of the Alps

The thermometer of an unhealthy world. Journey along the most important glaciers in the Alps: from the Aletsch, in Switzerland (the largest of the alpine arch stretching 23 km long and 900m deep) to the Mer de Glace and the Geant Glacier, lying on the French side of Mont Blanc; from the Pasterze glacier, on the Grossglockner chain in Austria, to those on the Adamello and Stelvio, in Italy. The glaciers on the Alps are true and proper gauges of the state of health of the environment: unlike the immense glaciers of the Antartic, which feel the increase or decrease in atmospheric pressure over a lengthy period of time. The alpine ones on the other hand, being smaller, are more susceptible to global warming. The conclusions drawn by researchers from the University of Zurich are dramatic however. They believe that by 2100, even if global warming does not increase in the near future, 90% of the glaciers in the Alps will have disappeared, thus bringing serious consequences for the whole of Europe: with ephemeral lakes forming and then disappearing in the same season, rocks disintegrating due to the lack of ice presently acting as an adhesive; without counting hydrogeologic problems which will need to be faced due to the sudden swell of rivers collecting water from the glaciers and also the disappearance of an important slice of the tourist industry. © ALESSANDRO GRASSANI / INVISION IMAGES

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