The glaciers of the Alps
Document Actions
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 thewhole 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 collectingwater from the glaciers and also the disappearance
of an important slice of the
tourist industry.
The
situation of the Aletsch, which is shrinking more than any in Europe
by 20 cm a day,
is most worrying the Swiss Natural History Academy,
currently monitoring 91 glaciers in Switzerland.
Over the past year the glacier (23 km long) has shrunk by a staggering 66 meters.
Photographs-text: Alessandro Grassani / Invision Images More