Love mountain photos. Wird der Aletschgletscher zu einem See? / Will the Aletsch Glacier turn into a lake?
652 views Aug 21, 2019
Universität Zürich
Wird sich der Aletschlgletscher so weit zurückziehen, dass ein See entsteht? UZH Glaziologe Andreas Linsbauer wirft einen Blick in die Zukunft. --- Will the Aletsch Glacier retreat and turn into a lake? UZH glaciologist Andreas Linsbauer about the future of this famous Swiss glacier.
Glaciers in the Alps vanishing at record rate following heatwaves
The Pers Glacier is seen near Mount Piz Palue, near the Alpine resort of Pontresina, Switzerland July 22, 2022. (File photo: Reuters)
Reuters
Published: 26 July, 2022: 09:37 AM GST Updated: 26 July, 2022: 10:24 AM GST
From the way 45-year-old Swiss glaciologist Andreas Linsbauer bounds over icy crevasses, you would never guess he was carrying 10 kg of steel equipment needed to chart the decline of Switzerland's glaciers.
Normally, he heads down this path on the massive Morteratsch Glacier in late September, the end of the summer melt season in the Alps. But exceptionally high ice loss this year has brought him to this 15-square-kilometer (5.8-square-mile) amphitheatre of ice two months early for emergency maintenance work.
The measuring poles he uses to track changes in the depth of the pack are at risk of dislodging entirely as the ice melts away and he needs to drill new holes.
The Alps' glaciers are on track for their highest mass losses in at least 60 years of record keeping, data shared exclusively with Reuters shows. By looking at the difference in how much snow fell in winter, and how much ice melts in the summer, scientists can measure how much a glacier has shrunk in any given year.
Since last winter, which brought relatively little snowfall, the Alps have sweltered through two big early summer heatwaves – including one in July marked by temperatures near 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) in the Swiss mountain village of Zermatt.
During this heatwave, the elevation at which water froze was measured at a record high of 5,184 meters (17,000 feet) – at an altitude higher than Mont Blanc's -- compared with the normal summer level of between 3,000-3,500 meters (9,800-11,500 feet).
“It's really obvious that this is an extreme season,” Linsbauer said, shouting over the roar of rushing meltwater as he checked the height of a pole jutting out of the ice.
Mountain meltdown
Most of the world's mountain glaciers — remnants of the last ice age — are retreating due to climate change. But those in the European Alps are especially vulnerable because they are smaller with relatively little ice cover. Meanwhile, temperatures in the Alps are warming at around 0.3C per decade — around twice as fast as the global average.
If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the Alps glaciers are expected to lose more than 80 percent of their current mass by 2100. Many will disappear regardless of whatever emissions action is taken now, thanks to global warming baked in by past emissions, according to a 2019 report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Already, Morteratsch is much changed from the glacier depicted on the region's tourist maps. The long tongue that once reached deep into the valley below has shrunk back by nearly 3 kilometers (2 miles), while the depth of the snow and ice pack has thinned by up to 200 meters (656 feet). A parallel glacier Pers flowed into it until 2017 but has now receded so much that an expanding strip of grit lies between them.
The dire situation this year raises concern that the Alps' glaciers might vanish sooner than expected. With more years like 2022, that could happen, said Matthias Huss, who leads Glacier Monitoring Switzerland (GLAMOS).
“We are seeing model results expected a few decades in the future are happening now,” Huss said. “I did not expect to see such an extreme year so early in the century.”
No snow, high heat
Reuters spoke with glaciologists in Austria, France, and Italy who confirmed that glaciers there were on track for record losses. In Austria, “the glaciers are snow-free up to the summits,” said Andrea Fischer, a glaciologist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Seasonal snowfall, apart from replenishing ice lost during summer, protects glaciers from further melt by providing a white cover that reflects sunlight back out to atmosphere better than darker ice – sullied by dust or pollution - can do.
But at the Grand Etret glacier in northwest Italy, only 1.3 metres (4.2 feet) of snow had accumulated during this past winter – 2 metres (6.6 feet) less than the annual average for the 20 years up to 2020.
This year's Alpine ice losses, registered even before the biggest melt month of August, surprised scientists to some extent, as many of the glaciers had already lost their lower-lying snouts. Because they had retreated up the mountain, where temperatures are cooler, scientists thought they should have been better protected.
“You can easily imagine the final results after summer will be … extensive loss of glacier coverage in the Italian Alps,” said Marco Giardino, vice president of the Italian Glaciological Committee.
Data shared exclusively with Reuters shows that Morteratsch is now shedding about 5 centimeters (2 inches) a day and is already in a worse state than it would normally be at the end of an average summer, according to data from GLAMOS and the Universite libre de Bruxelles.
The nearby Silvretta Glacier has lost about 1 meter (3.3 feet) more than at the same point in 1947 - the worst year in its database stretching back to 1915.
Himalayan glaciers are also on track for a record ice loss year, scientists told Reuters. When the summer monsoon season arrived in the Kashmir region, for example, many glaciers had already been shrunk drastically, with their snowlines starting high up the mountain, after a March-May heatwave marked by temperatures above 48C (118F) in northern India.
An early June expedition in India’s Himachal Pradesh found that the Chhota Shigri Glacier had lost much of its snow cover. “The highest temperature in over a century in March through May clearly had its impacts,” said glaciologist Mohd Farooq Azam at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore.
Vanishing glaciers are already endangering lives and livelihoods. Earlier this month, a glacier collapse on the Marmolada in Italy killed 11 people. Days later, a collapsing glacier in the Tian Shan mountains of eastern Kyrgyzstan triggered a massive avalanche, sending ice and rocks hurdling toward passing tourists.
This picture taken on October 01, 2019 shows a warning sign for rockslide next to the Aletsch glacier above Bettmeralp, Swiss Alps.The mighty Aletsch – the largest glacier in the Alps – could completely disappear by the end of this century if nothing is done to rein in climate change, a study showed on September 12, 2019 by ETH technical university in Zurich. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP)
Above the Swiss village of Saas Fee, a path leading to a mountain hut once passed through a summer snowfield on top of the Chessjen Glacier.
“It's too dangerous now,” due to the risk of falling rocks, once held together by hard-frozen ice, said hutkeeper Dario Andenmatten while gazing out over a barren landscape dotted with glacial lakes. Nearby, the rumble of stones tumbling from the mountain could be heard.
Swiss residents worry that the glacier losses will hurt their economy. Some area ski resorts of the Alps, which rely on these glaciers, now cover them with white sheets to reflect sunlight and reduce melting.
Swiss glaciers feature in many of the country’s fairy tales, and the Aletsch Glacier is considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Losing the glaciers “means losing our national heritage, our identity,” said hiker Bernardin Chavaillaz. “It's sad.”
Three new reports from the United Nations paint a grim picture of what's to come in the near future as the world falls short in mobilizing against climate change. According to the reports, nations are failing to create and act on sufficient plans to reduce warming as global greenhouse gas emissions are on the rise .. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emissions-gap-climate-catastrophe-un-chief/ — a combination that is putting the planet on track to hit nearly 3 degrees Celsius of warming within less than 80 years.
"Loss and damage from the climate emergency is getting worse by the day and global and national climate commitments are falling pitifully short," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said. "...Under current policies, the world is headed for 2.8 degrees of global heating by the end of the century. In other words, we are headed for a global catastrophe."
The only way to change this trajectory is with "urgent system-wide transformation," the agency said — but as the U.N.'s other reports show, such transformative changes are not on track.
On Wednesday, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change issued its own report .. https://unfccc.int/news/climate-plans-remain-insufficient-more-ambitious-action-needed-now .. showing that countries around the world are currently on a path to increase greenhouse gas emissions by 10.6% by 2030, compared to 2010 levels. While that is an improvement from last year's assessment — which projected an increase of 13.7% — it is still far more than the environment can handle.
The more greenhouse gases there are in the atmosphere —particularly carbon dioxide and methane — the more the sun's radiation is trapped in the planet and the Earth warms. The report warns that nations' efforts to reduce emissions are still "insufficient" to minimize global warming.
Even if all 193 parties who signed on to the Paris Climate Agreement fulfill their current commitments, the world is still looking at roughly 2.5 degree Celsius of temperature rise by 2100.
"This year's analysis shows that while emissions are no longer increasing after 2030, they are still not demonstrating the rapid downward trend science says is necessary this decade," the report said, adding that the agency found earlier this year that greenhouse gas emissions would need to be cut by 43% by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
"Another ominous climate change warning"
The third report, published by the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday, shows just how critical it is to limit those greenhouse gases. In "yet another ominous climate change warning," the agency found that the planet's three main greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — reached new highs in 2021, hitting values that amount to 149%, 262% and 124%, respectively, of pre-industrial levels.
From 2020 to 2021, carbon dioxide levels saw an increase larger than the annual growth rate over the last decade,the report found. It accounted for the majority of the 50% increase in greenhouse gases that have a warming effect from 1990 to 2021.
Perhaps even more dire, however, was the finding of "the biggest year-on-year jump in methane concentrations" since the agency began taking measurements nearly 40 years ago. This is particularly troubling as methane .. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/methane-gas-record-level-carbon-dioxide-climate-change-noaa/ .. is the second-most abundant greenhouse gas, accounting for about 20% of global emissions, according to the EPA, and is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat.
"We are still nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reductions required to put us on track toward a 1.5 degrees Celsius world," said Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework on Climate Change. He said the agency has only received 24 new or updated climate plans since the global COP 26 climate conference .. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cop26-climate-change-glasgow-final-hours-key-goals-unmet/ .. last year — despite all countries agreeing to strengthen their plans.
That failure, he said, is "disappointing."
"To keep this goal alive, national governments need to strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them in the next eight years," he said. "... Government decisions and actions must reflect the level of urgency, the gravity of the threats we are facing, and the shortness of the time we have remaining to avoid the devastating consequences of runaway climate change."
The U.N. reports show that the world should prepare to see negative and severe consequences as the planet warms, according to Petteri Taalas, weather chief of the World Meteorological Organization.
"We could face ... this negative trend in weather patterns that means flooding, droughts, heat waves, tropical storms. ... But the game that we have already lost this is the melting of glaciers .. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/thwaites-glacier-doomsday-antarctica-collapse-within-5-years/ ," Taalas told CBS News at a briefing on the report Wednesday. "We have so high concentration of carbon dioxide, that the melting of glaciers will continue for the coming hundreds of years even coming thousands of years."
"We are now at 'code red'"
Leaders stressed that we still can — and must — take action.
One of the most important issues to tackle, Taalas said, is reducing the burning of fossil fuels, which are a primary source for greenhouse gases.
"Methane has a relatively short lifetime of less than 10 years and so its impact on climate is reversible. As the top and most urgent priority, we have to slash carbon dioxide emissions which are the main driver of climate change and associated extreme weather, and which will affect climate for thousands of years through polar ice loss, ocean warming and sea level rise," Taalas said in a press release. "We need to transform our industrial, energy and transport systems and whole way of life."
"Humanity is unequivocally facing a climate emergency," they wrote. "The scale of untold human suffering, already immense, is rapidly growing with the escalating number of climate-related disasters."
While 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of when more than 1,700 scientists issued a landmark climate warning in 1992, the world continues to inch closer to temperatures that Earth "has not experienced over the past 3 million years."
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"We are now in a major climate crisis and global catastrophe with far worse in store if we continue with business as usual. As such, there is more at stake today than at any time since the advent of the stable climate system that has supported us for more than 10,000 years," the researchers said.
"...The very future of humanity depends on the creativity, moral fiber, and perseverance of the 8 billion of us on the planet now."
CBS News correspondent Pamela Falk contributed to this report.
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