Environment & Energy

cbabe

(4,163 posts) Sun Sep 29, 2024, 11:13 AM Sep 29

Melting glaciers force Switzerland and Italy to redraw part of Alpine border

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/29/melting-glaciers-switzerland-italy-alpine-border-matterhorn

Melting glaciers force Switzerland and Italy to redraw part of Alpine border

Two countries agree to modifications beneath Matterhorn peak, one of Europe’s highest summits

Angela Giuffrida in Rome
Sun 29 Sep 2024 10.28 EDT

Switzerland and Italy have redrawn a border that traverses an Alpine peak as melting glaciers shift the historically defined frontier.

The two countries agreed to the modifications beneath the Matterhorn, one of the highest mountains in Europe, which straddles Switzerland’s Zermatt region and Italy’s Aosta valley.

…
Swiss glaciers lost 4% of their volume in 2023, the second-biggest annual decline on record, according to the Swiss Academy of Sciences. The largest decline was 6% in 2022.

Experts have stopped measuring the ice on some Swiss glaciers because there is none left.

… more …

4 replies

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Melting glaciers force Switzerland and Italy to redraw part of Alpine border (Original Post) cbabe Sep 29 OP

Wow I took a train from Venice to Zurich in March one year and I saw those alps and am sad they have melted so much kimbutgar Sep 29 #1

Dang.... Bayard Sep 29 #2

That's a good question. Where it's not going: cbabe Sep 29 #3

Water flows downward, our oceans are basically the bottom of that flow. Think. Again. Sep 29 #4

kimbutgar

(23,280 posts)

1. Wow I took a train from Venice to Zurich in March one year and I saw those alps and am sad they have melted so much

Reply to cbabe (Original post)

Sun Sep 29, 2024, 11:18 AM

Sep 29

Bayard

(24,145 posts)

2. Dang....

Reply to cbabe (Original post)

Sun Sep 29, 2024, 11:54 AM

Sep 29

"The remains of a German mountain climber who disappeared while crossing a glacier near the Matterhorn nearly 40 years ago were discovered in melting ice in July last year."

Where is all this water going?

cbabe

(4,163 posts)

3. That's a good question. Where it's not going:

Reply to Bayard (Reply #2)

Sun Sep 29, 2024, 12:05 PM

Sep 29

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62689707

Switzerland's vanishing glaciers threaten Europe's water supply

31 August 2022
Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Geneva

…

But the consequences of the ice loss are far wider than the damage to local tourism, or finding lost climbers.

Glaciers are often referred to as the water towers of Europe. They store the winter snow, and release it gently over the summer, providing water for Europe's rivers and crops, and to cool its nuclear power stations.

Already this summer, freight along the Rhine in Germany has been interrupted because the water level is too low for heavily laden barges. In Switzerland, dying fish are being hastily rescued from rivers which are too shallow and too warm.
In France and Switzerland, nuclear power stations have had to reduce capacity because the water to cool them is limited.

… more …

Think. Again.

(17,987 posts)

4. Water flows downward, our oceans are basically the bottom of that flow.

Reply to Bayard (Reply #2)

Sun Sep 29, 2024, 12:22 PM

Sep 29

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