The best visible signal of
worldwide global warming: the melting away of glaciers in the Alps.
In the summer of 2003, for
example, the “eternal ice cap” of the Alps lost five to ten percent of its
volume. A unique type of landscape is threatened in its existence. Do we
belong to the last generation that can admire the magnificent giants of
ice?
This first picture is the
view from the Gornergrat, above Zermatt in Switzerland. The red arrows
show the line of how high the glaciers once reached at this location
These 3 images show the
Rhone Glacier, first 2 taken around 1914 and the last one from September
2006 and you clearly see by comparing the last to pictures of how much the
ice has receded, as the new image shows all of the lower part of that
glacier is completely gone, showing only the carved stones left behind.
With
the melting of the glaciers along comes the melting of the so called
permafrost, the earth and stones layers that where permanently frozen,
with the melting away we see more erosion going on putting at risk many
alpine villages and infrastructures like roads and railways etc. On the
other side the glaciers are today a reservoir for water giving it up
slowly in summertime but once gone there will be no more reservoir and
many rivers my dry out.
For more on the effects on
global warming on the glaciers see also: "
Wo sind
unsere Gletscher " and the exhibition Glaciers in the Hothouse at the
Swiss Alpine Museum.
And
here this article in German from Siegel Online: Schweizer Alpen nicht
mehr winterfest.
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With
the melting of the glaciers along comes the melting of the so called
permafrost, the earth and stones layers that where permanently frozen,
with the melting away we see more erosion going on putting at risk many
alpine villages and infrastructures like roads and railways etc. On the
other side the glaciers are today a reservoir for water giving it up
slowly in summertime but once gone there will be no more reservoir and
many rivers my dry out.