Swiss scientists hope to save biggest glacier in the Alps even as ice loss accelerates

The Manila Times

Swiss scientists hope to save biggest glacier in the Alps even as ice loss accelerates  The biggest glacier in the Alps could yet be partially saved if global warming is capped below two degrees Celsius, Swiss scientists said on March 21, 2025 although significant ice loss is now inevitable. Glaciers around the globe are disappearing faster than ever, with the last three years seeing the largest glacial mass loss on record, according to a UN report. The Great Aletsch Glacier in the Bernese Alps, which is 20 kilometers long and weighs 10 billion tons, attracts over a million people a year who can view its immensity from the Jungfraujoch viewing platform at 3,454 meters above sea level.  REUTERS VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe  Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net     Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Stitcher: https://tmt.ph/stitcher Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes #WorldNews #GlobalWarming #Environment

Transcript

00:00We just use these probes and try to find when it's getting hard that you reach the bottom

00:27of the snow.

00:28Then you can read how many meters.

00:32The glaciers are in a very bad state at the moment and the projections for the future

00:37show that this will hold on.

00:40So our new model results show that in Switzerland we are going to lose at least 70% of the total

00:47ice volume and this is the very best case if we emit no further CO2 after 2050 globally.

00:56In the worst case though we may lose all glaciers in Switzerland by 2100 so we will be somewhere

01:03in between but it's very likely that almost all glaciers are going to be lost and I sincerely

01:09hope that only at Aletsch Glacier, at this high elevation, we may be able to preserve

01:15some of the ice.

01:26The impact on the water resources go far beyond Switzerland.

01:42They impact the big streams of Europe like Rhône, Rhine, Danube but then there is the

01:49rise in global sea levels.

01:51If the glaciers are melting and we're speaking more about the glaciers in the polar regions

01:56where the biggest ice masses are located, if these glaciers are melting the global sea

02:01level is rising and it may be rising by up to one meter until 2100 and even more at the

02:08longer term.

02:09This is putting many big cities worldwide under threat and we cannot relocate New York

02:17in a few decades.

02:29The glaciers in Switzerland have retreated by, the volume retreated is about 40% since

02:352000.

02:36Of this 40%, 10% have been lost just in two years, so in 2022 and 2023.

02:45If we now imagine that these are not going to be such extreme years anymore but this

02:50is going to be the new normal, we will accelerate the glacier volume change or retreat enormously.

02:58So we're still hoping that those are extreme years and we stick to this 40% in the last

03:0325 years.

03:04We are about halfway through this year 25, glacier year 25 and at the moment we are still

03:23in the accumulation season where the snow helps the glacier to grow or at least to protect

03:28the glacier.

03:29The situation is not good at the moment.

03:31We have below average snow depth on Swiss glaciers and this is putting us in a bad

03:38situation regarding the next summer melting.

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