CLIMATE CHANGE-SUMMIT/GLACIER Huge Swiss Alps glacier might be gone in 80 years from global warming, warns local guide

Record ID: 141233

  • Title: CLIMATE CHANGE-SUMMIT/GLACIER Huge Swiss Alps glacier might be gone in 80 years from global warming, warns local guide
  • Date: 11th September 2015
  • Summary: ALETSCH GLACIER, SWITZERLAND (AUGUST 2015) (REUTERS) VIEW OF ALETSCH GLACIER FROM EGGISHORN MOUNTAIN (2869 METERS) VARIOUS OF GLACIER FROM MAERJELENSEE LAKE WITH WARNING SIGN EXTERIOR OF A CAVE ON THE JUNGFRAUFIRN GLACIER BLUE ICE MELTING INSIDE A CAVE ON THE JUNGFRAUFIRN GLACIER VARIOUS OF ICE MELTING INSIDE THE CAVE ALETSCH GLACIER VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SITTING AND TAKING PICTURES OF GLACIER ALETSCH GUIDE, RICHARD BORTIS, WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALETSCH GLACIER GUIDE, RICHARD BORTIS, SAYING: "You see also this Konkordiaplatz where this moraines (a mass of rocks and sediment carried down and deposited by a glacier) go on the edge that's the biggest ice place in the Alps. 16 squares kilometres in size and in the ice there is 900 metres thick, so it's quite a lot of ice still there. Every year we lose a metre." VARIOUS OF JUNGFRAUFIRN GLACIER WITH PEOPLE WALKING BORTIS LOOKING AT THE VIEW WATER CREVASSE (SOUNDBITE) (German) ALETSCH GLACIER GUIDE, RICHARD BORTIS, SAYING: "In this context our glacier will be gone soon. The prognoses say that the Aletsch glacier in its entire length that is to say 23 kilometres will be gone in 80 years, in 2090. If I stay on the glacier for several days in row I can even see the changes myself. Of course this is more an emotional issue but the more important thing about it is that the glacier is a big water reserve which is important for the water supply, electricity and also for the tourism sector and this will have consequences." VARIOUS OF JUNGFRAUFIRN GLACIER WITH PEOPLE WALKING AND WATER CREVASSE MOUNTAIN GUIDE, CHRISTIAN PLETSCHER, WALKING ON ALETSCH GLACIER PLETSCHER AT THE KONKORDIA PLATZ LOOKING AT GROSSER ALETSCHFIRN GLACIER ROCKS ON THE MEDIAL MORAINE WITH VIEW OF ALETSCHORN MOUNTAIN (4193 METERS)
  • Embargoed: 26th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6KXO9H0OBYPA9V6QSYZVCC5H3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS NUDITY
    This breathtaking view of one of Europe's biggest glaciers might look completely different in less than a century.
    The Great Aletsch Glacier, 23 km in length, is the longest in the Alps. It is situated on the south side of the Jungfrau Mountain in the Upper Rhone Valley. It is one of 1,800 glaciers located in Switzerland and almost all of them are melting at a frightening pace, indicating their sensitivity to climate change. To demonstrate its sheer scale, if this mass of ice melted entirely, it could supply every single person on the Earth with a litre of water every day for six years.
    "You see also this Konkordiaplatz where this moraines (a mass of rocks and sediment carried down and deposited by a glacier) go on the edge that's the biggest ice place in the Alps. 16 squares kilometres in size and in the ice there is 900 metres thick, so it's quite a lot of ice still there. Every year we lose a metre," said Aletsch guide, Richard Bortis.
    Alpine glaciers have lost about one-third of their length and half their volume over the past 150 years. The increasing fears of the impact of climate change on the earth's landscape comes as French President Francois Hollande launched on Thursday (September 10) the countdown to the United Nations Climate Change Conference which begins on 30th November in Paris.
    "In this context our glacier will be gone soon. The prognoses say that the Aletsch glacier in its entire length that is to say 23 kilometres will be gone in 80 years, in 2090. If I stay on the glacier for several days in row I can even see the changes myself. Of course this is more an emotional issue but the more important thing about it is that the glacier is a big water reserve which is important for the water supply, electricity and also for the tourism sector and this will have consequences," Bortis said.
    In August 2007 nearly 600 volunteers posed naked on a rocky outcrop overlooking the shrinking Aletsch glacier for U.S. photographer Spencer Tunick as part of a Greenpeace campaign to raise awareness of global warming. The environmental group said the aim was to "establish a symbolic relationship between the vulnerability of the melting glacier and the human body."
    The objective of the UN COP21 summit is to decide on a new agreement to replace the 2005 Kyoto Protocol (international treaty to combat climate change) and put in place a plan of action to combat the estimated two degree celsius increase of the earth's temperature by 2100. The current figures are alarming, the average temperature of the globe has already increased by 0.7 of a degree Celsius in a century.
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