ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss glaciers once again experienced record melting this year, losing 6% of their volume after a decline of 4% in 2022, the same as between 1960 and 1990, according to the Swiss glaciological survey network ( Glamos) who considers the situation “catastrophic”.
Low snowfall combined with particularly hot summers are the cause of this melting, Matthias Huss, director of Glamos, told Reuters.
“The combination of these two factors is the worst thing that can happen to glaciers.”
More than half of the Alps’ glaciers are in Switzerland, where temperatures are rising about twice the global average due to climate change.
Photos published by Matthias Huss on social media during data-collecting trips in recent weeks showed, for the first time, new lakes forming next to glacial tongues.
“We are losing the small glaciers,” he explained. “Areas that were covered in snow and ice in recent decades and centuries are now nothing more than dangerous black slopes due to falling rocks.”
(Cécile Mantovani and Denis Balibouse, written by Emma Farge; French version Victor Goury-Laffont, edited by Kate Entringer)
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