UKC

Anyone seen the article in today's Guardian ? Probably nothing very new to most on here and I'm sure a similar story could be written for many other alpine regions but worth a read

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/24/climate-change-is-melti...

When I skiied the Vallee Blanche a few years ago, our guide was pointing out how far the glacier has shrunk - it's a staggering amount!

I didn't visit Chamonix in summer between 1980 & the mid 2000s and couldn't believe how much the glaciers had melted. And more ice has gone since then.

The multiple recent Cengalo rockfalls in the Bregaglia relate to this topic. Bad news.

Pedant alert, it is not melting the Alps. It might be melting snow / ice / tourist ice creams

Edit, yes I did read the article

Just read the article. I went to Mont Blanc in 1998 but didn't see the Mer de Glace. 80m of ice depth lost must be a huge amount. It begs the question can it be stopped and what can we do to stop it.  

We can support this

https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agree...

it won’t stop the process, and we are going to have to get used to a world that will look different. But it’s the only viable game in town to try to contain temperature rises to levels that will not be disastrous; so we need to make policy makers aware we will support the measures that will be needed to deliver our nation’s commitments, even if that involves inconvenience and expense for us personally. 

I've an old photo of chamonix around 100-120 years, just a few houses and glacier reaching the bottom of the valley. 

What we do now, our grand kids might thank us for, we won't probably live long enough to see any marked change or halt. 

It has, apparently, been going on for a while.

It _is_ melting the Alps in some places.

Because there is not a neat separation or rock versue snow/ice.

Some places in the big mountains, the rock is impregnared with ice, or supported by subterranean ice. As deep ice melts, major areas of rock can collapse. Not just clinbing routes getting affected, but concern about roads and rivers getting blocked.

. . . (and if a mountain river gets temporarily blocked, then releases -- could be a msssive flood lower in the valley. e.g. take note of what valley habitation is below the Romanche River (flanked by numerous steep potentially unstable rock slopes) in France.

Ken

even if that involves inconvenience and expense for us personally. 

That's the difficult bit as few of us seem to want to go through with that. Not going to be easy but tough choices never are.

Hell's bells, that's around 250 feet in depth gone since I last saw it!
I read recently about vast volumes of water accumulating under the mountain side ice, that could break out any time and wipe out whatever's below.  They managed to deal with that particular case.

As climate change seems to be a real threat now, what's going to happen when the ice walls around the edge of the world start melting?