| Subject: Meanwhile, many glaciers around the world are growing. Here's |
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Curmudgeon
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Date Posted: 10:04:06 04/30/07 Mon
In reply to:
DE
's message, "YUP still winning.." on 05:00:06 04/30/07 Mon
a good list. http://www.iceagenow.com/List_of_Expanding_Glaciers.htm
>Germany in Losing Battle To Save Last Glacier
>
>
>
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>April 30, 2007 — By Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters
>
>ZUGSPITZE, Germany -- The winds are cold at any time
>of the year on Germany's highest mountain but the
>country's last glacier is melting away despite
>Herculean efforts to counter the effects of climate
>change.
>
>Spreading giant anti-glare shields over the glacier
>each April after piling tonnes of loose snow upon it,
>workers at the Zugspitezebahn cable car operator are
>fighting a losing battle to keep their glacier alive
>-- for business and ecology reasons.
>
>"We're doing all we can to preserve it as long as
>possible, but I'm not God and there's only so much we
>can do," said Frank Huber, the manager of cable car
>and skiing operations on the 2,962-metre peak in the
>northern Alps.
>
>"I grew up with the glacier and it's sad to think one
>day my children's children won't know what it feels or
>looks like."
>
>The effort to stave off the demise of the Zugspitze is
>considerable, but begs the question why Germany, the
>world's sixth largest producer of greenhouse gases,
>does not do more to tackle the cause of the problem
>instead.
>
>In her speeches, German Chancellor Angela Merkel often
>cites the Zugspitze's state -- predicting the national
>treasure may be gone within 20 years -- as an argument
>for the industrial world to take bolder action against
>climate change.
>
>Scientists say global warming is responsible for the
>melting ice. U.N.-funded panels of scientists say
>heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels are
>nudging up temperatures.
>
>A minority of scientists dismisses global warming,
>arguing natural climate fluctuations are responsible.
>
>"It would be more than a shame if the glacier
>disappears," Huber said.
>
>SHRINKING GLACIERS WORLDWIDE
>
>As an early warning "global thermometer", glaciers are
>extremely sensitive to climate change. One of the
>world's most threatened eco-systems, they have been
>shrinking since the start of the industrial age.
>
>Their retreat has gathered pace in the last
>quarter-century, as documented in stunning "before and
>after" photographs. The Zugspitze was 80 metres thick
>in 1910. Now it is only 45.
>
>The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
>set up by the United Nations, has said glaciers are
>endangered: "Small Alpine glaciers will disappear
>while larger glaciers will suffer a volume reduction
>between 30 percent and 70 percent by 2050."
>
>The melting of the frozen ice is more than just the
>loss of picturesque mountain scenery. Without
>glaciers, scientists say summertime water levels in
>European rivers would drop. Much of the Rhine River
>water in the summer comes from glacier melting.
>
>For the last 14 years at Zugspitze, Huber and his
>staff have spread a giant tarpaulin to deflect the
>sun, keep the surface cool and shield it from the
>corrosive warm summer rain.
>
>The shield, expanded this year by 50 percent to 9,000
>square metres, is due to come out within days. The
>operators say it will preserve 30,000 cubic metres of
>snow -- roughly equivalent to a football-field-sized
>building that is one-storey high.
>
>"The shield helps slow the process," said Huber. "It
>reflects the sun and helps ice form beneath it. But
>that and all the other things we're doing are only
>going to slow the process down a little bit. We aren't
>going to be able to save it."
>
>During the winter, workers also use explosives to set
>off controlled avalanches on surrounding slopes to
>push snow onto the glacier. They erect rows of fences
>-- as farmers do -- on especially exposed parts to
>slow wind erosion.
>
>WASTE OF MONEY?
>
>Some critics say this is a waste of time and money,
>especially as the tarpaulin only covers a relatively
>small section of the glacier. Its main aim is to
>preserve the ski area and the Zugspitze as a glacier
>for marketing reasons, they say.
>
>"The coverings won't save the glacier because they
>only shield a small area for winter sport," said
>Markus Weber, meteorologist and glacier expert at the
>Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich. "It's
>expensive and the impact is limited."
>
>Huber agreed tourism is the driving force.
>
>"The Zugspitze lives from tourism," he said, noting
>that last winter skiers frustrated by a lack of snow
>in lower altitudes fled to the reliable conditions on
>the glacier.
>
>"Our goal is to keep the skiing operations going and
>that's why we're trying to protect the snow," said
>Huber, who has spent 24 years working on the glacier.
>"It's our lifeblood."
>
>No one will say exactly how much the preservation
>efforts cost -- but they do say the investment is
>considerable.
>
>About 500,000 tourists take the cable-car or cog rail
>car to the peak from village of Garmisch-Partenkirchen
>each year.
>
>Huber said that as a result of climate change they
>stopped gouging half-pipes for snowboarders into the
>glacier. They lost customers in the process, which hit
>the bottom line.
>
>But he said the alternative was worse.
>
>"We realised if we kept digging the half-pipes, the
>glacier might be gone in 10 rather than 20 years," he
>said.
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