The glaciers are melting and nothing can reverse it

The glaciers in the Swiss Alps have melted more than ever this year. The glaciers have lost 6 percent of their total volume due to the low snowfall in winter and the persistent heat waves in summer, according to researchers from the Swiss Academy of Sciences.

Measurements show that Swiss glaciers lost an average of three meters in thickness this year. That means that about three cubic kilometers of ice or three trillion liters of water have melted away: 6 percent of the total volume of the glaciers. “2022 was a disaster year for the Swiss glaciers: all records for melting ice were broken,” the researchers state in a report published Wednesday.

Due to climate change, less snow has fallen at lower altitudes in recent years, while the melting period begins earlier and earlier in the year. According to the scientists, the snow cover that protects the glaciers from the sun was thinner than ever last spring. The intense summer heat then melted the ice further. In addition, between March and June there were large amounts of Sahara dust: the dust-covered snow thereby absorbed more solar energy and melted faster.

Smaller glaciers such as the Pizol Glacier, the Vadret dal Corvatsch and the Schwarzbachfirn, among others, have been hit hardest and are now virtually gone, the report reports. It warns that if the climate is not protected and carbon dioxide emissions are not reduced, in fifty years all glaciers in Switzerland will have almost disappeared.