YOU BROKE OUR GLACIER! That’s a damn clever teaser to get someone surfing the internet to stop a moment and check out the website. The article’s full title is “You broke our glacier: the Mont Blanc resort on the climate frontline” by Angela Giuffrida for The Guardian (September 28, 2019). The subtitle is “Reports that a mass of ice is in danger of breaking away have spurred residents of nearby Courmayeur to demand action.”
“Like millions of their compatriots around the globe, the children of Courmayeur marched last Friday to protest against the climate crisis. The group of 160 or so pupils, some as young as six, turned out with banners and slogans, repeatedly shouting: Ban plastic, save our planet. But their most prominent placard message showed that for the youngsters of this small Italian resort town at the foot of Mont Blanc, the threat of climate change is particularly close to home. You broke our glacier, it read.
“The activists were referring to Planpincieux, a glacier on the nearby Grandes Jorasses peak that is changing so rapidly that experts warned last week that a huge portion of ice was in danger of breaking away.
“Experts at the Fondazione Montagna Sicura (Safe Mountain Foundation) in the Aosta Valley said up to 250,000 cubic metres of ice were at risk of sliding off the Planpincieux. The glacier is popular with hikers, so as a safety precaution Miserocchi closed mountain refuges and part of a road upon which the ice could directly fall.
“ ‘Each year you see how much the glacier changes,’ said Courmayeur mayor Stefano Miserocchi. ‘The average temperature has risen to the point where, in winter, ice is no longer being recreated because even though it snows, the temperature doesn’t get cold enough. Where there was once ice, there is now rock.’”
To read the rest of the article, click HERE.
Ice is no longer being recreated because even though it snows, the temperature doesn’t get cold enough. Where there was once ice, there is now rock. Click To Tweet
FEATURED IMAGE: The photo at the top of this page is Planpincieux glacier on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, which is in danger of collapse. It was taken by Yara Nardi for Reuters.
