Switzerland’s Glaciers Decreased 50% in Eighty Years

The Cryosphere, 22 August 2022

The 1400 Swiss glaciers have lost half their total ice volume during just the past eighty years. This retreat is accelerating, with an additional 1/8 of ice lost from 2016-2021. This study provides a first-ever reconstruction of ice loss in Switzerland throughout the 20th century, by comparing tens of thousands of photographs of glaciers in the same location nearly a century apart. The Alps have warmed about 2°C over the past century, nearly double the global average. Glaciers in lower elevation areas of the Alps where temperatures rise more quickly have melted faster than those at higher elevations; and thinner glaciers and those covered in debris are increasingly vulnerable to rapid ice loss. The disappearance of alpine glaciers jeopardizes Switzerland’s long-term energy sources, since hydropower produces nearly two-thirds of the country’s electricity. Without rapid and far-reaching emissions reductions, continued loss of frozen water resources will upends mountain ecosystems and environments, decrease seasonal access to water for power and agriculture, and dramatically reshape the Alps.

https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/16/3249/2022/