Germany in losing battle to save last glacier
ZUGSPITZE, Germany (Reuters) - 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 meters 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. Continued...
