Climate crisis, no glacier is safe anymore
The white giants are disappearing in the space of a lifetime, right before our eyes. When the great photojournalist Sebastião Salgado was born in 1944, the glaciers of the world were majestic reserves of water, mostly in full health. Today, shortly after the death of the master at 81, the “photography” of the Earth’s glaciers is the opposite: due to the climate crisis they are increasingly smaller and in agony, or completely disappeared, like the Flua on Monte Rosa . From the suffering Himalayas to Antarctica and Patagonia , from the Alps to Canada, there is in fact no longer a glacier capable of completely saving itself from the sad decline underway. For this reason too, it is perhaps no coincidence that one of Salgado’s latest exhibitions, at the Mart in Rovereto, is a legacy dedicated to glaciers: an entire existence to remind us, through images, what is happening on the Planet.
"Glaciers are dying - said Salgado - you can see that they are dying. They are the thermometer of the earth but their end is marked, we cannot do anything to prevent it but we can at least realize this phenomenon. I would like it to be more alive and tangible for all of us also through my photographs". But if the images were not enough, the data confirms the inexorable tragedy: in just 20 years, from 2003 to 2023, an average of 5% of their total volume has disappeared, with values that oscillate between 2% of farewell to the Antarctic glaciers, such as those studied by researchers at the Concordia base, up to almost 39% disappeared in areas of the Alpine arc .
In essence, we have said goodbye to 6,500 billion tons of ice and contributed to an 18 millimeter rise in sea levels . To give an idea, as researcher Michael Zemp of the University of Zurich rightly points out, "the 273 billion tons of ice that melt every year are equivalent to the amount of water that the entire human population consumes in 30 years". These figures belong to a recent study by the ESA's Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise project, which shows even more dramatic models: in a low-emission future, which is difficult to imagine given the inaction underway, we are talking about a further reduction in mountain glaciers of around 25%, while in the high-emission scenario it would be 50% by the end of the century. This means less fresh water available for humanity, animals and plants, but also a rise in sea levels and a lower presence of white surfaces that help us counteract the effects of radiation. A decline that is easily observable in our Europe, which is warming twice as much as average.
Even the last winter, among the mildest, has once again left its mark: in Austria , on the Hallstätter glacier , in just one year the snow depth has halved, going from 7 to 3.6 meters. The latest measurements in neighboring Switzerland show that the snow at two thousand meters is around just 35% compared to the average values.
In the Italian Alpine arc, there are losses in thickness in the frontal portions of up to 3 meters (on Adamello) and increasingly abundant signs of melting. This means - indicates a study conducted by Greenpeace Italy with the Polytechnic of Zurich - that in just 25 years almost half (48.5%) of the Italian glaciers of the Alps will disappear.
Saying goodbye to these precious climate regulators that cover 10% of the Earth's surface could have consequences that are difficult to understand. This is why, Salgado himself reminded us, we must understand and act: the fact that every second with the water lost from the glaciers three Olympic swimming pools could be filled should alarm us and not leave us indifferent. In fact, the Earth's mountains provide 60% of fresh water reserves: without them, it means no more food security, economy, tourism and water for over 2 billion people . If we acted now, however, lowering emissions to stay below the famous +1.5°C, at least we could still help the glaciers in two thirds of the world heritage sites and, consequently, the researchers explain, "for every tenth of a degree of warming avoided, we could also save lives".
The article is taken from the issue of Green&Blue on newsstands on June 4, attached to Repubblica and dedicated to the Green& Blue Festival (Milan, June 5-7)
La Repubblica
