Berlin, Europe Brief News – Germany’s five alpine glaciers could disappear within 50 years, according to glaciologist Christoph Mayer.
The high temperatures and low rainfall this year have made it hard for the glaciers to stay frozen.
Mr Mayer said: “The most important measure is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
“It is already the case that the majority of the glaciers in the Alps will disappear in the next 50 years… For German glaciers, the prognosis is much worse, for the smaller glaciers. So, in Berchtesgaden, it will be a few years, and for the two larger ones, the northern Schneeferner and the Höllentalferner, maybe another ten or 15 years, but then it will probably be over there too.”
“Snow has a very light surface. This means that when the sun shines on the snow, most of the solar energy is reflected and is not used to melt the snow. But if there is dark dust or dark sand on this snow surface, then this sand absorbs. The sun’s radiation and the heat that is generated is then transferred directly into the melting of the snow.”
Since records began in 1901, the snow depth on Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain, has never been so low in July. Low snowfall can accelerate the melting of ice.
Mayer believes a Sahara dust cloud has been carrying sand and dust across Europe, saying reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the easiest way to slow glacier melting.
