Rapid glacial retreat could mean an Austria with no glaciers left by the late 2070s, Austria’s Alpine Club has warned.
The club released a new glacier survey that reveals that the 93 glaciers that the organization has been monitoring shrank by about 24 meters, or 79 feet on average last year alone, the third-biggest melt since studies began in 1891. Those 2023 figures are on top of a 2022 that set a record melt, losing 28.7 meters, or 94.2 feet.
The two worst-hit glaciers, Pasterze and Rettenbachferner lost 203.5 and 127 metres in 2023.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), says major glaciers worldwide suffered the largest loss of ice since records began in 1950, “driven by extreme melt in both western North America and Europe.” In Switzerland, where the WMO is based, Alpine glaciers have lost 10 percent of their volume over the past two years alone.
