Switzerland, whose image is full of snow-capped mountains and glaciers, is worried at how much glacier loss it’s seeing after a hot summer that followed a dry winter.
The loss this year is one of the biggest since records began being kept a century ago. The Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences reported a loss of 1.5 billion cubic metres from the country’s 20 glaciers in the year ended Sept. 30.
Last winter was the dryest in 150 years, leaving little new snow, followed by a heat wave. Only a wet August kept it from being worse. The concerns are not only for the long-term climate, but also because rapidly-melting glaciers are destabilizing land around them, resulting in serious landslides.
And, in a macabre side-effect, the melting glaciers have been giving up secrets long held in the ice, including a couple who went missing while walking to another village in 1942, and a hiker who disappeared on the Hohlaub glacier in 1987.
Warmer Autumns in the UK mean that farmers can leave Cows and other animals grazing on grass for at least 6 weeks longer. Animals are fed on maize when they are brought in to over winter. The savings they make there are a bonus too.