2022 was the annus horribilis for Alpine glaciers

2022 was the annus horribilis for i alpine glaciersincreasingly fragile, vulnerable and unstable as a result of global warming. This is the weighty summary that can be drawn from the third report by Caravan of the Glaciersthe campaign of Legambiente in collaboration with the Italian Glaciological Committee which has been monitoring the state of health of Italian glaciers for three years.

Loss of surface and thickness, which lead them to disintegrate into smaller glacial bodies and to find refuge at high altitudes, graying and increase in phenomena such as landslides, avalanches and debris flows: this is the photograph of the hemorrhage experienced by the entire Alpine arc and a climate crisis that continues unabated.

In the last year, the white giants have had to deal with a very hot summer, characterized by intense heat waves, record temperatures and extreme drought. Just think that, at the end of July, MeteoSuisse recorded it freezing point on Swiss Alps at 5184 meters, still there in October thematic zero was above 4000 meters of altitude. Totally unusual numbers considering that normally, in the month of August, the altitude of freezing point should be around 3500 meters.

Adamello, there’s a new waterfall: it’s the melting glacier

In each of the three Alpine sectors (western, central and eastern) the glaciers are recording retreats never observed before and the smaller ones and at lower altitudes are losing their “status” of glaciers, reducing themselves to accumulations of snow and ice or little more. In the Western Alps, an annual frontal retreat of about 40 meters is recorded on average. Important is the relegation of 200 meters of the front of the Gran Paradiso glacier. And again the glaciers of Timorion (in Valsavaranche) and del Ruitor (La Thuile) with a thickness loss equal to 4.6 meters of water equivalent, the worst loss in the last twenty-two years.

Accentuated the retreats of glaciers such as Verra Glacier (Val d’Ayas), the Lys Glacier and of the other glacial bodies of the Monte Rosaas the Indren Glacier, which in two years has recorded a frontal retreat of 64 metres, 40 in the last year alone. The Miage which in 14 years has lost about 100 billion liters of water.

Caravan of the glaciers: what happened to the Miage lake

“Special Watch” i Planpincieux glaciers And Grandes Jorasses in Val Ferret (AO) due to the risk of ice collapse which could involve the settlements and infrastructures of the valley floor. In the emblematic central sector the Wolf Glacier which, in 2022 alone, records a loss of 60% of the glacial mass compared to what was lost over the course of 12 years. The Fellaria Glacier (Bernina group, Val Malenco) lost almost 26 meters of ice thickness in 4 years. Among the phenomena of collapse of the fronts, that of the Ventina Glacier (Mount Disgrazia Group), which lost 200 meters of its tongue in one year.

The Forni Glacier is disappearing, between collapses and black carbon

As regards the Eastern Alps, of the great Careser Glacier (Val di Pejo), slabs of very few hectares remain, its surface has been reduced by 86%. Numerous retreats of the fronts, largely due to the caesura of the frontal parts, equal to almost a kilometer for the Vedretta de la Mare and 600 meters for the Lares Glacier (Adamello group). And the Marmolada glacier which in fifteen years could disappear completely, in the last century it has lost more than 70% in surface area and over 90% in volume. In line with the other two sectors, the thickness losses recorded for the glaciers of Malavalle and of Leaning Watchtower. Something truly anomalous therefore happened in the summer of 2022, in terms of deglaciation. A situation that has even forced glaciologists to update the graphic scales of the mass balances, because the losses have gone beyond the most normal forecasts.

Marmolada, let’s take a step back

With the disappearance of the glaciers, beautiful landscapes vanish. Works of art, forged by nature, as beautiful as the Colosseum or the cathedral of Milan, melt away in total silence. Apart from the ethical need to restore the perception of being in the presence of something more important than our personal interest, there is for us who frequent this environment the need to convey the awareness that the devastating impacts of global warming are not plus a probabilistic scenario that will take place in an unspecified future, but they are already in place and very visible. Climate change (like all changes) conflicts with the idea that the world has always moved forward in the same way and that, once the emergency is over, everything will go back to the way it was.

G&B Open Summit 2022 – Climate Change Italy, a journey through Italy with a changing climate

But now we can no longer pretend nothing happened, the time has come to accept the fact that what seemed immutable is destined to change. Glaciers, especially the Alpine ones, represent one of the clearest indicators of this possible new serialized apocalypse: the red light that comes on to warn us that the engine is no longer working properly.

(*Vanda Bonardo, Alpi Legambiente national manager)