The report
In 2022 we witnessed the intensification of all the phenomena adverse to the life of glaciers: greying, and loss of surface area and thickness; disintegration into smaller bodies confined to high altitudes; and an increase in these areas of instability phenomena such as landslides, debris flows, and rock and ice avalanches.
The report explicitly speaks of a “glacial haemorrhage” experienced by the entire Alpine arc as a result of the climate crisis. The scorching summer marked by intense heatwaves, record temperatures for Northern Italy and extreme drought are the immediate causes of this haemorrhage.
At the end of July, MeteoSwiss recorded a freezing level over the Swiss Alps of 5,184 metres, whereas in August it should normally be around 3,500 metres. Added to this was a winter with little snow, with closed slopes and World Cup races cancelled, even on the glaciers between Zermatt and Cervinia.
The map of glacier suffering drawn up by Legambiente covers almost the entire Alpine arc.
We have already mentioned the front of the Gran Paradiso Glacier, which has retreated by a full 200 metres. But in the area there are also the Timorion glacier (in Valsavarenche) and the Ruitor glacier (La Thuile), with a loss of thickness equal to 4.6 metres of water equivalent, the worst in the last twenty-two years.
Glacial retreats have increased for the Verra Glacier (Val d’Ayas), the Lys Glacier and the others on Monte Rosa, such as the Indren Glacier, which in two years has recorded a frontal retreat of 64 metres, 40 of them in the last year alone. The Pré de Bar has recorded an average linear retreat of 18 metres a year from 1990 to today. The Miage has lost about 100 billion litres of water in 14 years: its glacial lake appears and disappears ever more abruptly.
In Val Ferret (Aosta Valley), as we also know from the TV news, the Planpincieux and Grandes Jorasses glaciers in the Mont Blanc massif are suffering: the risk of ice collapses could affect the settlements and infrastructure on the valley floor.
Moving to the central sector, the Lupo Glacier recorded in 2022 a loss of 60% of its mass compared with what it lost over 12 years. The Fellaria Glacier (Bernina Group, Val Malenco) has lost almost 26 metres of ice thickness in 4 years. The Ventina Glacier (Monte Disgrazia Group) has seen its front collapse, losing 200 metres of its tongue in a year.
In the Eastern Alps, of the great Careser Glacier (Val di Peio) only patches of a very few hectares remain, its surface area having shrunk by as much as 86%. The retreat of the fronts amounts to several hundred metres for the Vedretta de la Mare and the Lares Glacier (Adamello Group).
We come to the Marmolada Glacier, the scene of the most recent tragedy. According to the report it could disappear altogether within fifteen years, given that it has lost more than 70% over the last century. The only exception to this disastrous trend is the small Western Montasio Glacier: despite having suffered a volume loss of about 75% and a reduction in thickness of 40 metres over a century, it has been stable since 2005.
If the report is the negative snapshot of the state of the glaciers, the environmental association puts forward a package of policy proposals for adapting these areas, organised into three fields of action: monitoring and implementation, training and knowledge, and planning.
The monitoring and implementation field
The monitoring and implementation field includes the need to deepen research on changes in glaciers and permafrost and on their future behaviour; the promotion and support of open research structures and programmes for collecting monitoring data; the acquisition of new hydrological scenarios for mountain basins to understand how water availability will change in future; and the establishment of data-collection protocols and logical/predictive models that provide reliable estimates of available water resources, actual consumption and potential demand.
Training and knowledge mean promoting, at local level, plans for raising awareness, knowledge and information on climate change; actions supporting local communities in dealing with the economic consequences of climate warming (such as the winter tourism industry) and countering the loss of biodiversity and geodiversity; actions to enhance and manage the natural assets (collective/public) found in the territories; and the implementation of horizontal subsidiarity tools for participatory management through regulatory instruments (river contracts, forest contracts, green communities, Communities of biodiversity custodians).
As regards planning, the proposals are to consolidate synergies between science, politics and society for an integrated governance of the territory; to strengthen the role of the River Basin and District authorities; and a strategy that promotes the reduction of household water consumption and the use of non-potable water.
In addition, according to Legambiente, high-altitude and hilly areas must be planned and managed, paying particular attention to basins subject to natural risks linked to the transformation of snow, ice and permafrost and to extreme events. Drought-management protocols must also be defined and adopted for each basin, so as to definitively move beyond the current emergency-driven approach. And programmes for the renovation of the existing building stock should be encouraged, along with programmes to reduce land consumption and urban sprawl and, where necessary, there must be the courage to begin relocation procedures.
