Swiss Alps continue to crumble as ice melts in high heat

[donsu]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14227248/


Swiss mountain crumbles under hot climate
Retreating glacier undermines face, expert cites warming as a factor

Sometimes, global warming can help put money in your pocket.

Hansruedi Burgener has welcomed up to 800 people a day -- twice the average number of visitors -- to his remote mountain hostel in the Alps this summer.

They all hope to watch a rock the size of two Empire State Buildings collapse onto the canyon floor nearly 700 feet below, as retreating glacier ice robs a cliff face on the eastern edge of the Eiger Mountain of its main support.

-snip-

Every few minutes or so, there is a surprisingly loud sound as a boulder comes thundering down, sending a cloud of dust into the air. The sharp crackle of smaller stones rolling down the cliff face is almost continuous.

The spectacle is a dramatic reminder that the Alps have been hit hard by warming temperatures, and underscore warnings from scientists that thawing permafrost -- the frozen soil that can glue mountains together -- will cause more havoc in the future.
-snip-
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in S. Amer. the foot of a melting glacier has become a tourist attraction too.

it's all so horrifying - when the water is all gone - it's GONE

[MisoWeaver]

1. The Alps are in Europe not South America.

Also, I don't believe that you can distroy water. It will recycle back into the enviroment after use, or after it melts.

[queenbdem87]

3. No one said the Alps were in South America

thats why there is a line between that and the first part of the post. Also, I think when the poster says "when the water is gone, its gone" they are referring to the melting moutainous and glacial ice that feeds inland water supplies. When that is melted, there literally will be no more water there.

[donsu]

5. of course it is - if I added the word 'and' before the sentence would

you then understand?

if your water supply comes from melting ice and all the ice melts, what then? China is in a panic over this. also 'and' Peru.

[leftchick]

16. no need to explain

I totally got it the first time. This is so scary. :(

[rubberducky]

2. All the more reason we NEED Gore!!!

[porphyrian]

4. To be optimistic about it, they will likely uncover a number of...

...bodies and ancient relics and such either on the mountains or in the runoff. Good for archaeologists...

[dipsydoodle]

6. Yes - they might even find

a copy Hannibal's "How to feed an army when you're crossing the Alps on elephants" :)

Guess you actually meant something like this : http://www.american.edu/TED/iceman.htm

[bluemarkers]

7. until

they get thirsty

(I beleive the water supply is something we don't have to worry about. Unless it stops raining.)

[WinkyDink]

8. I'd hate to have to depend on rainwater to supply the billions of humans

their water, but that's just me.

[porphyrian]

10. We have the technology to have potable water anywhere we want.

People/goverments just don't want to pay for it. Hopefully, the cost will be coming down as more and more people are forced to employ these technologies. I'm not saying it's fair, that global warming is good, that it's just tough titties for the poor, etc. I was merely finding something good to say about the situation before, and now I'm saying that there's no good reason for people to go without water on a planet where only a fifth isn't covered by it and where we have the means to get them that water.

[Gruenemann]

12. Yeah, just hop into that handy stillsuit...eom

[porphyrian]

13. You're being sarcastic, but that is one type of technology.

Desalinization plants are another. If we can pipe oil across deserts, we can certainly do the same with water. It's really just a matter of priorities. Again, I'm not saying that global warming is something we should ignore or think of as a good thing.

On Edit, added:

In fact, piping water across deserts could be a tremendously useful way of generating steam energy, if done correctly, and that isn't even a new technology.

[Kailassa]

11. Many inhabited places in the world only get rain every 10 years

or so.
There are children who have grown up in the Australian outback
who have never experienced rain in their lives.

[tex-wyo-dem]

15. "Unless it stops raining." That, it might...

global warming may also alter weather patterns to the extent that some areas that would normally experience abundant rain may turn into deserts (the Amazon, for instance, which is now in the middle of one of the worst droughts in its recorded history). Other areas, at the same time, may experience flooding from rain amounts they never knew before.

[3dman]

17. Plenty of water on Earth.

If it stops raining somewhere, it will rain more somewhere else.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Another link here

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1146862006

ends with :

Huge rock slides took place in the Alps long before there were signs that world temperatures were rising. In 1806, a chunk of mountain 20 times the size of the rock about to fall off the Eiger, killed 457 people in a valley near the Rigi mountain, wiping the entire Swiss village of Goldau off the map.

Yes such things do happen but this time I don't think there is any doubt that it's been caused by glaciers receeding as a result of higher average temperatures in the region.

[Karenina]

14. Some years ago

I walked across a glacier in the Swiss neighborhood of Verbier. I'm ALLERGIC to sunlight (thanks to that "harmless" Ortho Novum pill and had slathered on an aluminum-based white cream to protect my skin). CL and I hiked 2 hours and met not another human soul. We did see an SUV w-a-a-ay below on the valley that would have made a great commercial.

That day I REALLY LEARNED about RESPECT for Mother Nature (as if I hadn't already learned that in my childhood). You respect her or you're DEAD. We scrambled over a narrow pass at one summit, I nearly lost my footing and needed a good half hour to recover. Then we got to the glacier. CL insisted we walk across; I, still rattled by my close call, thought we should NOT and just say we did. He won that argument. I'm happy, in retrospect, as what I experienced is now lost to current generations. Large stones had burned holes in the glacier, Some were large enough to fall into. I dropped a stone and heard the splash 30 seconds later. We were within 10 meters of the other side when I looked into the sky and saw the thunderheads. I recognized them from my childhood and told CL, "We're OUTTA HERE NOW!" We were safely down the trail when the rain started and took shelter in a cave when the skies dumped their load.

All I can say is, "Don't FUCK with Mother Nature. It's HER game."