Page 55 - DIVA 2 2025 web

Last stop,
forbidden further
is is 2018 mark

Mort Alive Project explained

under it, next to a sign instructing us to stop, and alone, even if they can prove their methods by
saying that to go any further would be at our own saving a single glacier. It will take the joint e ort
risk. We risked it, seeing other people in front, of all of us, especially in reducing gas emissions
and managed to go another kilometre, but then and funding innovative technologies to achieve
saw that we were walking along glacier’s tears. concrete results. If just 10% of the Morteratsch
Worse, we were o en on the remaining parts Glacier surface could be kept snow-capped
of the dangerous lower glacier, where its tongue during the summer, it could start growing again
stopped abruptly above us. within ten years. at would be a dramatic
turnaround, but it means that one million square
It is possible to approach the tongue by taking a metres of glacier would have to be covered with
higher path and walk along the glacier’s narrow metres of snow. irty thousand tonnes of snow
part, opposite the point we reached the previous would need to be produced each day between
evening. is was where the glacier research winter and early summer, all without electricity.
museum was situated, and, studying the charts and
estimations, we could see some hope of saving the Clearly, all this will require investment, but this
glacier. Perhaps other glaciers, similar in geology to will be slight compared with the tragedy that
Mortreratsch, could be saved in a similar way. we are facing today – that most glaciers will
disappear by 2100. Let us hope that 2025, the
For example, would it be possible to save International Year of Glacier Preservation, will
the Glacier d’Aletsch? It has a long, almost bring collective awareness and help prevent this
horizontal, stream, but the surface area is very tragedy. Let us hope that our children, and their
large. Alternatively, will it be possible to save children, will be still able to enjoy these marvels
the Glacier du Rhône, essential for water for of nature, and that cities and villages everywhere
so many? Sadly, it may not be possible to save dependent on glaciers for fresh water will have
the “hanging” glaciers which are also source of su cient supplies for safe living.
freshwater.

together we can achieve
astonishing results
Of course, all the above projects can be very
costly, so scientists cannot meet the challenge

w w w. d i va i n t e r n at i o n a l . c h