Decades of devastation ahead as global warming melts the Alps

The Observer (U.K.) ^ | 07/20/03 | Robin McKie

[squidly]

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

[BOBTHENAILER]

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE

SOMEDAY

[FlJoePa]

Now how the hell am I supposed to sleep tonight?

[joesnuffy]

Just think of all the artifacts of palentology,archeology,the precious gems and metals that will be exposed or surface once all this dumb ice melts and rock falls away......

[Bernard Marx]

Liberals stand athwart the erosion process loudly demanding: "Stop!"

[tubebender]

It's not the end of the world but you can see it from here ping...

[Thommas]

Oh boo hoo hooo! All the evil people are killing themselves with their ignorant pursuit of life. Wait, isn't this what the eco-nuts really want?

Well, yes it is, but THEY want to remain and be the new, perfect denizens of the next utopia. Alas, they will all either float with the boat, or sink with the ship. C'est la vie.

[Cicero]

It's the end of the world. The mountains are being leveled and the valleys are being filled in, just as Isaiah predicted.

Probably it's Bush's fault.

[Cboldt]

Just gotta laugh at folks who think ice will hold rocks in place

See, e.g., New Hampshire's (ex) Old Man in the Mountain

[Prodigal Son]

Has to be pretty hot to melt a mountain made of stone. The headline said "melt the Alps". I think what it meant was 'melt the ice and snow on the Alps'.

[Drew68]

scientists now believe global warming is melting the Alps, threatening widespread devastation over the next two decades.

I'd imagine that the eskimos who crossed over the Bering Strait from Siberia to Alaska some 10,000+ years ago said the same thing when their ice bridge started to melt.

[JRandomFreeper]

It's the end of the world.

Women, children, and minorities hardest hit....

Someone had to say it.

/john

[ChadGore]

We're all gonna die ! Tax my caw fats NOW !

[Drew68]

Probably it's Bush's fault.

If those poor black voters in Florida had their votes counted, none of this would be happening.

[yooper]

And yet, somehow, life goes on..... (yawn)

[JZoback]

Probably it's Bush's fault.

Probably??? Of course it's Bush's fault.

Everything is Bush's fault, isn't it?

Just ask any mentally deranged liberal

[JRandomFreeper]

any mentally deranged liberal

Better watch it, the Department of Redundancy Department will be after you.;>)

/john

[GreenHornet]

'When you spin things round very quickly, you create very powerful gravitational fields, and when you place objects in these fields the effects of gravity are speeded up,'

I hate when that happens.

[Old Professer]

I got this from a website through a Google search on Matterhorn avalanche data:

Without exhausting all UIAA activities, a few achievements of the following years may be noted: the Bureau issued a handbill in four languages listing distress signals for use in case of accident. The information office handled a score of requests per year; the UIAA participated in the International Mountain Exposition at Annemasse (France); the International Ski Federation adopted the UIAA sign system for ski trails; the Swiss Federal Snow and Avalanche Federation established a course for foreign experts belonging to member clubs of the UIAA; Egmont d?Arcis gave a series of lectures about the Matterhorn and published several articles in British, Italian and Swiss newspapers. Cartographic symbols to outline mountain trails were perfected. The above summary demonstrates the extent to which the UIAA, despite its limited means, touched upon every facet of the climber?s and hiker?s domain.

As to the protection of the mountain environment, it should be noted that the UIAA now became a member of the International Commission for the Protection of Alpine Regions. Nevertheless, two protests against the construction of cable cars in France (Aiguille du Midi to Col du Géant connection) and Switzerland (Mount Pilatus) failed. Egmont d?Arcis thereupoò made the prediction that this practice will cause the Alps to vanish under a spider?s web of cable cars.

Oh, the date was around 1960 or so. (keyword: uiaa)