All glaciers are doomed [FIGU Zeitzeichen SE 158]

June 16, 2025 - English Source Articles from FIGU Zeitzeichen Sonderausgabe Number 158

All glaciers are doomed. Global warming is once again causing heated debate. Researchers from Bern demonstrate in a book how devastating it is for our glaciers.

Editor's note: Due to current events – the "total catastrophe" in Blatten – we present an article today that appeared on November 11, 2016, on infosperber.ch. The author, Niklaus Ramseyer, demonstrated at the time that the disappearance of glaciers at the historical depth of several centuries was only possible thanks to the landscape painters of the time, with "almost meter-precise" depictions. The current landslide above Blatten – with the subsequent glacier collapse – adds another variant of glacier extinction to the melting glacier: the collapse of an entire glacier under the weight of the fallen rock and debris. Niklaus Ramseyer: Only the most deluded fantasists (such as Trump voters or Weltwoche editors) still deny human-caused global warming. And this is more dramatic than previously assumed. In Switzerland too – and threateningly: The climate here has already warmed by almost 2 degrees in the last 150 years. It is likely to reach 4 degrees soon. Following an initial conference in Paris at the end of 2015, experts and governments from 195 countries around the world are now trying again in Marrakesh to limit "dangerous global warming" to below 2 degrees. Withered forests, melted glaciers: Just to tackle climate protection in the worst-affected developing countries would require at least 90 billion euros annually from 2020 onwards. The money is nowhere to be found – or is being wasted in the armaments and war industries. But the dire consequences of global warming are also becoming apparent in our country: the research program "Forests and Climate Change"