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Swiss group plans farewell ceremony for 'dead’ Pizol glacier

The Local
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Swiss group plans farewell ceremony for 'dead’ Pizol glacier
The Pizol Glacier now measures just 0.06 square kilometres. Photo: Pizol Tourism

After a recent 'funeral' in Iceland to mark the virtual disappearance of the country’s Okjökull glacier because of climate change, groups in Switzerland are now planning a similar event in the Alps to mark the first-ever death of a Swiss glacier.

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The ceremony, set for September 22nd, will mark the end of the Pizol Glacier in the eastern Swiss canton of Sankt Gallen.

The glacier now measures just 0.06 square kilometres – a little more than a patch of ice near the route of the Pizol mountain’s hugely popular five-lake hike.

READ ALSO: 'Year of extremes' for shrinking Swiss glaciers in 2018

“We don’t have to look to Iceland: We ourselves have glaciers in the Alps which are dying,” glaciologist Andreas Bauder with Zurich’s ETH technical university told news site Bluewin.

The death of the Pizol Glacier has been coming for two decades, according to the researcher. “It’s the result of massive climate warning,” he said.

“The situation is dramatic for glaciers above 3,000 metres. They grow or maintain their size through winter snowfall. But if this snow completely melts in summer, the outcome is clear,” Bauder said.

“We predict that 80 percent of Swiss glaciers will disappear in the next 80 years,” he concluded.

Switzerland has around 1,500 glaciers.

READ ALSO: Is Switzerland ban for the environment?

 

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