Extract from ABC News
A drone view from July shows the retreat of the Rhone glacier. (Reuters: Pierre Albouy)
In short:
Scientists in Switzerland have warned global warming is having a dire effect on the country's glaciers.
New research claims more than 5 per cent of Swiss ice volume has melted this year alone.
What's next?
Glaciologist Mattias Huss told the ABC "we need to stabilise global warming" in order for the ice to recover.
Europe's record-breaking summer, after a winter of little snow, has led to "staggering" melting on Switzerland's famous glaciers, with more than 5 per cent of the country's ice melting in 2026.
That is according to a new report released by the Swiss Glacier Monitoring Network (GLAMOS) and the Swiss Commission for Cryosphere Observation of the Swiss Academy of Sciences.
"Glaciers have already retreated continuously, more or less, over the past 100 years, but what we are seeing now is really unprecedented," Matthias Huss, the director of GLAMOS, told the ABC.
"We've seen glaciers disappearing, we've seen them retreating, shrinking enormously.
"And it's really a different vision of the Swiss Alps we have today than 20 years ago."
Glaciologist Matthias Huss is concerned at the affect climate change is having on the ice. (Reuters: Denis Balibouse)
Dr Huss and his team study about 20 Swiss glaciers in detail.
They use a combination of traditional and modern techniques — first drilling holes into the ice to measure its thickness, then using virtual elevation models and satellites.
At one of the most researched glaciers, the Rhone glacier in southern Switzerland, Dr Huss said there was record melting.
"We've lost 10 metres in thickness during just the four summer months," he said.
"It was really incredible for us to come back every time [we took measurements] and then see how fast it went back."
A drone view shows glaciologists Matthias Huss, right, and Raphael Moser working on the Rhone glacier. (Reuters: Pierre Albouy)
The Head of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich University, Professor Sonia Seneviratne, said many heat records were broken in Switzerland over the summer.
"It was an extremely hot summer, we had several heatwaves, starting in May," she told the ABC.
"What was special this year was that summer started very early, [then] there was a particularly strong heatwave in June, and it was also very long."
The difference in the amount of ice on the Rhone glacier at the Furkapass can be seen when images from September 13, 2018 (top) and July 2, 2026 (below) are compared. (Supplied: Denis Balibouse via Reuters)
Professor Seneviratne said the effects of global warming were being felt particularly severely on Switzerland's glaciers.
"This summer was a bit of a wake-up call. It became a really strong topic in the media and also in politics," she said.
Dr Huss said glaciers are extremely sensitive to shifts in global temperature and provide "one of the most beautiful illustrations of climate change".
"People realise what is happening if they see the ice disappearing," he said.
"It's much easier to grasp glacier retreat than climate change as a whole, because that's difficult to feel.
"But glaciers are important in the Alps and also worldwide because they provide a lot of water in drought periods and heatwaves exactly when we need it."
Reflective polyester fleece blankets are being used in some areas to try and combat melting ice. (Reuters: Pierre Albouy)
The GLAMOS report showed that over the past five years, Swiss glaciers have shed almost one-fifth of their ice, threatening future water supplies and raising questions about the long-term survival of Europe's ice fields.
While glacier melt has helped ease summer water shortages, this benefit reduces over time as ice-covered areas shrink and glaciers become smaller.
"We need to stabilise global warming," Dr Huss said.
"Reducing CO2 emissions will stabilise the climate and will, with some delay, also stabilise glaciers, but we have to be aware that for many of the small glaciers in the Alps it's already too late, we can't save them."
For more than two decades, Swiss authorities have used large, reflective polyester fleece blankets to cover parts of glaciers to slow seasonal melting.
While it is effective, it's impractical and too expensive to cover entire glaciers, and it has been described as a bandaid solution to the effects of global warming.
The strategy also sheds synthetic fibres into the environment. But there is a study under way to see if wool from Switzerland's sheep — much of which is discarded every year — could be used instead.
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