08-23-2006
Swiss glaciers, as well as glaciers elsewhere in the world, are melting rapidly. Why should I care? Why should someone in Pleasantville, U.S. give a hoot about the demise of giant ice rivers? Or someone in Pleäsuntvil, Switzerland, for that matter?
Glaciers are just like dams, vital containers of water. Near where I have stayed, the Walensee (a large lake) in eastern Switzerland, exists a number of sizeable glaciers that feed a canal. The canal directs a commonly steady torrent of icy clean water to the Walensee, which then feeds some of that water via another canal to Lake Zurich.
Both lakes are vital to the local economies, and provide a stunning and beautiful ecological setting for visitors and residents alike. The water pressure in the canal also provides much needed small hydropower for some of the adjacent villages, a clean source of supplemental energy. When the glaciers depart, so does the hydropower and the lifeblood of the Walensee.
I climbed on to the Glärnischfirn glacier near Näfels, Switzerland this Summer. The climb to the Swiss Alpine Club hut beneath the glacier and some popular summits is a fairly long one, then you have to climb about another hour to the snout or bottom of the glacier. The people at the hut told me that 60 years ago you could see the glacier from the hut.
If the Hoover Dam was shrinking to nothing due to environmental insults originating outside the U.S., I'll bet you a lot of Americans would be indignant and demanding action to remedy the dire situation.
The carbon-dioxide (CO2) belched by the United States and other countries is, to a large degree, accelerating the destruction of glaciers in the Alps. The U.S. represents roughly five percent of the world's population, but emits about 25 percent of the CO2.
So the Alpine countries are in essence suffering the adverse effects of the failure here in the U.S. to meaningfully reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, such as by, for example, implementing tougher fuel-economy standards for motor vehicles. We live in an interconnected and interdependent world; you cannot get away with gluttony!