French Alps Chamonix Mont Blanc. /AFP Yonhap News
As the glaciers in the Alps melt due to global warming, bodies of missing people whose whereabouts were unknown decades ago are being found one after another.
According to CNN on the 23rd (local time), an Austrian mountain guide found a male body on the 18th at about 2900m above sea level on the Schlatenkiss Glacier in East Tyrol, southern East Tyrol. The deceased man, a 37-year-old Austrian, was reported to have suffered an accident 22 years ago in 2001 while carrying ski touring equipment.
A backpack that appeared to belong to a man was also found at the scene. It contained cash, a bank card, and a driver’s license. Although genetic testing of the body is still in progress, this is why the identity could be estimated relatively quickly. More accurate results will be available in a few weeks.
Currently, Alpine glaciers and ice caps are in danger of disappearing due to abnormally high temperatures that hit the earth. As the ice melts at an unprecedented rate, the bodies of the missing people buried in it are being revealed one after another. Earlier, on the 12th, the body of an Italian skier who disappeared in March 2019 was found in Matterhorn, Switzerland. On the 29th of last month, the body of a German climber who disappeared in 1986 and the hiking boots he was wearing were also found around the Theodul Glacier in Zermatt, Switzerland.
The Schlatenkiss Glacier, where the body was found this time, is known as one of the fastest melting glaciers in Austria. In fact, Greenpeace has announced that between 2019 and 2022, about 60 to 100 meters of glaciers have disappeared here. Moreover, snowfall has decreased recently, and experts predict that this trend will continue in the future.
Dr. Lindsay Nicholson, a glaciologist at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, said, “If we continue to emit exhaust gases as we do now, generations to come will face the Alps without glaciers. This is very sad.” The Swiss Glacier Monitoring Center also predicted that “by 2100, most of the glaciers in the Alps will be gone.”
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2023-08-24 08:13:11
