Italy and Switzerland have redrawn their international boarder because of glacial melting. Large sections of the border follow glacieal ridge lines which have shifted due to melting. One such area is beneath the famous Matterhorn Peak.
[photo] A bilateral commission recommended the border change in 2023. Switzerland signed the agreement on Friday and Italy is expected to follow with its ratification. Statistics published last September show Switzerland's glaciers lost 4% of their volume in 2023 after melting a record 6% in 2022. The record losses are due to consecutive warm summers and low snowfall amounts. If these weather patterns continue, the melting will acclerate. The monitoring agency has warned that some Swiss glaciers are melting so fast they cannot be saved even if the world meets the 1.5℃ temperature rise set at Paris.
The melting has uncovered some interesting objects. The remains of a German climber missing since 1986 were found on the Matterhorn. Climbers crossing the Theodul Glacier noticed climbing equipment and a boot protruding from the ice. In 2022 the wreckage of an airplane that crashed in 1968 emerged from the Aletsch Glacier. The body of a missing British climber was found in 2014 by a helicopter pilot delivering supplies to a mountain refuge.
In another climate related development, the United Kingdom will end the burning of coal to generate electric power after 142 years. Ratcliff on Soar, the UK's last coal-burning power plant, will end operations this week that have continued since 1967. This closure marks a milestone in the nation's efforts to reduce carbon emissions melting the Alps' glaciers. The United Kingdom was the birthplace of coal power during the 18th Century Industrial Revolution. The first coal-fired power generating plant in the world, Edison's Holborn Viaduct plant, was built in 1882, which lighted the streets of London. In 2010 renewable energy accounted for just 10% of power generated by the UK. By the first half of 2024 renewable energy accounted for more than 50% of the country's power generation.
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