Italian officials have closed off roads and ordered mountain hut evacuations in response to expert warning that part of a glacier on Mont Blanc could collapse.
The mayor of Courmayeur, Stefano Miserocchi, ordered the safety provisions to be taken as experts said that a section of the glacier was sliding at speeds of 50-60cm (16-23in) per day.
Miserocchi said that global warming is changing the mountain.
“These phenomena once again show how the mountain is going through a period of major change due to climate factors and, therefore, it is particularly vulnerable,” he told Italian media.
Around 250,000 cubic metres of ice are in danger of breaking away from the Planpincieux glacier on the Grandes Jorasses peak.
Mont Blanc is Western Europe’s highest mountain range.
It has 11 peaks above 4,000m in
France and
Italy and attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists annually.
This comes as a new UN report is set to outline the impact that climate change is having on the world’s oceans - with millions in coastal communities facing flooding and sea level rise.
The latest special report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been published following the UN Climate Action Summit where countries met and discussed ways to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.
Attendees heard from teenage activist Greta Thunberg who set out the scale of the challenge in curbing emissions as she criticised world leaders for failing to take action, with the refrain: “How dare you?”
The new study, which examines the oceans, coasts and the cryosphere or frozen areas of the world, is expected to warn of huge increases in flooding damage, melting ice caps and glaciers and more ocean heatwaves that bleach and kill coral.
More than 100 scientists from around the world have assessed the latest science about the role of climate change on ocean, coastal, polar and mountain systems, and the human communities that depend on them.
The final draft, which has been agreed by countries meeting in Monaco, is also expected to warn of damage to fish stocks and seafood which millions rely on.
And an increase in extreme El Ninos – a weather phenomenon in the Pacific which pushes up global temperatures and can cause an increase in wildfires – is also on the cards.Related... Two
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