Global warming melting the magic of the Swiss Alps
Pastor Dale Morgan
Global warming melting the magic of the Swiss Alps*
GENEVA, Feb 2 (AFP) Feb 02, 2007
Television images beamed around the globe from the World Economic Forum
in late January showed Davos covered by a blanket of snow that also
shrouded growing concern in this and other Swiss mountain resorts.
The much-wanted powder came suddenly, in the space of a couple of days,
ending an extremely mild first half of winter and reviving fears that
global warming will evaporate some of the Switzerland's economic lifeblood.
"The very unusual pattern that we're experiencing this year may be a
sign of what might happen more frequently in the future," said Martin
Beniston, a climatologist at the University of Geneva.
"It's little bit like recent heat waves that gave us a preview of what
summers are likely to be like fairly frequently by the end of the
century," he said.
Beniston is among Swiss officials and scientists warning that climate
change could affect not only the key tourism industry in this scenic
Alpine state -- which alone generates some 22 billion Swiss francs (13
billion euros, 17 billion dollars) in revenue for the economy -- but
also its energy supplies, agriculture and a multitude of livelihoods.
The scientist was also part of the team advising the UN's
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that met in Paris this week.
Their report, to be issued Friday, was expected to confirm that man-made
greenhouse gases are mainly to blame for driving up Earth's temperatures.
While Switzerland shares the trouble facing low-lying countries in
summer, its mountainous areas have the added headache of failing winters.
Davos is a case in point. At 1,560 metres altitude (5,100 feet) and a
population of 12,500, it claims to be Europe's highest town.
Its stunning surroundings of forested peaks have made it a winter El
dorado, owing fame and fortune to clean air, ski slopes and the annual
January pow wow of the world's business and political elite -- where
climate change was a major topic this year.
In the 1920s, German novelist Thomas Mann dubbed it "The Magic Mountain"
in a book inspired by his wife's treatment for tuberculosis in Davos'
prized mountain air.
Today, Davos is a major Alpine resort, attracting 1.3 million overnight
stays in the 2005-2006 winter season.
"We've relied on consistent snow cover, and we have relied on air
quality. That's how Davos became big, on those two things," said Gian
Paul Calonder, the town's environmental protection officer.
The town council, like others, is taking measures to counter climate
change. It found that 70 percent of local energy consumption, mainly
heating, relied on burning fossil fuels that produce the very greenhouse
gases behind the problem.
"There have always been winters that were poor in snow. What's new is
these higher temperatures," he added.
Swiss thermometers reached four degrees warmer than the 1961-1990
January average this year, making it the warmest first month of the year
on record, according to the Swiss meteorological service, Meteosuisse.
Apart from the highest peaks, slopes were grey and bare until late
January, while spring blossoms sprouted months ahead of time.
Change is evident even in summer, when tell-tale gouges stand out on
mountainsides to show how thick melting glaciers once were.
According to Beniston, warming in the Alps is on average higher than
elsewhere in the northern hemisphere while winters are getting shorter.
Even snowmen are becoming scarce.
In the 1950s, low-lying plateau cities could get a half-metre of snow in
one night but today rarely see half as much before it melts,
Switzerland's meteorological office said.
High towns like Davos used to get peak snowfall of more than two metres
50 years ago but today one metre is often tops. Since the 1970s, average
Swiss winter temperatures have crept above the freezing mark.
Climatologists estimate that Alpine snowcover today is only reliable
above 1,200 metres, compared to 800 metres four decades ago, already
making life tough for low altitude resorts. And the snow line is
expected to creep even higher.
"When there's no more snow at middling altitudes, high stations will
also suffer, said Hans-Kaspar Schwarzenbach, tourism chief at the
well-perched eastern resort of Arosa.
Antonio Simonazzi, a spokesman for Switzerland's Transport, Energy and
Environment ministry, drew an analogy with low-lying islands.
"It's clear that Alpine countries are feeling the effects of climate
change maybe more than other countries," he said, "just like Pacific
islands, which face rising water levels, are more affected."
Beniston has forecast that warmer weather conditions south of the Alps
will creep northward, across what was once a natural mountain barrier.
"Switzerland is affected in vital areas," Simonazzi said, noting
"tourist regions have an economic value that we can't neglect."
Concern extends beyond tourism.
Dams, filled by seasonal melting snows and a key source of national
energy, are also jeopardized, Beniston said.
But spring meltdowns are likely to decline, also depriving two of
Europe's biggest rivers, the Rhine and the Rhone, of water that supplies
rest of the continent.
"If you don't have these spring and early summer run-offs from melting
snow, then there's not much snow that's going to supply the rivers and
they can run almost dry, as we saw during the 2003 heat wave," Beniston
said.
Farming too will suffer. Mild winters will not allow vegetation a
necessary rest, making it more fragile. "Then when you have a wind storm
or an extreme weather event, the vegetation is less likely to resist,"
Beniston said.
Melting permafrost poses another threat.
"There are deep valleys in the Swiss Alps. Material released from the
permafrost could tumble as far as inhabited areas," Zurich scientist
Wilfried Haeberli told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper.
The Swiss government hopes to assess the impact of global warming on the
national economy later this year in a report similar to one issued last
November by Britain, which produced a dire warning about the cost of
climate change.
Switzerland has already started levying a carbon tax on petrol, diesel,
heating fuel and coal.
Little Davos, which Calonder defined as "newsworthy" once a year when
the global decision-makers come to town, has set its own goal of cutting
harmful carbon dioxide emissions by 15 percent by 2014.
"It's not so much a question of fear, but of respect," he said. "I think
we can make use of our position to act as an example."