Alarming findings of the Glacier Caravan 2024

In August and September 2024, the fifth edition of the Glacier Caravan visited twelve glaciers in Italy and elsewhere, including the extinct Flua Glacier in the Monte Rosa massif and the glaciers on Kanin in Friuli and Triglav in Slovenia, which have shrunk to fields of snow and scree. The “sea of ice” on Mont Blanc in France was another location surveyed – in 100 years, its ice layer has become 300 metres thinner. The famous Marmolada in the Dolomites is also affected: Like other ice giants below 3,500 metres, its glacier will have disappeared by 2040, giving way to rubble, rock and new ecosystems. The Fellaria glacier on the Italian side of the Bernina Group is also retreating at a rapid rate – in just two decades, the melting ice there has turned into a huge lake the size of 30 football pitches.

With an increase in global warming of 2.7 degrees Celsius, all of these glaciers will disappear by the end of the century, according to the alarming findings of the Glacier Caravan 2024. Legambiente has therefore published a manifesto that focuses on the new dangers and adaptation measures necessary as a result of the retreat of the glaciers – from more sustainable tourism in the high mountains and waste avoidance on the mountains themselves, to the protection of the newly emerging glacier forefields and their ecosystems, as well as the dismantling of disused ski lifts. “What we need is a European and international strategy, accompanied by sustainable spatial planning and concrete measures, as summarised in the Glacier Manifesto and our petition”, says Vanda Bonardo, National Alpine Coordinator of Legambiente and President of CIPRA Italy. The manifesto and the associated petition can be signed here (it).

Sources and further information:

www.legambiente.it/comunicati-stampa/litalia-e-leuropa-rischiano-di-rimanere-senza-ghiacciai/ (it)