The United Nations designated 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation, marking a global call to reflect on rapidly changing ice landscapes. Glaciers worldwide are melting, collapsing, and vanishing faster than ever before.
Earlier this month, a massive section of the Bircher Glacier in the Swiss Alps collapsed, burying the village of Blatten under millions of tons of ice and rock. Such landslides are rare, but as the Alps warm, experts warn similar events could become more common.
Professor Daniel Farinotti and a team from ETH Zurich, together with researchers from the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, have descended on-site to investigate what triggered the collapse. Their goal is to improve predictive models and develop early warning systems, so communities elsewhere can be better prepared.
The disaster at Blatten is a stark reminder: as glaciers retreat and destabilize, they reshape lives and landscapes in an instant. For young global citizens and changemakers, it highlights the urgency of climate action to safeguard vulnerable regions and plan for a world in transition.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
