After a glacier accident in Italy: what is the danger situation in Bavaria?
Created: 07/07/2022 05:13
By: Felix Herz
A sign with the inscription "Gesperret" is in front of the glacier on the Zugspitze (symbolic image).
© picture alliance/dpa |
Sina Schuldt
The glacier rupture in Italy cost at least seven lives.
The accident is also a consequence of climate change - what about Bavaria?
Munich - Shock rigidity in Italy: Not only a catastrophic drought is currently afflicting the popular holiday destination of the Germans, in the Dolomites there has also been a glacier fall.
At least seven people died and eight were injured.
As of Wednesday, July 6, the search for five missing persons is still ongoing.
Experts attribute the accident to rising temperatures due to climate change.
Does this also increase the threat situation in the Bavarian Alps?
Glacier accident in Italy: The cause lies in climate change
The consequences of global warming are particularly evident in the Alps: According to the BR, temperatures there have risen by two degrees in the last 100 years - since 1970 the climate in the Alps has warmed by 1.8 degrees.
The well-known extreme mountaineer Reinhold Messner also sees climate change as the cause of the accident in Italy: “The main reason is global warming and climate change.
These eat away at the glaciers," the 77-year-old told BR.
Added to this is the low level of precipitation, which is also a consequence of climate change.
So there is less snow that can protect the glaciers from the sun.
If there are still generally high temperatures, which are also becoming more and more normal, things get precarious.
The Augsburg climate researcher Harald Kunstmann explains to the BR that temperatures in the Italian region were above zero degrees for three weeks and even rose to 13 degrees during the day.
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Climate change and the consequences for the ice: Danger also in Bavaria
Of course there have always been landslides, explains the scientific coordinator of the Schneefernerhaus research station on the Zugspitze, Till Rehm, to the BR.
But they become more and more likely the warmer it gets.
And in Bavaria, too, the glaciers are losing mass year after year.
A glacier fall of the magnitude of that in Italy is unthinkable in Bavaria.
The glaciers in this country are smaller and not as exposed, says Rehm.
Nevertheless, caution is advised, for example in the brittle Wetterstein limestone.
Rehm advises mountaineers to put on a helmet.
It is also dangerous on the Höllentalferner because the glacier is retreating, Rehm explains to BR.
Here, however, the problem is less that something could break off, but rather the edge gap is getting bigger.
So it is becoming increasingly difficult to "change over from the ice to the rock.
And the main ascent via the Höllental goes over the ice and then into the rock face.”
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According to the Augsburg climate researcher Kunstmann, the Alps will be free of ice by the end of the century.
That would have “massive consequences” for flora and fauna.
Pope Francis also spoke out in view of the accident in Italy: On Twitter he wrote that humanity had to rethink the "tragedies that we are experiencing because of climate change".
(fhz)
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