In Switzerland, glaciers could almost completely disappear due to global warming. The melting of the ice of the Alpine chain will have an impact on the great rivers of Western Europe, but not only.
This content was published on 16 avril 2025 – 10:16
On the Col du Jungfraujoch, in the Bernese Alps, almost 3,500 meters above sea level, Andreas Linsbauer grabs a long metal rod and pushes it into the fresh snow coat. Having reached a depth of four meters, it cannot go further. The underlying, harder and more compact underlying snow layer, which covers the glacier is reached.
“At first glance, I would say that the conditions are not optimal,” says the glaciologist of the University of Zurich. Usually, the fresh snow layer made between six and seven meters at the end of winter.
Andreas Linsbauer is at the top of the Aletsch glacier, the longest in Europe, and illustrates how to measure the amount of snow accumulated for a year on the glacier. This gives a first indication of the behavior of the glacier in the warmer months to come. “The measurement method has been practically the same for over a century,” said the scientist.
It’s a fact, Swiss glaciers are not doing well. Fonte has reached record levels in 2022 and 2023. “In recent years have been extreme,” said Matthias Huss, director of the Swiss glaciological statements network (GlamosExternal link), during a conference organized at the scientific research station of the Jungfraujoch for world Glacier day (March 21). Since the 1970s, the average temperature in the Swiss Alps has increased by 3 degrees Celsius, double the world average.
>> Read this article on the first World glacier day:
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It is not yet possible to know precisely the evolution of the Aletsch glacier and its counterparts of the Alpine chain during the winter which has just ended. Glamos official measures will only start in a few weeks. But the first observations suggest that the amount of snow in the glaciers is much lower than the average, especially in the eastern regions of the country.
The continuous melting of glaciers caused by global warming will have multiple consequences, warns Matthias Huss. The alpine landscape will change significantly and new lakes will form. Landslides and floods will become more frequent. In hot and dry periods, water shortages will increase and the decline in Swiss ice seas will be felt to the ocean, according to the researcher.
The end of glaciers in Switzerland in 2100?
Since 1850, Switzerland has seen a surface of ice equivalent to the canton of Uri spin. More than a thousand little glaciers have completely disappearedExternal link. The volume of the remaining 1340 in Switzerland has decreased by almost 40% since 2000. The average loss corresponds to more than a meter thick of ice each year.
In front of the immensity of ice and snow that descends from the jungfraujoch, it is difficult to imagine that the Aletsch glacier disappears in the next 75 years. On the Konkordiaplatz, where four small languages meet to form the voluminous Aletsch, the mass of ice is 1.5 km wide and 800 m thick.
However, according to the new forecast models which, for the first time, take into account the scorching summers of 2022 and 2023, even the largest and highest glaciers in Switzerland will disappear by 2100 if the greenhouse gas emissions do not decrease drastically.
“But if we were to reach the objective provided by the Paris climate agreement and stabilize global warming between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius, our grandchildren could still observe at least a quarter of the Swiss glaciers,” said Daniel Farinotti, glaciologist at the Federal Polytechnic School of Zurich (ETHz).
Less water in large European rivers in summer
The glaciers store water from snowfall in winter and release it in summer. The cast iron fluid is used to produce energy, irrigate fields and supply the Swiss population with water.
-Alpine glaciers water feeds the great rivers of Western Europe such as the Rhine, the Danube and the Pô. That of the Aletsch glacier poured into the Rhône, which crosses Valais, Geneva and the south of France before throwing itself into the Mediterranean. Almost 30% of the flow of the river in Geneva proceeds from glaciers, a proportion that can be even higher during droughtExternal link.
Since 1980, the quantity of liquid from glaciers has increased, which is positive for the great rivers in Europe, explains Matthias Huss. But the glaciers have melted so much that they will soon release less water. The “water peak”, the moment when the flow of cast iron water reaches its maximum level, is reached in the Alps or will be in the coming years, he adds.
“We have pressed glaciers like lemons.”Matthias Huss, glaciologue
Result: there will be less water in the Alpine valleys and the large European rivers. With possible consequences for navigation, agriculture, ecosystems, drinking water resources and energy production. In France, for example, Rhône water is used by around twenty hydroelectric power plants and is used to cool the reactors of four nuclear power plants.
In the future, even if the summers are warmer than today and the greater melting, the amount of water will decrease. The glaciers will no longer be able to alleviate the effects of droughts increasingly frequent and prolonged. “So far, water deficiency has been masked by additional water from the melting [des glaciers]but the phenomenon slowly decreases, explains Matthias Huss. We have pressed glaciers like lemons. ”
The water peak has already been reachedExternal link In most other hydrographic basins with many small glaciers, as in western Canada and South America. In Central Asia and Himalayas, the annual flow of glaciers should reach its maximum around the middle of the century.
>> The graph below shows that the “water peak” of Swiss glaciers has been reached, regardless of the global warming scenario:
The level of the oceans could increase by one meter
The total melting of mountain glaciers and glacial caps of Greenland and Antarctica contributes significantly to the rise in ocean level, explains Daniel Farinotti. It explains up to 21% of the phenomenon between 2015 and 2019, according to a studyExternal link published in Nature In 2021.
The melting of Swiss glaciers and Alps in general only helps marginally to this elevation of the level of the seasExternal link. But the glaciers merge all over the world and will release enormous amounts of water in the coming decades. Depending on the climatic scenarios, the level of the seas could increase by 50 centimeters to one meter by 2100.
The impact of the Fonte des glaciers on tourism in Switzerland
Alpine glaciers are not only a precious reserve of water. It is also a tourist attraction that attracts visitors from around the world every year. In 2024, more than a million peopleExternal link mounted at the Jungfraujoch. which houses the highest railway station in Europe.
If the glaciers disappear, world famous destinations like Zermatt, at the foot of the Matterhorn, or the Jungfraujoch, will have to present itself in a redesigned day, writes the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences in a information sheetExternal link just published.
The Swiss tourism industry follows with great attention the consequences of climate change, writes André Aschwanden, spokesperson for Switzerland Tourism, in an email in Swissinfo.ch. Mountains and glaciers have always been and remain very important tourist attractions in Switzerland but it is difficult to predict to what extent the melting of glaciers could impact the number of tourists, he assures.
“A Swiss without glaciers would be less attractive to British visitors. One of the most beautiful side of the walk in summer is to see the glaciers in the distance, ”notes Els Van Veelen at Walkers Britain, a British tour operator who offers hikes in Switzerland and Europe. The decline in alpine glaciers has no negative impact on reservations for the time being. But he led to an increase in stone falls in various areas. “It may be that in the future, we had to modify some of our routes,” said the same ELS Van Veelen.
Matthias Huss cannot imagine a Swiss without glaciers. “I am sure there will still be when I retire,” he says. But he also recognizes that his children or grandchildren could grow well with private Alps of glaciers. “It is difficult to accept that it can be in the future reality.”
Text reread and verified by Gabe Bullard, translated from Italian by Pierre-François Besson
