Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
The skies are clear at last over Paris and in the Alps temperatures this week will reach 36 degrees. From the Haute Savoie to the Bernese Oberland, glaciers are in full retreat, leaving bare rock and grey moraine in valleys they once filled. Permafrost that’s held the mountains together for aeons is melting; some have fallen apart. In the Andes, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found that the higher you go, the faster temperatures are rising. But there is hope. As noted here before, a 2021 study found that Europe’s glaciers could start to grow again by the end of this century if only governments can bring themselves to enforce aggressive emissions reductions. And there’s the law, and those who put their faith in it. In April this year the European Court of Human Rights upheld a claim by Switzerland’s KlimaSeniorinnen, a group of older women, that their government had violated their rights by not doing enough to combat climate change. There’s been a backlash against the ruling but the women are unbowed. Today’s Slow Newscast, The Lost Glacier, tells their story. In more ways than one, it’s a labour of love.
