2023-09-13 20:00:37
Issue from Thursday, September 14, 2023
Innsbruck (OTS) – The Kaunertal Glacier is moving the opening – a series of events with cult status – to spring. The reason is climate change. The effects are already painfully noticeable. But that might just be the beginning.
The year 2023 will most likely be one of the warmest in Austria’s history. Even if autumn and winter are a little cooler, that’s probably still enough for a top placement, they say. The forecast published by GeoSphere Austria yesterday should make everyone feel hot and cold. One record is currently chasing the next.
Even September, which is still quite young, will get a top spot in the temperature ranking thanks to the midsummer start – nothing that would be cause for celebration. Last Sunday, 27.5 degrees were measured at the Brenner Pass at 1,420 meters above sea level – almost one degree more than the previous all-time high in 2006. At the same time, extreme weather events are increasing, worldwide, but also on our own doorstep, as we have seen in the last few days I had to experience it first hand for weeks.
While many are still joining in the chorus of climate change deniers and trivializers, the Pasterze, currently the largest glacier in Austria, was recently buried in a staged funeral. Derided by some as cheap activism, it did put a finger in the wound.
According to glaciologists, the death of the glaciers is within reach and is already painfully noticeable. Like in Kaunertal. It was announced there yesterday that in the future the opening – a three-day festival that has existed for almost 40 years – will no longer be held at the start of the season in autumn, but only in spring, when there is enough snow for the large snow park with its half pipes and ramps will be available. The Kaunertal was once a year-round ski area with summer skiing. Today it still has the “glacier” in its name, but only a small part of the slopes are still on the ice, which is no longer quite as permanent. Snow depots must be created in spring in order to ensure the start of the season in October.
Many ski areas are now bringing out the big guns to combat climate change. Only snow farming and snow cannons will hardly stop the development that will hit us hard in the future. In the Kaunertal they are pulling the rip cord – the opening would only be possible with great effort in the fall, according to the glacier cable cars. What is it worth to us to preserve slopes and ski areas in the future using all means and high costs? We have to face this question. The forces would probably be needed more urgently elsewhere in the fight once morest climate change.
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