Originally published July 30 2005
Glacier melting won’t stop global warming
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Most of Austria's 925 glaciers have been melting because of global warming, prompting officials to rethink solutions.
It gets so cold up at this Alpine skiing station that the locals call it Eisgrat -- "Icy Spine."
It should have been at visitors' eye level but is more than 60 feet above their heads.
That's how much of the glacier has shrunk since the sign went up 35 years ago.
"It's not a good feeling," says Alois Ranalter, a maintenance worker who spends his summers focused on stopping the melt.
Most of Austria's 925 glaciers have been receding under decades of global warming, prompting researchers and ski-lift operators to seek novel solutions.
Here, in the Tyrol region of western Austria, they're fighting the melt by covering the weak spots with blankets of white plastic or foil that keep the cold in and the heat out.
"It's not possible to affect the process in any big way," says Andrea Fischer, an Innsbruck University researcher involved with the project.
The covers -- complemented by a scattering of research stations sprouting antennas and solar cells -- have transformed Eisgrat's pristine vista that has drawn generations of skiers and hikers to the 9,500-foot-high mountain station.
Patches around ski-lift pylons are particularly sensitive because the ice thaws and shifts each year, forcing workers to re-anchor the supports regularly.
Around here, says Fischer, they've been doing it for years.
But then came the summer of 2003, when record temperatures and lack of snow and rain accelerated the melting, exposing patches of rock, earth and tree trunks of long-gone forests in the middle of ski slopes.
Seeking relief, Wintersport Tirol AG & Co, which runs four Tyrolian ski resort regions, contacted scientists from the AlpS alpine research center and Innsbruck University glaciologists.
The first large areas were covered last year.
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