June, 2004 - Nr. 6
Wish they were here...
TWIG - Last summer’s heat wave in Germany may have created the best wine vintages in recent history, but it also saw the Alps lose 5% to 10% of their glacial ice caps. The slow meltdown, which scientists say is a result of the global warming trend, has now been documented by an unorthodox project undertaken by Wolfgang Zaengl and Sylvia Hamberger of the Society for Ecological Research.
Zaengl and Hamberger have been collecting scenic Alpine postcards as old as 130 years and comparing them to those taken from the same vantage points in recent years - with startling results. In many cases, areas that once gleamed with sheets of ice and snow-capped peaks now reveal naked, jagged cliffs.
Three hundred of these photographs are now on show in an exhibition at Munich’s Praterinsel that is sure to raise concern for the city’s far-off backdrop and favourite vacation spot.
Zaengl has but one suggestion for the cause of the dramatic changes: "The greenhouse effect which has been created by humans," he stated in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Other experts have noted that there was an inordinate amount
of ice on glaciers in the mid-19th century, when the earliest photos were
taken, and that period may in fact mark the highpoint in a natural cyclical
process unimpeded by humans.
Republished with permission from "The Week in Germany"
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