The Hallstatt Glacier, the largest glacier in the Dachstein massif, lost 1.4 meters of ice in the 2020/2021 measurement period. Fears from the summer that a negative record could fall this year therefore did not come true. Since the start of the measurements, which have been carried out on behalf of Energie AG and the Upper Austrian Environment and Climate Protection Department since 2006, it is the fifth largest loss in a year.
The total area of the glacier has decreased by 14 percent in the past 15 years, from 3.04 to 2.62 square kilometers. Since the beginning of the measurements, the glacier has not gained mass in a single year.
“Glaciers are the fever thermometers of our planet, and they show us that the planet suffers from a high fever,” says Upper Austria’s Environment and Climate Protection Councilor Stefan Kaineder (Greens). “We have now reached a point where we must act if we are to give our children and grandchildren a functioning planet.”
In cooperation with Blue Sky Wetteranalysen and the Institute for Mountain Research, which carry out the annual measurements, the web application “Apptauen” (apptauen.at) was created this year. It shows how the glacier is forecast to almost disappear by 2100 and how much it has shrunk since 1856.
Source: Nachrichten
