Population at risk as permafrost melts, Swiss Government warns

Population at risk as permafrost melts, Swiss Government warns
Jul 23, 2006, 15:37 GMT

Geneva - A number of towns and villages are increasingly at risk as the permafrost melts in Switzerland's Alpine valleys, according to a report in the Sonntagszeitung newspaper Sunday.

The Swiss Ministry of the Environment told the newspaper it had drawn up a list of inhabited danger zones which are increasingly at risk from rock falls and mudslides as the ground warms up.

The areas facing the greatest threat are those in the bottom of valleys. The list includes Zermatt in Valais, which is surrounded by three overhanging mountains which are supported by permafrost.

It also names St Moritz in Grisons and Saas Balen also in Valais. Here the natural dyke holding back the glacial lake could collapse allowing ice flows down onto the town below.
(snip/...)

http://science.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1183304.php/Population_at_risk_as_permafrost_melts_Swiss_Government_warns

exchange student in Switzerland. They were going to go see the Eiger at the end of his stay, but had to change plans when the Eiger began to FALL APART.

What a shame this was a very gorgeous country...

:cry:

nt

The ramifications are global.

The fossil record clearly indicates an obvious correlation between
changes in global weather patterns and mass extinctions. We will be fortunate if our species survives this century, to say nothing of civilization. I see nothing but hard times and chaos in the coming decades.

not continue to exist here. I say that with great sadness, but what people are doing to the planet may kill off all life itself. If we do not immediately reverse our belching of greenhouse gasses, our destruction of the rain forests, our environmental destruction, the overfishing of the oceans, our shameful pollution, our gross overpopulation, to say nothing of our evilness in releasing depleted Uranium into the atmosphere, and bombing innocent villages, imposing starvation on much of the world and enslaving millions for cheap labor and as sex slaves, then we as a species do not deserve to live.

We might be able to save it. But they're determined to screw up the world till the very end.

I spent a summer in Zermatt, 1973. At that time we were told about the huge boulders we saw lying in the valley from Saas Fe (I think that's the name of the village I got on the cog railroad) to Zermatt. These boulders were Enormous! There was great fear THEN about them falling willy nilly on the small chalets scattered in the valleys. Nope. They knew THEN.....and WE (U.S.) continue to do nothing. It was a beautiful summer.

Many cataclysmic events have occurred during the earth's history. I have no doubt life will re-proliferate after the ravages inflicted by the human species--unfortunately I believe it will be without us.

I always find much truth in your posts. Thank you for responding.

I wish we were both wrong, but I do not see a rabbit in the hat. Yes, I will continue to fight for change - starting with continuing my own personal conservation program and proceeding with political action.
As to the re-proliferation, whatever develops will need to be able to survive the toxic stew we have created.

...exactly.

This species will collapse beneath the weight of its own inability to evolve.

General description (in German) and map
http://www.blick.ch/eiger/artikel40815

web cam
click on pink line beneath picture.

Which makes one wonder if the end times and the rapture can be brought on "artificially"? In other words, if you go through all the necessary motions leading up to the rapture, does it count? Even if it's not REALLY time yet?

The way I read it, that's just what Jesus did when he entered Jerusalem, acting out the phrophecy, and I'm not sure it even worked in that case!

Are there any mass protests or are you getting this on the political agenda.

This is THE problem of the 21st Century and America (with 5% of the worlds popultaion and 27% of the worlds greenhouse gas omissions) is at the forefront.

The american administration is also the ONLY country on earth that doubts that thios is happeniong and caused by us.

All your political energy and attention must be directed towards this. The whole war on terror is a great diversion and your time and concern needs to be split.

What is the situation in America politically regad=rding this?????
What are you guys planning to do?????

The world needs you, believe me. Its up to people like you

There are literally thousands of square miles of permafrost across Northern Alaska, Canada, and Siberia that are also melting. This will release millions of tons of greenhouse gasses like methane, carbon dioxide, water vapor, you name it. That's the one that will kill us.

With the Repukes, if it's not affecting us right now, we'll let corporations run wild. It's a global problem, and urgent. Yet another reason I'm not being that picky this November, even as a progressive.

They are destroying all the hope and beauty in the world.