ROME, Sept 10 – The Marmolada glacier, the largest in the Dolomites, is shrinking due to rising average temperatures and could melt completely by 2040, the Italian news agency ANSA reported, citing experts on Monday.
The glacier is losing between seven and 10 centimetres of depth a day and over the past five years some 70 hectares of surface – equalling 98 football fields – have disappeared, said organisers of a campaign launched by environmentalist group Legambiente.
The campaign has also been joined by the International commission for the protection of the Alps, Cipra, with the scientific partnership of the Italian Glacier Committee, to monitor glaciers and raise the alarm on the impact of climate change.
Since the beginning of scientific measurements in 1888, the Marmolada glacier has withdrawn by 1,200 metres in an “irreversible coma”, according to the ‘Caravan of glaciers’ campaign launched by the three organisations.
