Swiss glaciers melting faster than ever

        2009-06-26

 

Switzerland's glaciers shrank by 12 per cent over the past decade, melting at their fastest rate due to rising temperatures and lighter snowfalls, a study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, making it the worst decade in 150 years.

 

Glaciers are a key source of water for hydroelectric plants, as well as an important tourist attraction.

 

Swiss glaciers have lost 9 cubic km of ice since 1999, the warmest period of the past 150 years, with the most dramatic decline occurring in 2003, when they shrunk by 3.5 per cent.

 

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