Melting Glaciers - water and snow in danger - VerbierGPS 2011 - World Mountain Forum

Mountains and glaciers provide 60% of humanity with drinking water. But higher temperatures mean they are melting at unprecedented rates.

The 11th of December was World Mountain Day and mountaineers and experts from around the world met in Verbier in the Swiss Alps. Mountain communities in the Alps, the Rockies, the Andes and the Himalayas organised a live link to share stories and to see what can be done to stop the melt.

Glaciers and mountains were not on the agenda at the Durban climate change talks. The goal now aim is to do for glaciers and mountains, what the underwater press conference in the Maldives did for low lying islands - put melting glaciers on the global agenda for the upcoming climate negotiations Rio +20.

David Breashears, a world renouned mountaineer who has climbed Mount Everest five times. His photos show that since the first British climbers climbed and photographed Mount Everest 90 yrs ago, the glaciers have retreated over 150 m in height. These glaciers in Tibet provide millions of people in India and China with drinking water. The same is happening the world over. Patrick Zbrun, founder of the Swiss Sherpa Foundation and wine maker has seen a similar melt in the glaciers in Switzerland

Mountaineers see first-hand how bad and fast the melt is going and want the politicians to wake up and put them on the agenda before it is too late.

I spoke to these mountaineers and experts at the VerbierGPS 2011 World Mountain Forum, which was supported by public and private partners including: la Commune de Bagnes, la Fondation pour le Développement Durable des régions de Montagnes -- FDDM, The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment (PFBE), the Swiss Development Corporation and UNEP.

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News & Politics

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