TRANSCRIPT
(Sound Effect – helicopter)
To measure the effects of climate change, sometimes you have to go to great heights…
For the lucky few who reach Italy's Gran Paradiso National Park, the place really is paradise.
Gianpaolo Palladino is a climate expert. He's standing on the Ciardoney Glacier - or what’s left of it, anyway.
“The Gran Paradiso National Park has celebrated its 100th year. A century ago, the size of the glacier here was more than double compared to what it is today.”
The glaciers in the Italian alps are disappearing, rapidly.
Luca Mercalli is one of Italy’s leading climatologists.
For 30 years, he’s been visiting this place to measure ice levels.
This year he had difficulty telling the helicopter pilot where to land.
“Eventually we landed and I realised why... For 30 years I had landed on ice and this was the first year I landed on rocks.”
In 2022, four metres of ice thickness was lost in one summer. This year, temperatures were cooler but two and a half metres were still lost. That’s six and a half metres of ice in just two years.
Experts estimate 10 per cent of all the ice in the Alps has disappeared in that time.
“The ice had completely disappeared, exposing rocks that perhaps hadn't seen the sun for 6,000 years. It was also exciting to put your foot for the first time on these rocks which had been under the ice for thousands of years. But this also gives us an indication of the severity and speed of global warming.”
The impact of global warming is also being felt down the mountain.
It’s been a year of extreme weather for Italy. With record heat and deadly floods, the country’s climate is becoming more ‘tropical’. A mudslide tore through the town of Bardonnechia [[bar-don-EK-ee-uh]] in August following a period of unusually intense rainfall.
No-one was killed but the damage was enormous and will take many more months to repair. Gianfrancesco Torre manages a hotel in the town.
“The water arrived with such force it destroyed the glass windows, broke through the wall and went inside.”
Mr Torre's hotel was gutted but he’s not convinced climate change played a part.
“It is not climate change for the simple reason that this is something that already happened more or less ten years ago. In this case it was more violent than what happened ten years ago, but to say it was a climate change seems excessive to me.”
The town’s mayor, Chiara Rossetti, disagrees.
“The thunderstorms that occur now are completely different from the thunderstorms that occurred in the past, both in terms of their strength and duration, they are very brief but very intense.“
Italy has more than its fair share of climate change sceptics, including in government.
Several senior ministers here have been openly dismissive of the effects of global warming, even after the summer of extreme weather events, and that’s hugely frustrating for climate experts.
Luca Mercalli became well-known for debating climate sceptics on television but no longer sees the point, describing it as a “useless battle”.
He’s become one of Italy’s first climate migrants, leaving his home in Turin and heading for the hills.
“I don't like the heat and I suffer a lot in summer. And so a few years ago we decided to implement a climate change adaptation strategy on an individual level.”
He hopes for big decisions at this year’s COP summit in Dubai, rather than incremental steps, believing a tipping point has been reached.
“In nature there are thresholds and if we suddenly cross them everything changes very quickly, everything collapses.”
The shrinking glaciers are yet another warning to the world.
But will leaders listen?
