Alps alert: collapse warning for monster Mont Blanc glacier
- The Planpincieux glacier has been moving up to 58cm a day, and officials warned it was at risk of collapsing
- The warning comes as world leaders met in New York for the UN climate action summit
Global warming has put a glacier in the Italian Alps at risk of collapse, officials warned, leading to road closures, travel restrictions, and evacuations in the immediate vicinity.
Municipal officials issued the order after surveyors observed a significant increase in the sliding speed of the Planpincieux glacier, which rests on the Italian side of the Grand Jorasses peak.
The mountain is one of several in the Mont Blanc massif, which runs through Italy, France and part of Switzerland.
Surveys had shown that the lower portion of the glacier was moving up to 58cm per day, prompting the closure of certain roads and the precautionary evacuation of some residences in zones closest to the glacier.
In safer areas, residents, workers and public officials and employees would be allowed to access the roads, but only emergency vehicles would be permitted to travel after dark.
It was not clear that the Planpincieux glacier’s collapse was imminent, and officials conceded that they had no warning system for such an event. But officials say the glacier’s precarious status was the result of a climate emergency that had already begun, and over which an international group of scientists sounded yet another alarm this week.