The Marmolada glacier, the largest in
the Dolomites, is shrinking due to rising average temperatures
and could melt completely by 2040, experts said 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 organizers
of a campaign launched by environmentalist group Legambiente,
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Marmolada glacier has withdrawn by 1,200 metres to an altitude
of 3,500 metres in an "irreversible coma", according to the
'Caravan of glaciers' campaign launched by the three
organizations.
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