Climate change: glaciers

In January 2007, scientists warned that, due to global warming, most glaciers could disappear from the Alps by 2050. There has been severe glacier retreat in the Alps over the last two decades and this has increased in the past two to five years. The Grossglockner High Alpine Road, which was built between 1930 and 1935, leads to Austria's highest mountain, the Grossglockner (3798 m) and its glacier, the Pasterze. In 1963 a funicular railway was built to provide access to the glacier but today, visitors have to walk from the bottom of the funicular railway to the glacier which now lies 150 meters lower down. Since 1852, the length of the Pasterze glacier has decreased by 3kms and scientists at the University of Graz estimate that the glacier is now decreasing in length by 25-30 meters each year. This infoclip contains footage of: - Glacier retreat - Glacier erosion.