Devastating scene unfolds as glacier collapse buries small Swiss village in mud and rock: 'The unimaginable has happened'

The collapse of a melting glacier in the Swiss Alps has buried and partially destroyed a centuries-old village, the BBC reported.

Experts at ETH Zurich, a Swiss university, called the collapse and damage caused "unprecedented in the history of the Swiss Alps."   

What's happening?

Prior to the catastrophic collapse, officials had evacuated the roughly 300 residents of Blatten, Switzerland, out of concern for the glacier's weakening structure, according to the BBC.

When the Birch Glacier ultimately gave way, giant chunks of ice and rock plummeted into the valley that had housed the people of Blatten for centuries. In the process, a number of homes were completely flattened and portions of the town were left buried, the BBC reported.

"The unimaginable has happened," said Mattias Bellwald, the mayor of Blatten, per the BBC. "We have lost our village, but we have not lost our heart." 

Why is melting ice important?

As human-made pollution has caused global temperatures to rise, glaciers, permafrost, and Arctic ice have melted at an unprecedented rate. The disaster that struck Blatten is just one example of the impact all of this melting ice will have on the world.

Together, the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica account for 75% of the world's fresh water. From 1992 to 2020, they lost enough ice to raise the world's oceans by three-quarters of an inch or more, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Rising sea levels present a variety of severe challenges, from increased flooding to more severe weather events to loss of infrastructure, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Sea level rise can also result in freshwater resources being contaminated with seawater, which cannot be used as drinking water or to irrigate crops.   

What's being done about melting glaciers?

While it is not impossible to tie any single weather event directly to human causes, scientists have been able to connect rising global temperatures with the heat-trapping pollution that humans have produced for over a century.

As temperatures rise, the likelihood increases that we will have more frequent severe weather events and that those events will be of greater intensity. In order to slow and hopefully reverse this trend, we all need to do our part to reduce the amount of planet-warming pollution that gets released into the atmosphere.

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On an individual level, we can accomplish this by increasing our use of clean-energy options like wind and solar and reducing our reliance on dirty fuels. For example, simply swapping out your gas-powered lawn mower for an electric one can make a big difference.

Similarly, by installing solar panels on your home, you can reduce the amount of planet-warming pollution you and your family produce while lowering your energy bill to close to $0. Installing solar panels in combination with a battery system can also make your home more resilient in the event of a weather emergency or long-term blackout.

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