According to a new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA), 75 percent of Switzerland's glaciers will have melted by 2050 as a result of climate change. This will see populations concentrated in the centre of the country with deserts spreading in the south and ice sheets melting in the north. The previous 10% loss of Alpine glaciers during the summer of 2003 has been unprecedented in Europe for 5000 years.
Currently Europeans are travelling further and more frequently and therefore consuming the planet’s natural resrources at twice the world’s average rate, whilst becoming the fastest growing contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
Professor Jacqueline McGlade, Executive director of the EEA urges politicians to be farsighted, saying ‘We need a gradual shift away from taxes on labour and investment towards taxes on pollution and the inefficient use of materials and land. We also need reforms in the way that subsidies are applied to transport, housing, energy and agriculture. We need subsidies encouraging sustainable practices and efficient technologies.’
This serves as another warning that we need to actively strive to reduce carbon emissions and slow down.