The increase in temperatures has caused the glaciers of the Switzerland, in the process of thawing to reveal some of their secrets. This summer, climbers found two unidentified human remains and the missing wreckage of a plane more than fifty years ago.
Last Wednesday 3rd, two French mountaineers found human bones while climbing on the Chessjengletscher in the southern canton of Valais. The skeleton has already been removed with the help of a helicopter to undergo analysis processes.
+ Glacier melt in the Alps changes the border between Switzerland and Italy
Another body had been found a few days earlier, this time on the Stockji Glacier, near the holiday resort of Zermatt, northwest of the Matterhorn. In both cases, the Valais police said the process of identifying human remains through DNA analysis was still ongoing and would take “a few more days”.
At least 300 people have disappeared in the region since 1925, according to a list kept by the Alpine Police. According to German media, the body found in Stockji could belong to one of the missing persons involved in a highprofile case. Millionaire KarlErivan Haub, a German, Russian and American citizen who owns a supermarket chain, disappeared in April 2018 while training for a trip to the region.
Alongside the bodies, in the first week of August, a guide discovered the wreckage of an airplane that had crashed into the Aletsch Glacier near the Jungfrau and Mönch peaks in June 1968.
The melting there that led to the new discoveries is so strong that blurred the lines between Switzerland and Italy, forcing the two countries to redraw their borders. Lying on the border between neighboring nations, Theodul Glacier marked the point where meltwater formed a basin that flowed down either side of the mountain towards one country or another.
However, the Swiss Alps are not the only concentrations of glaciers affected by relatively snowless winters and severe summer heat waves. Climate change is also accelerating the melting process in Greenland. In contrast to the pathological findings in Switzerland A group of billionaires found an opportunity in what was revealed beneath the ice.
The melting ice sheets created an opportunity for investors and mining companies looking for critical minerals that are highly relevant to industry and can accelerate the transition to green energy. The group includes the likes of Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates. They are betting that there are enough minerals beneath the surface of the region’s hills and valleys to power hundreds of electric vehicles.
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