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Climbing for Climate. Signing the Adamello Charter agreement

26.07.2019

Held on Friday, July 19 the initiative "CFC - Climbing for Climate" brought rectors, directors, and delegates of Italian universities to climb the Adamello Glacier’s three thousand meter altitude as a symbolic gesture to collectively combat climate damage against our planet. The "Adamello Charter" was signed as a declaration that commits all participating institutions to work alongside civil society in combating global warming through the training of students and the development of research aimed at sustainable development and raising public awareness.

The initiative was promoted by the University of Brescia, the Alpine Club (CAI), the Italian Glaciological Committee (CGI) and the Network of Sustainable Universities (RUS), of which the University of Padova. It aims to raise awareness of the irreversible future scenarios due to the rise of global average temperatures because of the increased concentration of climate-changing gases in the atmosphere. According to mathematical models developed by the University of Brescia, glaciological surveys and projections of climate models, the Adamello Glacier will disappear by the end of the century.

Among those who climbed the glacier to signed the Adamello Charter, was Giancarlo Dalla Fontana Vice-Rector of the University of Padova, who underlined the commitment held by the University in favor of environmental sustainability and the urgency of concrete actions through raising awareness of its citizens.

The Adamello glacier is a sad symbol of climate change effects.  Studies show that from 1995 to 2009 twenty-four meters of ice is still intact with an average net loss of water equivalent of 1440 mm each year.  This amount is in comparison to the 870 million cubic meters of ice detected at the end of the millennium, indicating that almost half of the ice has melted. The withdrawal and the probable disappearance of the Adamello glacier has an important impact at the local level on the microclimate, the landscape and the hydrological regime of the watercourses that it feeds. The Glacier has been a scientific training ground for glaciological research for a decade, as was the case for many Alpine glaciers.

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