The Alps

Question 1

Tourism

Answer 1

Valais attracted 34% of skier days in Switzerland in 2019/20.
Noise and air pollution
Deforestation to build infrastructure has resulted in decline in flora and fauna e.g., wolves and bears effectively extinct whilst alpine plants like edelweiss are severely threatened.
Footpath and ski piste erosion looks unsightly and increases instability of land.
In the ten years between 2007 and 2017, there was a 16% growth in invasive, non-native species present in the Swiss Alps.

Question 2

Climate change

Answer 2

• If GHG emissions continue to rise at rates similar to current, the Alps’ glaciers are expected to lose more than 80% of their current mass by 2100.
• Glacial shrinkage and down wasting - due to the retreat and melting of glaciers, water towers in the Alps don’t hold as much water affecting the water supply in the area. Many areas have reached peak water already meaning water supply is only going to decline from now onwards.
• More extreme and changeable weather conditions in the Alps - warming has resulted in heavy rainfall which causes severe erosion. This erosion results in unstable land and therefore more frequent avalanches - in just the Valais region alone, 11 people died from avalanches in 2020/21.
• The average temperature in the alps has risen at more than twice the global rate since the start of the 20th century.

Question 3

Climate change impact on ski resorts

Answer 3

By 2050, there will only be enough natural snow left above 2,000m to ski on, forcing around 70% of ski resorts in the Eastern Alps to close down.

Question 4

Climate change impact on agriculture

Answer 4

Glacial meltwater an unreliable source of water for many farmers on the slopes of the Alps due to glacial retreat and down wasting. Many areas have reached peak water already. Therefore, farmers are either having to helicopter volumes of water for over 1,000 euros or have to slaughter cattle due to lack of water available.

Question 5

Bondo landslide

Answer 5

2017
Cause by melting permafrost which triggered the destabilization of land and then the landslide that followed. The largest landslide in Switzerland in 130 years, killing 8 people with 100 people evacuated.

Question 6

Galtur avalanche

Answer 6

Valais is very prone to avalanches - no correlation between skiing and avalanches.

1999
Killed 31 people.
Toppled everything in its path and reached the village of Galtur in just 51 seconds.

Question 7

Local agreement

Answer 7

Alpine Convention - countries in the Alps meet to discuss ways they can make sustainable changes to preserve the natural environment. This is evident with sustainable ski lifts in the Tenna, where solar panels were implemented on the ski lifts to power them.

Question 8

Global agreement

Answer 8

Paris Agreement 2015
Over 750,000 fully electric cars are now in use in the UK.