Record-Smashing Arctic Heat In Sweden Makes Nation's Tallest Mt 2nd-Tallest As Peak Melts

[hatrack]

STOCKHOLM – Researchers expressed concern Thursday about the rapid pace of climate change, after a glacier on Sweden’s Kebnekaise mountain melted so much in sweltering Arctic temperatures that it is no longer the country’s highest point.

“It’s quite scary,” said Gunhild Ninis Rosqvist, a Stockholm University geography professor who has been measuring the glacier for many years as part of climate change research. “This glacier is a symbol for all the glaciers in the world. This whole environment is melting, the snow is melting, and it affects the entire ecosystem: the plants, the animals, the climate, everything,” said Rosqvist, who is also the head of the Tarfala research station near Kebnekaise.

“You see the effects of climate change so clearly here. And for Sweden, Kebnekaise’s southern peak is such an iconic symbol.”

A popular tourist destination located in Sweden’s far north, Kebnekaise has two main peaks — a southern one covered by a glacier and a neighboring, northern one free of ice. The southern peak lost 4 meters (13 feet) of snow between July 2 and July 31.

EDIT

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/08/03/world/science-health-world/swedens-highest-peak-now-no-2-due-climate-change/#.W2cNJMInZph