Austrian glacier ski regions are covering parts of their precious ice with sheets of plastic foil during the summer months in an effort to counter increased melting levels causing by rising global temperatures.
What might first appear a whim has deadly serious undertones. Global warming is rapidly encroaching on the one-time regions of "eternal snow" located at 2,500m or higher.
Melting glaciers are disastrous to the environment. The whole water content of a mountain range may be lost with inestimable effects on plant and animal life. Experts predict that by the year 2050, two-thirds of all Alpine glaciers will be gone.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/03/24/2003247571