Climate and Sustainability Consulting

The ongoing climate crisis is manifesting in various ways, such as extreme heatwaves that disrupt activities and daily life in our cities during certain months of the year.

Climate and Sustainability Consulting

The disappearance of glaciers at high altitudes in the mountains and polar regions is causing great concern globally. For example, glaciers in Europe are one of the most characteristic elements of the Alpine landscape, as well as being precious reserves of fresh water which for centuries have mitigated the lack of water in the plains during the summer and drought seasons.

The ongoing climate crisis is manifesting in various ways, such as extreme heatwaves that disrupt activities and daily life in our cities during certain months of the year.

Precisely for this reason, a growing number of companies have started their path of sustainable development by harmonizing the fundamental dimensions: economic, social and environmental. This path became essential to stop, for example, the rise in average global temperatures, which, as is well known, has increased by more than one degree Celsius in less than 100 years. The burning of coal, oil, and methane gas causes pollution that traps heat, endangering not only biodiversity but life itself on the planet. Over the past four decades, the rise in average temperatures has accelerated, driven by continuous dynamics.

This fact has endangered not only biodiversity but life itself on the planet. Over the last forty years the increase in average temperatures has accelerated with continuous dynamics.

In the summer of 2023, a Bilma team conducted a series of surveys on the Rutor glacier, one of the most significant glaciers in the Val d’Aosta, located on the border with Savoy. The glacier faces north and stretches between altitudes of 3,400 meters, where the terminal crevasse is visible, and the front, located at approximately 2,700 meters. Its maximum length is around four kilometers, with a width that exceeds two kilometers, varying with altitude. The field surveys were complemented with georeferenced satellite images, available since the 1970s and freely accessible.

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The retreat of the glacier was measured starting from the terminal moraine of the 1970s. It is an elongated and wavy hill with a characteristic morphology that is easily identifiable both in the field and in the satellite images. In the 1970s the front of the glacier touched the moraine located at an altitude of approximately 2515 metres.

The historic terminal moraine was deposited during those years. Today, it remains intact, composed of stones and finer materials, although it is no longer in balance with the current geomorphological phase. It is now covered with grassy vegetation.

The altitude of the historical terminal moraine (MT) from the 1970s is equal to 2515 meters (above sea level), while the current ice front in the three lobes A, B, and C is identified as follows:

A) located to the east, this lobe of the glacier lies at an altitude of 2650 meters above sea level. Of the three lobes, it is the one most embedded in the mountain and is more protected than the two lobes B and C.

B) This is the median lobe of the glacier, located 769 meters from the terminal moraine, with an altitude of approximately 2,750 meters above sea level.

C) of the three lobes of the glacier is the westernmost one. The width of the glacial front is approximately 250 meters and the altitudes vary between 2736 and 2758 meters (asl). In the central part of the front the glacier is covered by its debris.

Ice lobe B, the one closest to the historical terminal moraine, is today visible at an altitude of 2750 meters (asl). So not only has the glacier retreated with notable development but it has “climbed” up the mountain, covering an important and indicative difference in altitude. Today the minimum altitude of lobe B of the glacier is 235 meters higher than it was approximately 50 years ago.

Rutor glacial lobe A. The difference of 25 – 30 meters between the glacier body and the cusp of the lateral moraine at an altitude of 2,800 meters above sea level, is among the characteristic figures of the ongoing collapse.

The lateral moraine is made up of loose sediments deposited by the glacier, which was once at least as high as the moraine. Today there is a significant loss of thickness and consequently of volume of ice. The variation that occurred in the “mass balance” is comparable with Alpine glaciers, such as that of Silvretta (CH).

Rutor glacial lobe A, the semicircular crevasses on the glacier front are among the most characteristic figures of the ongoing collapse. Their presence is indicative of a large internal cavity due to the melting of the ice and the reduction of its thickness.

Alpine glaciers have become fragile due to rising temperatures; their structure has been weakened by the percolation of melt waters, which, over time, have created a vast network of endoglacial conduits.

As a premise to the conclusions, it is important to note that the vertical thermal gradient in the atmosphere is approximately 0.65°C per 100 meters of altitude. This means that the temperature decreases by 0.65°C for every 100-meter increase in altitude.

In 50 years the minimum altitude of the B face of the Rutor has “climbed” covering a difference in altitude of approximately 235 metres. The B lobe of the icefield has “moved” from the altitude occupied in the 70s and equal to approximately 2515 meters above sea level, up to today’s altitude of 2750 meters above sea level.

Using the vertical thermal gradient formula, we obtain that only an average increase in temperatures of 1.52 C° could have caused the regression of the glacier with an altitude variation of 235 metres. Achieved in just fifty years.

The known intergovernmental objective of limiting the average increase in temperatures to 1.5 C° has already been achieved here. This measure also confirms how the mid-latitudes are among the most impacted by the ongoing climate upheaval.

Bilma collaborates with companies to develop pollution prevention plans aimed at reducing or eliminating emissions at the source that impact the atmosphere, water, or the consumption of non-renewable natural resources. Preventing pollution at its source is often more cost-effective than managing the control, treatment, and disposal of waste. Examples include integration with the supply chain to promote circularity in products, by-products, and waste, as well as replacing disposable products, often made of plastic, with reusable alternatives, including raw materials and industrial auxiliaries.