As Switzerland’s Glaciers Shrink, a Way of Life May Melt Away
Rising temperatures and retreating glaciers threaten Europe’s water tower, forcing local farmers to adapt and presaging larger troubles downstream.
For centuries, Swiss farmers have sent their cattle, goats and sheep up the mountains to graze in warmer months before bringing them back down at the start of autumn. Devised in the Middle Ages to save precious grass in the valleys for winter stock, the tradition of “summering” has so transformed the countryside into a patchwork of forests and pastures that maintaining its appearance was written into the Swiss Constitution as an essential role of agriculture.
It has also knitted together essential threads of the country’s modern identity — alpine cheeses, hiking trails that crisscross summer pastures, cowbells echoing off the mountainsides.
In December, the United Nations heritage agency UNESCO added the Swiss tradition to its exalted “intangible cultural heritage” list.
But climate change threatens to scramble those traditions. Warming temperatures, glacier loss, less snow and an earlier snow melt are forcing farmers across Switzerland to adapt.
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