- Glaciers are very sensitive indicators of climate change.  They quickly respond to global warming and their resulting retreat can be easily seen. Zermatt's glaciers are examples of worldwide glacial retreat that give us evidence of climate change.

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- Zermatt's ski lift system offers easy and extensive access to see many glaciers and their retreat features.

 

- Zermatt's major glaciers have been studied for over 100 years and provide a scientific basis for determining their advances and retreats.

 

- Zermatt's major glaciers have lost up to 2 miles in length and over 200 feet in thickness in the past 150 years.

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- Retreat rates have accelerated over the past few decades. Retreat rates for the Gorner and Findel glaciers have been about 4 times faster during the past 20 years than the previous 110 years.

 

- Glacial retreat features such as moraines and empty valleys are visual evidence that retreat has occurred during the past 150 years. 

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- Historical photographs show that today's empty valleys were filled with ice 150 years ago.

 

- Comparison photographs in this website show noticeable retreat of the Gorner and Upper Theodul glaciers in only 10 years.

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- Since 1990 all five tributary glaciers that had been flowing into the Gorner Glacier have retreated and

separated from it. Similarly, since the early 1990s, the last tributary glacier separated from the Findel Glacier.

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- Climate change studies by the United Nations have concluded that there is high confidence that a substantial part of glacial retreat is likely due to human influence that has caused higher concentrations of greenhouse gasses and increased temperatures worldwide.