Human influence on melting glaciers pushed back decades

New research by a Swiss institute has thrown doubt on the widespread assumption that the melting of Alpine glaciers began with the onset of industrialisation in the middle of the 19th century. To date, writes Swiss public broadcaster SRF, many researchers have assumed that glacial retreat began around 1860 with the increased volumes of soot and smoke belched out by the new factories of the industrial age. However, researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute have found that a deeper analysis of soot levels within the ice itself throws this assumption into doubt. Working with (among others) the Fiescherhorn glacier between cantons Bern and Valais, the scientists managed to trace soot particles in the ice right back to 1740; a veritable “history book” of what would have been in the atmosphere at the time, said researcher Michael Sigl. Interestingly, they found that industrial soot most likely does not account for the melting of glaciers between 1850 and 1875, since it was ...