Glacier researcher Nina Kirchner remembers the summer of 2024 as a summer of shocking measurements. She and her colleagues have never seen major melting on Sweden’s four reference glaciers – something that creates major consequences for the ecosystem.
300 glaciers in Sweden
– There were an unusually large number of combinations that were bad for the glaciers, but I also think that we have to get used to the fact that what is unusual will become common in the future.
In Sweden, there are approximately 300 glaciers, of which four are reference glaciers, which are measured regularly by the researchers. Six meter long aluminum stakes are used which are drilled into the glacier to assess the melting. Kirchner believes that, as a result of the large melting, they had to redrill the stakes during the summer – something they never had to do before.
– This year we asked ourselves the question, not just once but two, three, four times: Is this really true? Haven’t we spelled it wrong? Haven’t we misunderstood each other over the radio?
“Like a stock exchange rate”
During the summer of 2024, Kirchner and her colleagues measured five and a half meters of melting on Storglaciären’s lower part. It is located in the Tarfala valley on the eastern slope of Kebnekaise and has been measured by researchers for almost 80 years.
– It’s like a stock exchange rate. Single years have been positive and then the glaciers have been able to accumulate, but it is eaten up during the negative years. It shows a clear negative trend.
Can cause landslides
Kirchner points out that the visual changes in the climate, such as the melting of glaciers, flooding and forest fires, are often used as examples of warming, but that what we cannot see without measuring instruments is just as important.
She lifts the thawing permafrost, which can create great risks for unsafe slopes, landslides and rockfalls – and become a safety issue in mountain life.
– It is good to remember that there are many invisible processes taking place that all show the same trend, that it is getting warmer.
This is part one of four where SVT Sápmi talks about climate change in Sápmi. The next part will come on Tuesday.