00:00Italy's Ventina Glacier has now melted so much due to climate change to the point where geologists
00:06can only continue measuring it remotely. The Lombardy Glaciological Service says it will
00:11now use drone imagery to measure the annual retreat of the glacier and keep track of its
00:16ongoing shrinkage. Geologists, who've been measuring the glacier on-site for the past
00:21130 years, say it's far too dangerous for future in-person visits. The simple stakes planted on
00:28the glacier as a benchmark to measure its retreat are now buried under piles of rock slides and debris,
00:34rendering the terrain unsteady. The glacier has been in steady retreat since geologists first
00:39began measuring it in 1895. Experts say melting has accelerated on the Italian iceberg in recent years,
00:47having lost about 430 meters in the last decade alone, with nearly half of that since 2021.
00:53Italy's glaciers, primarily found in the country's north along the Alps and Dolomites,
00:59have been steadily receding due to inadequate snowfall in the winter and record-setting hot
01:04summers. The Lombardy Service says the Alps represent a climate hotspot, recording double
01:09the global average of temperature increases since pre-industrial times, resulting in a loss of 64%
01:16of alpine glacier volume.
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