The impacts of geotextile sheets on the Rhône Glacier and beyond

A petition from Mountain Wilderness Switzerland

As you may recall, MW International has already addressed the Rhône Glacier in one of its blog posts as part of its Shrinking Glaciers Project. The Rhône Glacier in the canton of Valais, in southern Switzerland stretches from 2,197 to 3,600 m asl and covers an area about 17 km², with an average width of 2 km. It is the largest glacier in the Urner Alps and the source of the Rhône River.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, its long tongue reaching Gletsch made it a major tourist attraction. Today the glacier is shrinking rapidly and has become only Switzerland’s fifth largest. Climate change has caused significant mass loss, creating extensive crevasses and ice caves.

Yet the Rhône Glacier is becoming a victim of tourism-driven exploitation for private interests and the regional authorities in the canton of Valais appear either unable or unwilling to intervene.

To slow down melting, large sheets of white polypropylene fabric are placed over parts of the glacier, in particular over its iconic ice cave, now isolated from the rest of the glacier, to reflect the sun’s rays and slow melting.

However, these plastic coverings are increasingly breaking loose. They end up scattered across the landscape, floating in the glacial lake, and eventually sinking to its bottom.

As a result, synthetic materials and potentially harmful substances enter the headwaters of the Rhône River, a major European river that flows through Switzerland and France into the Mediterranean Sea.

This poses risks not only to fragile alpine ecosystems, but also to water quality, biodiversity, and potentially human health along the river’s entire course.

This is not how we should treat our glaciers.

If you share our concerns, please sign the petition addressed to the Government of Valais (available in German and French).