Introduction
Today all people around the world are talking about climate crisis, melting glaciers and hotter temperatures. What are the problems in Switzerland and in Turkey?
With this article we want to present you our video and diagram about some interesting facts of glacier melting, the global warming, the lack of snow and the influence in tourism in Switzerland. Furthermore we created a fascinating graph with our project partner from Izmir about rising temperatures in Izmir. It is for sure a difficult topic but especially at the moment a well known problem. It should reflect on everyone.
In advance you can find our self-made video about glacier melting and Swiss touristic informations. [Note: general glacier melting facts have been illustrated by self made pictures in Swiss mountain skiing regions taken in December/January 2017/18]
Izmir’s rising temperatures
Diagram description: Yillar: years, Gun sayisi: days
Sources: Havadelisi Webpage climate Havadelisi Webpage about climates in cities (havadelisi.com)
As you can see Izmir had tough days in 1940-1950 (blue bars mean 5°C or below dark blue ones mean 3°C or below navy blues mean 1°C or below and purple ones mean 0°C or below) but since then the temperatures are rising and cold days are getting shorter. But what does it mean? This means Izmir is getting hotter and hotter. Greenhouse gases (e.g. CO2 resulting from burning fossil fuels) and infrared (Wärmestrahlung), are the cause for the greenhouse effect: the more greenhouse gases the more the average temperature is increasing and the ice melting, etc. So what should we do about it? We MUST stop using fossil fuels and stop destroying forests. It is not just about Izmir or Switzerland. It is about protecting the whole world. If we don’t stop now there will be a massive destruction for coastal cities (Istanbul, Izmir, Helsinki etc.)
Have a look at the following video! It shows a flood in Izmir in January this year (2018). So much rain is something really untypically for Turkey. Something that might be connected to the climate crisis. [Note: According to scientists there’s a strong link between the increase of extreme weather events and climate change]
Switzerland’s snow fall reaction
In the past years there was usually a lack of snow in many areas in Switzerland. With the data from ski resort Davos/Klosters and SRF Meteo we created a diagram, which shows the full amount of snow in centimeters (cm) during one year. In 2009 the full year snow amount was 408 cm and it permanently declined down to 195 cm in 2015. In the diagram we calculated with every second year. [Note: The used data timeline is much too short for showing a tendency. However, declining snow fall may be a future effect of the global warming and influence the Swiss winter tourism sector strongly]
Diagram description:
Jahr: years
Schneemenge in cm: snow quantity in cm
Sources:
Ski resort Davos / Klosters Ski resort Davos / Klosters (davos.ch)
SRF Meteo Schweizerisches Radio und Fernsehen Meteo (srf.ch)
It’s just a shocking awareness! This was connected to discouraged skiing tourists and the ski resorts, restaurants and ski schools were in the red (schrieben Rote zahlen).
The resorts gave their best to achieve a good result for all the different types of tourists. They used expensive and not really ecological snow guns to improve their ski slopes.
Interviewed skier quote: (female, 24 years, skis about 4 times in winter) “The prices are to high and there is not even real snow”
Sometimes due to wind, heavy weather conditions and the climate crisis they needed to close some chairlifts for the tourists safety. This problem usually got criticized as skiers still needed to pay the full price for the day ski pass.
Interviewed skier quote: (male, 65 years, skis every week) “I am not going to pay the full price for the day ski pass if not even all the chairlifts are open!”
It is such a big challenge for all participants. For tourists to understand the safety and the effort every resort is doing and for tourist resorts to stay fair with prices and offers.
Interview sources:
How many people were asked?
About 12 people and a group of young people.
Gender?
Male and female (families, group of young people, pensioners)
Where?
Ski resort Grüsch Danusa Grüsch Danusa (gruesch-danusa.ch)
How?
We asked people, which were sitting with us on the chairlift.
Conclusion
In our own opinion climate change is a real fact and in certain regions very likely or even scientifically proved. Graphs, videos and weather catastrophes such as the flood in Izmir or the lack of snow in Switzerland might be signs among others – how global temperatures rise, oceans are warming, ice sheets are shrinking, glaciers retreat etc.
It is a difficult topic and there are so many opinions about global warming / climate crisis all over the world.
Why don’t you give us a comment of what you think about climate change?
We had great experiences during this exchange project. We learned to create something with someone from far away and we got in touch with people on the ski slope and made new friends. Definitely something to do once in a lifetime.
We learned so much about a topic which we didn’t know so good in advance and learned to handle different technical sources.
It is everybody’s task to help the environment and to fight against global warming. We cannot change the decrease of glaciers and the bad influence in tourism – without your help!
Thank you for reading!
Chiara and Lea (Team Zurich, Switzerland)
Umutcan (Team Izmir, Turkey)
Sources and links for interested people:
– NSIDC (National Snow and Ice Data Centre) National Snow & Ice Data Center (nsidc.org)
– Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft (wsl.ch)
– National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Aeronautics and Space Administration (nasa.gov)
Video sources:
– Splice App for Video making Apple Splice App (apple.com)
– Vimeo for Video uploading Vimeo (vimeo.com)
Pictures Video:
– Grüsch (header picture) Grüsch Danusa (gruesch-danusa.ch)
– Obersaxen Obersaxen Mundaun (obersaxen-mundaun.ch)
– Brigels – Waltensburg Brigels Waltensburg Bergbahnen (brigels-bergbahnen.ch)
– Toggenburg Ebnat – Kappel Skilift Tanzboden (skilift-tanzboden.ch)
☷ See the project teams here »
☵ Some words about the contributions »
Hi! Your text is very interesting and well written. Because of the partition, the article is very understandable und pleasant to read. You have structured it very well. The red thread can be seen in your text. I also found the content very well written. Not too much, not too less, just perfect. I think it’s good that you’ve made a video that shows how ski tourism in Switzerland is affected by global warming. I think it’s also a good point that you show the global warming of Izmir compared with Switzerland.
I agree with your opinion also, that we can only save the environment if we all fight together against the global warming.
The article is understandable and well written. Your video shows how the ski tourism in Switzerland is affected by global warming. The diagram shows the effect also very clearly. I think it\’s also a good point that you show how Izmir is affected by the global warming in a different way than Switzerland.
I agree with your opinion that we can only save the environment if we all fight together against the global warming. Maybe you could\’ve given some examples how we can stop or at least slow down the global warming. Overall the artilce is very interesting and makes me think about our environment.