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This image obtained from NASA taken by the James Webb Space Telescope shows Jupiter's weather patterns, tiny moons, altitude levels, cloud covers and auroras at the northern and southern poles

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured stunning images of the planet Jupiter showing two tiny moons, faint rings and auroras at the northern and southern poles.

“We hadn’t really expected it to be this good, to be honest,” said planetary astronomer Imke de Pater of the University of California, Berkeley.

“It’s really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image,” she said.

De Pater headed the observations of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, with Thierry Fouchet of the Paris Observatory.

The composite images were taken with the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and were artificially colored because infrared light is not visible to the human eye.

The auroras above the northern and southern poles of Jupiter have been mapped in redder colors while the Great Red Spot, a storm bigger than Earth, appears white.

One image shows Jupiter’s faint rings and its moons Amalthea and Adrastea.

Launched in December 2021 from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket, Webb is orbiting the Sun at a distance of a million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth, in a region of space called the second Lagrange point.

It took the spacecraft almost a month to reach the region, where it remains in a fixed position behind the Earth and Sun to give it a clear view of the cosmos.

The Webb telescope is an international collaboration between the US space agency NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, involving more than 10,000 people.

Heavy rains from Ma-on have caused rivers to swell

Schools were ordered shut across the northern Philippines Tuesday — a day after many resumed in-person learning for the first time since Covid-19 hit — as torrential rain and strong winds pounded the main island of the archipelago.

Severe tropical storm Ma-on struck the northeast coast of Luzon around mid-morning, raking the largely agricultural region with gusts of up to 185 kilometres (115 miles) an hour, the state weather service said.

Two people were injured by falling trees in the mountainous province of Cagayan where intense rain caused the main river and its tributaries to swell overnight, provincial disaster official Ruelie Rasping said.

“We’re currently being hit by strong winds and heavy rain. The Cagayan river is rising,” Rasping told AFP.

The provincial capital Tuguegarao was drenched with 98 millimetres (3.9 inches) of “torrential” rain over a three-hour period after the storm made landfall, an official at the state weather bureau told AFP.

Ma-on was expected to sweep in a northwest direction across the country and head out over the South China Sea late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

Some low-lying areas of the capital Manila were left in knee-deep floodwater, as the storm intensified the southwest monsoon.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr suspended classes and work in government offices in the national capital region and surrounding provinces until Wednesday, his spokeswoman said.

It followed similar orders issued by provinces in Ma-on’s path.

The Philippines, ranked among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of climate change, is hit by an average of 20 storms every year.

Ma-on was the first significant one since April when tropical storm Megi unleashed landslides and flooding that killed more than 200 people mostly on the central island of Leyte.

Ma-on struck a day after the Philippines reopened classrooms for face-to-face lessons, more than two years after the pandemic hit.

The Ebrie lagoon which abuts Ivory Coast's economic capital Abidjan is choked by plastic pollution

It was once a jewel of West Africa — the “Pearl of Lagoons,” people liked to call it.

Today, the vast Ebrie lagoon which abuts Ivory Coast’s economic capital Abidjan is a sick and sorry sight, choked by plastic pollution and ravaged by sand extraction and unbridled development.

Named after an ethnic group that lives on its banks, the lagoon covers 120,000 hectares (297,000 acres), mostly separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a strip of land.

Old-timers wax nostalgic about the days when its waters were a pristine aquamarine and mangroves teemed with fish and wildlife.

Today, the shoreside village of Beago exemplifies a nightmarish problem with plastic. 

Discarded bottles, wrappers and other plastic rubbish smother the banks for at least a kilometre (more than half a mile).

“The situation is alarming. There are no more fish because of the pollution — fishing has been abandoned,” said the village chief Paul Abe Blessoue, 73.

Urban and industrial waste from Yopougon, Abidjan’s biggest district, has transformed his village of 3,000 inhabitants into an open dump, he said.

“If we are not careful, Beago could disappear in a few years, abandoned by its inhabitants,” he said.

– Minimal recycling – 

Discarded plastic typically enters the marine environment from rivers or drains or by the wind. Once there, it becomes a notorious problem.

Larger pieces can choke seabirds and mammals, and after biodegradation that can take years, tiny fragments may enter the food chain at the smallest level.

Many rich economies are trying to crack down through such measures as banning single-use plastic bags, launching awareness programmes and sorting rubbish to encourage recycling.

But in Ivory Coast, as in many developing countries, little such headway has been made.

The country of 26 million produces 460,000 tonnes of plastic waste each year, said Yaya Kone, CEO of recycling company Coliba Africa.

Of this, 290,000 tonnes come from Abidjan, where some six million people live.

“Only three percent is recycled and used again,” he said. 

The rest “ends up in nature, especially the lagoon and the sea.”

– ‘Dead bay’ –

One of the biggest expanses of brackish water in Africa, the lagoon stretches far through countryside west of Abidjan to the Azagny National Park.

Its eastern point lies at Grand Bassam — Ivory Coast’s first French colonial capital, renowned today for its ocean beach.

“Plastic is the (lagoon’s) biggest pollution source,” said Ayenon Seka, from the Institute of Tropical Geography at the University of Cocody in Abidjan.

But plastic is not the only ill.

Around Bietry Bay, pollution has been compounded by industrial extraction of sand and anarchic development.

“Bietry Bay is a dead bay — it is extremely polluted, a real environmental disaster,” said businessman Bernard Derrien, 76, who has lived in the area since 1998.

He said 1.6 million square metres (17.2 million square feet) of the bay had been filled in to build factories there.

– ‘Poto-poto’ –

Gerard Frere, a Frenchman who has lived in Abidjan for 67 years and owns a hotel in the bay, remembered the old days with nostalgia.

“Bietry used to be a corner of paradise — now it is poto-poto,” said Frere, using a term for muddy terrain infested with mosquitoes and exposed to flooding.

A specialist in sports fishing, Frere said pollution had halved his turnover.

“The floor of the lagoon is carpeted with plastic waste 30 centimetres (a foot) thick,” he said.

Voices are being raised to reverse the lagoon’s catastrophic decline, with some, like Derrien, demanding a massive sewerage network to ensure that water entering the lagoon from Abidjan is clean.

Residents in Bietry district have launched an association, Abidjan Ma Lagune, and Kone’s company is launching a training programme for as many as 6,000 plastic rubbish collectors.

But public awareness is still far behind, said Kouadio Affian, an oceanographer at the University of Abidjan.

“People don’t realise that when they throw away a plastic bottle in the street, it could end up in the lagoon,” he said.

Over 30,000 houses have been damaged in floods in Sudan: this home is in the village of Makaylab in River Nile state

In the Sudanese village of Makaylab, Mohamed Tigani picked through the pile of rubble that was once his mud-brick home, after torrential rains sparked heavy floods that swept it away.

“It was like doomsday,” said Tigani, 53, from Makaylab in Sudan’s River Nile state, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the capital Khartoum.

“We have not seen rains and floods like that in this area for years,” he said, scouring for anything to help build a shelter for his pregnant wife and child.

In Sudan, heavy rains usually fall between May and October, and the country faces severe flooding every year, wrecking property, infrastructure and crops.

This year, floods have killed at least 79 people and left thousands homeless, according to official figures.

On Sunday, Sudan declared a state of emergency due to floods in six states, including River Nile.

The crisis comes as Sudan reels from deepening political unrest and a spiralling economic crisis exacerbated by last year’s military coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Almost a quarter of Sudan’s population — 11.7 million people — need food aid.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing government figures, estimates over 146,000 people have been affected by flooding this year, with 31,500 homes damaged or destroyed.

But the UN warns that with more than a month of rain still expected, flooding could affect up to 460,000 people this year — far higher than the average 388,600 people affected between 2017 and 2021.

“Compared to the same period of 2021, the number of affected people and localities this year has doubled,” OCHA said Monday. 

The flooding is not just along the Nile River, with the war-ravaged western region of Darfur the hardest hit, where over 90,000 people are affected.

– ‘Only just starting’ –

Since the start of the devastating rainy season, thousands of Sudanese families have been left homeless, sheltering under tattered sacking.

“Everything is totally destroyed,” said Haidar Abdelrahman, sitting in the ruins of his home at Makaylab.

OCHA warns that “swollen rivers and pools of standing water increase the risk of water-borne disease such as cholera, acute watery diarrhoea, and malaria”.

Abdelrahman said he fears the floodwaters have also forced scorpions and snakes to move. “People are scared,” he said. 

“People are in serious need of basic aid against insects and mosquitoes,” said Seifeddine Soliman, 62, from Makaylab.

But health ministry official Yasser Hashem said the situation is “so far under control” with “spraying campaigns to prevent mosquitoes”.

Out of around 3,000 residents in Makaylab, they had been receiving about six or seven cases daily, mainly diarrhoea, he said.

Upstream, on the White Nile, neighbouring South Sudan has seen record rainfalls and overflowing rivers in recent years, forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, with the UN saying the “extraordinary flooding” was linked to the effects of climate change.

The floods on the Nile in Sudan also come despite Ethiopia’s controversial construction upstream across the Blue Nile of a 145-metre (475-foot) tall hydroelectric dam.

Some experts, such as the US-based research and campaign group International Rivers, have warned that changing weather patterns due to climate change could result in irregular episodes of flooding and drought in the Nile drainage basin, the world’s longest river.

In Makaylab, many fear the devastating floods are only the beginning.

“The rainy season is just starting,” said Abdelrahman. “And there is no place for people to go.”

An area of Utah's Zion National Park called the Narrows, seen in 2011, suffered a flash flood August 19, 2022, sweeping hikers off their feet

A hiker swept away in flash floods and torrential rain was still missing Monday as a weekend of storms forced hundreds to evacuate in the latest weather disasters to hit national parks in the United States.

Heavy rains were also causing havoc in parts of Texas on Monday as forecasters predicted more precipitation throughout the southern part of the country for the rest of the week.

Jetal Agnihotri, who park officials said they were still searching for Monday, was one of a number of hikers hit by surging waters Friday when flash floods tore through an area of Zion National Park in Utah called the Narrows, known for red rock cliffs and towering canyons.

One injured hiker was carried hundreds of yards (meters) downstream by the sudden inundation, while others were left stranded until rangers reached them, the National Park Service said.

In New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park, around 200 people had to be evacuated after being trapped for several hours by rising waters.

No one was injured in that incident.

The flash flooding came after heavy rains pummeled the drought-hit southwest, with several inches (centimeters) falling in a short space of time.

The downtown area of Moab, Utah was left under three feet of water by the rains, the New York Times quoted a city spokeswoman as saying.

“We had water that came through in a huge rush along with lots of debris and some full-sized trees,” Lisa Church said, adding the river had overflowed its banks in three places.

Elsewhere, footage showed children in Arizona being rescued from a school bus stranded by rising waters.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said northern Texas was expected to be walloped this week with up to seven inches of rain, with parts of the state of Mississippi also expected to be affected.

“Much of this rainfall will be beneficial and welcome due to the effects of an ongoing drought,” the agency said.

“But the potential still exists for instances of flash flooding in urban areas and places with poor drainage.”

Flash flood warnings were in effect around Dallas on Monday, with forecasters predicting difficult conditions on the roads, and videos showed vehicles becoming submerged in floodwaters while driving in the city overnight.

“Turn around, don’t drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads,” the NWS said.

– Worsening drought –

The western United States is more than 20 years into a painful drought that has left rivers and reservoirs badly depleted, and the countryside tinder-dry.

But sudden, intense downpours are often unhelpful.

“If the water all comes down over a very quick period of time, it’ll run off,” Chris Rasmussen, an NWS meteorologist in Tucson, Arizona, told AFP last week.

“It doesn’t get a chance to really soak into the ground, as you would like to see.

“It’s always nicer to have good, moderate amount of rains over a long period of time.”

Human activity, specifically the runaway use of fossil fuels over the last century, has caused the Earth’s average temperature to rise.

This has altered weather patterns, worsening droughts in some parts of the world, and intensifying storms in other areas.

Much of Europe has baked under an intense heatwave over the last few months, with record-low rainfall emptying rivers and leaving the countryside vulnerable to wildfire.

Chinese authorities said Monday they were powering down key landmarks to save energy as faltering rivers send hydroelectric plants dark.

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (R) welcomes visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz before their meeting at the Montreal Science Centre to discuss energy trade

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Canada to firm up access to new energy supplies as his country moves to quickly end its reliance on Russian oil and gas.

At a joint news conference in Montreal on the first full day of his three-day visit, Scholz said Germany is rushing construction of liquid natural gas (LNG) ports infrastructure and pipelines to boost imports and is reaching out to other nations, like Canada, to increase their output.

Germany will need more liquid natural gas during its energy transition, he said, adding: “It is indispensable because we want to move away from our dependency of Russian gas supplies.”

Scholz is also eyeing future Canadian hydrogen exports. On Tuesday the two leaders, along with a sizeable business delegation, are to tour a proposed site in Newfoundland province for hydrogen production.

Trudeau touted Canada as “a reliable supplier of the clean energy that a net-zero (emissions) world requires.”

But he downplayed the likelihood of direct LNG shipments from Canada to Germany, citing the long distance from Western Canada gas fields to Atlantic ports for shipping overseas.

“We’re exploring ways to see if it makes sense to export LNG, and if there’s a business case for it to export (LNG) directly to Europe,” Trudeau told reporters.

In the meantime, he and Scholz hinted at a major hydrogen deal to be announced on Tuesday.

“We’re moving forward on a range of investments around hydrogen and look forward to speaking about that more tomorrow,” Trudeau said.

Scholz explained that Germany has bet on hydrogen to help it get to a net-zero economy, and said “Canada will play a tremendously important role in developing green hydrogen in the future.”

“It can become one of the big powers in supplying green hydrogen to many industrialized nations,” he said, referring to the use of renewables such as wind power to make hydrogen.

The two leaders are also scheduled to discuss business opportunities in the automotive and critical minerals mining sectors, and support for Ukraine, including its eventual post-war reconstruction.

A team of Japanese researchers have published a study showing that dogs release more tears when they are reunited with their owners versus other people

Dog owners know the pure joy of returning home from a long trip to be greeted by their tail-wagging, uncontrollably jumping, face-licking companion.

But those ecstatic canines might be shedding more than just fur on your clothes — they might also be tearing-up, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Current Biology.

“We had never heard of the discovery that animals shed tears in joyful situations, such as reuniting with their owners,” said Takefumi Kikusui, one of authors of the study, which he called a possible “world first.”

The scientists measured the amount of tears in the dogs’ eyes with the widely-used Schirmer test, which consists of placing a specialized strip under the eyelids. For a baseline reading, they performed the test on dogs during a normal interaction with their owner.

When dogs were reunited with their owners after five to seven hours of separation, they “significantly” increased tear production in the ensuing five minutes, the researchers found.

They also discovered that the dogs’ volume of tears were higher when they reunited with their owner versus other people the dog is familiar with.

According to the researchers, this reaction to tear up is likely linked to the release of oxytocin, nicknamed the “love hormone,” due to its connection with bond-building.

The scientists then sought to test whether the tears might have an emotional impact on the owners. To do so, they asked the owners to rank various photos of their dogs with and without artificial tears by how much they wanted to care for them.

“The dog photos with artificial tears were ranked significantly higher than the normal tearless dog photos,” the Japanese research team wrote.

“It is possible that the dogs that show teary eyes during interaction with the owner would be cared for by the owner more,” hypothesized Kikusui.

In humans, the authors note, infants share their negative feelings by crying, which leads to more care-giving by the parents.

Domesticated by humans like no other animal, dogs have developed specific communication skills over time. Eye contact has been shown to play a role in forming the relationship between a dog and its owner.

In future studies, the researchers would like to test whether dogs similarly produce tears when they meet other canine pals.

A California home owned by Kim Kardashian was among properties repeatedly breaching water restrictions imposed due to drought, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation

Kim Kardashian and celebrity neighbors including Sylvester Stallone have been handed warnings for repeatedly flouting water restrictions at their homes in drought-hit California, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Strict water limits — imposed as the western United States endures its 23rd successive year of drought, worsened by human-caused climate change — are in place across swathes of southern California, including the affluent neighborhoods of Calabasas and Hidden Hills.

But more than 2,000 residents of the two glitzy enclaves north of Los Angeles, known for their sprawling green lawns and giant swimming pools, are continuing to breach the limits, often by eye-watering amounts.

Celebrity reality stars Kim and Kourtney Kardashian were among repeat offenders in June, the newspaper reported, citing notices obtained via a Public Records Act request.

A Hidden Hills home and adjacent lot owned by a trust linked to Kim Kardashian exceeded their water allowance by a combined 232,000 gallons (878,000 liters) for the month, while her sister Kourtney’s property in nearby Calabasas was around 100,000 gallons in excess.

“Rocky” star Stallone’s $18-million Hidden Hills property exceeded its June limits by 230,000 gallons, or 533 percent, having been 195,000 gallons over the limit the previous month, it said.

Repeat offenders are initially fined hundreds of dollars, but deep-pocketed homeowners who are still not dissuaded can eventually have their supplies physically reduced to a trickle.

Water authorities in Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, covering Calabasas and Hidden Hills, have already installed metal flow restrictor devices at around 20 properties’ main shutoff valves, the newspaper reported.

A representative for the Kardashians did not immediately respond to AFP request for comment.

Stallone’s lawyer told the Times that its report “could mischaracterize and misrepresent the situation” at a property sustaining around 500 mature trees, saying his clients had “proactively” installed a drip irrigation system and let certain lawns die.

Others named in the newspaper’s investigation included comedian Kevin Hart and former NBA basketball star Dwyane Wade.

Famous for its rows of palm trees, Los Angeles has also traditionally been known for its lush, green lawns, often maintained with automatic sprinklers.

Residents are increasingly replacing their thirsty lawns with plants native to this desert region, and Las Virgenes spokesman Mike McNutt said he hoped celebrities could set a positive example.

“People listen to you, people look at you, people value what you do,” he said.

“We need you to step up to the plate, to be examples and to be leaders so that other people will follow.”

The IUCN said 2020 was an abnormal year for rhino poaching with Covid confinement

The rhino’s survival remains in grave danger despite Covid-related drops in poaching and the illegal trade in their horns, a conservation body said on Monday.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said that poaching was still “an acute threat” to the survival of the species.

A total of 2,707 rhinos were poached in Africa between 2018 and 2021, according to the IUCN, the vast majority of which were killed in South Africa, mainly in the Kruger National Park.

South Africa is home to nearly 80 percent of the world’s rhinos.

Rhino poaching rates in Africa have declined from a peak of 5.3 percent of the total population in 2015 to 2.3 percent in 2021, the Swiss-based organisation said.

“The overall decline in poaching of rhinos is encouraging, yet this remains an acute threat to the survival of these iconic animals,” said Sam Ferreira, scientific officer with the IUCN African Rhino Specialist Group.

He told AFP there was no formal analysis into why poaching rates were declining.

“A number of factors could lead to this slowing, including improved local cooperation in law enforcement, international collaboration between range and consumer states, as well as changes in the demand for rhino horn”, said Ferreira.

– 2020 blip –

The IUCN said 2020 was an abnormal year, with lockdowns and restrictions due to the Covid pandemic seeing several African countries witnessing dramatically-reduced poaching rates.

South Africa lost 394 rhinos to poaching in 2020, while Kenya recorded no rhino poaching at all that year, it said.

However, as Covid-19 travel restrictions were lifted, some countries reported new increases in poaching activities: 451 rhinos were poached in South Africa and six in Kenya.

“These numbers are still significantly lower than during the peak in 2015, when South Africa alone lost 1,175 rhinos to poaching,” IUCN said.

The rhino population in Africa has fallen by 1.6 percent annually, from 23,562 in 2018 to 22,137 at the end of last year.

IUCN said the number of white rhinos — which it classifies as vulnerable on its Red List of Threatened Species — declined by almost 12 percent from 18,067 to 15,942 during this period.

However, the number of black rhinos — deemed critically-endangered — rose by 12 percent to 6,195.

“It is essential to continue active population management and anti-poaching activities for all subspecies across different range states,” the IUCN said.

Data also suggests that, on average, between 575 and 923 rhino horns entered illegal trade markets each year between 2018 and 2020, compared to approximately 2,378 per year between 2016 and 2017.

However, in 2019, before the pandemic, the reported seized weight of illegal rhino specimens reached its highest point of the decade, possibly due to increased regulations and law enforcement efforts.

– Javan, Sumatran rhinos –

IUCN said the numbers of one-horned rhino, found mainly in India and Nepal, and the critically-endangered Javan rhino, had increased since 2017.

Their numbers in India and Nepal increased from an estimated 3,588 in 2018 to 4,014 at the end of 2021, it said.

This was “thanks to conservation efforts, including strengthened law enforcement”, it added. 

The population of Javan rhinos increased from between 65 and 68 individuals in 2018 to 76 at the end of 2021.

But the number of Sumatran rhinos fell to an estimated 34 to 47 in 2021, compared with between 40 and 78 individuals in 2018.

The IUCN classifies the Sumatran rhino, the smallest of all rhino species, as critically endangered.

The World Wild Fund for Nature estimates that fewer than 80 Sumatran rhinos remain in the world, mainly in Indonesia on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

The IUCN report said 11 rhino poaching incidents were recorded in Asia — 10 in India and one in Nepal — since the beginning of 2018, all of which involved greater one-horned rhinos. 

Scientists say rapid glacier melt in the Alps and elsewhere has been driven by climate change

Swiss glaciers have shed half their volume since 1931, Swiss researchers said Monday, following the first reconstruction of the country’s ice loss in the 20th century.

Rapid glacier melt in the Alps and elsewhere, which scientists say is driven by climate change, has been increasingly closely monitored since the early 2000s. However, until now there has been little insight into how glaciers changed prior to that during the 20th century, with only a handful of individual glaciers tracked over time, and with different models for estimating their volume.

But Swiss researchers from the ETH Zurich technical university and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL say they had now reconstructed the topography of all Swiss glaciers in 1931, making it possible to show how they have evolved.

“Based on these reconstructions and comparisons with data from the 2000s, the researchers conclude that the glacier volume halved between 1931 and 2016,” they said in a statement.

Their study, published in the scientific journal The Cryosphere, used material from the TerrA image archive, which covers about 86 percent of Switzerland’s glacierised area, analysing around 21,700 photographs taken between 1916 and 1947.

– Dramatic change –

For their reconstruction, the glaciologists used so-called stereophotogrammetry — a technique used to determine the nature, shape and position of any object on the basis of image pairs.

“If we know the surface topography of a glacier at two different points in time, we can calculate the difference in ice volume,” lead study author Erik Schytt Mannerfelt said in the statement.

The researchers presented side-by-side picture pairs showing the same spot nearly a century apart, indicating the dramatic change that has taken place.

The Fiescher Glacier, for instance, resembled a massive sea of ice in 1928, but in 2021, a few tiny specs of white were all that remained on the lush green mountainside. 

Since the images used for the reconstruction were taken in different years, the study used the mean year 1931 as a reference and reconstructed the surface topography of all glaciers for that year, the statement said.

In their statement, the researchers stressed that glaciers did not continuously recede over the past century, pointing out that there was even sporadic mass glacier growth in the 1920s and 1980s.

But while there may have been growth over short-term periods, Daniel Farinotti, a glaciology professor at ETH Zurich and WSL and co-author of the study, said it was “important to keep the big picture in mind.”

“Our comparison between the years 1931 and 2016 clearly shows that there was significant glacial retreat during this period,” he said in the statement.

And the total glacier volume is decreasing at an ever faster rate.

While Swiss glaciers lost half their volume in the 85 years leading up to 2016, the Swiss glacier monitoring network, GLAMOS indicates that they lost a further 12 percent in the following six years alone.

Farinotti said the evidence was clear: “Glacier retreat is accelerating.”