Destination Magazin Nr.3/2019 EN

GUARDIAN OF THE GLACIER
Glaciologist Felix Keller is determined to
save our glaciers. It might be an
ambitious plan, but he believes it is possible.
Text: Bruno Bolinger
When Felix Keller talks about his plan,
his eyes light up, bright and blue like the
glacier. Blue and white have always been
his favourite colours. The 56-year-old
naturalist and glaciologist has a mission:
to protect the Morteratsch Glacier in
Sedrun from complete melting. Although
in his words, “it’s not so much about the
glaciers themselves, rather the water
locked up within them.”
In Switzerland, 57 billion cubic metres of water are stored as ice
in its glaciers. And that water is valuable. As the glaciers shrink,
rivers will run lower and lower each year. At present, if the rains fail
in summer, glacial melt prevents the rivers in the valley from drying
up. But once the glaciers are gone, the water supply as we know it
today will cease to function.
Two years ago, Felix Keller was having lunch with his then
supervisor at the Academia Engiadina educational institution in
Samedan. “If you were of any value as a glaciologist, you ought
to save the Morteratsch Glacier,” his supervisor teased. “Forget it,
there’s no way that would work!” was Keller‘s answer at the time.
But he couldn’t get the idea of saving the glacier out of his head.
The very next day while fishing in a wild stream, he began to think
through the possibilities and impossibilities of such an ambitious
project. Glass, metal, plastic and paper – they all get recycled in
this day and age, he thought. So why not the glacial meltwater?
After days of thinking over the facts and turning them over in his
head time and time again, Keller couldn’t find any good grounds
on which to say they wouldn’t be able to successfully rescue the
glacier. So the project was born. The question he found himself
asking was: “Should we try to preserve glaciers as freshwater
storage for future generations?”
Keller presented his idea to friend and fellow glaciologist
Hans Oerlemans from the University of Utrecht. A series of
measurements taken by this university since 1994 makes the
Morteratsch Glacier the world‘s best-studied glacier in terms of
energy balance. Interestingly, Oerlemans, unlike Keller, believed
the plan to be quite feasible. He suggested they could test the
theory by spreading snow produced from the glacier’s meltwater
over part of the glacier itself to protect it from solar radiation.
The projections that followed the experiment were surprising.
If just 10 percent of the glacier‘s surface could be kept snowcapped
during the summer, the glacier would potentially start
growing again within ten years. That would be a dramatic turnaround.
But the numbers in question were enormous. One million
square metres of glacier would have to be covered with metres of
snow. That meant the project would require 30,000 tonnes of snow
to be produced. 30,000 tonnes for each day of the short weather
window between winter and early summer! It would need to be
done in the high mountains and, if possible, without the use of
electricity. Confronted with such a mammoth task, Keller faced
sleepless nights once again.
“If just 10 percent of the glacier’s
surface could be kept snow-capped during the
summer, the glacier would potentially start
growing again within ten years.”
Felix Keller, 56, grew up in Samedan and has three children. He is a co-director
of the European Tourism Institute at the Higher School of Tourism in Samedan. He also
works on various research projects and lectures on the geography of tourism,
resource management, and teaching methods, and conducts international seminars.
Photo: Bruno Bolinger
A passionate violinist, Keller spends half an hour each morning
practising. “My daily violin playing opens up my mind,” he says.
Keller relies on his morning routine to come up with new ideas
and solutions. One example is his plan to produce snow using a
‘Schneelanze’ type snow cannon; it is patented in Switzerland and
works without electricity. It should be possible to spread the snow
using the cable cars that already run over the glacier. Soon, they
hope that funding options will open up, and a working prototype for
the project will be built in cooperation with industrial partners to
prove its practical feasibility.
The estimated cost of the whole project over the next 30
years is 100 million Swiss francs. “That’s only a few million francs
per year,” explains Keller, “even if it prevents just one river drying
out in one of the dry summers we have to come, then it’s a good
investment.” He goes one step further: “I recommend that we
apply our approach to one glacier in each of the catchment areas
supplying the six major rivers in Switzerland as soon as possible.”
The town’s famous Fee Glacier could potentially
benefit from Felix Keller‘s ideas. Until 1850 it reached
the edges of the village. But due to changes in
climate, it has retreated dramatically in recent years.
Photo: Puzzle Media
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