Swiss Town Guards Itself Against Climate Hazard
View an interactive trail map that takes you on a virtual tour of the climate change.
Various measures, including building these fences, were taken over the years to protect against avalanches.
Various measures, including building these fences, were taken over the years to protect against avalanches.
Part of the dam built by the town of Pontresina in anticipation of melting permafrost due to global warming.
Part of the dam built by the town of Pontresina in anticipation of melting permafrost due to global warming.
In Switzerland, one town saw global warming coming and built a dam to stop it.
The Swiss resort of Pontresina, near the Italian border, is 5,900 feet above sea level, which is on the high end — even in Switzerland. But higher still, right above the town, is a mass of warming permafrost.
Permafrost expert Felix Keller estimates that the ice in the earth is holding together enough rock and debris to fill 100 or so houses.
"When the permafrost melts in the debris-covered areas, at first moment, nothing happens," Keller says. "But by the next strong rainfall, the danger of debris flows is much higher."
Right down the mountainside from the permafrost, there's a 17th-century church, as well as the town's leading hotels, and the school. But in between, there's a four-year-old dam.
It's a very short drive from the town to the dam, where former community president Eugen Peters shows off the structure's two massive earth-and-stone walls, designed to let water through but stop everything else.
Peters says it's made of 100,000 meters of cubic stone material and that 250,000 cubic meters of snow can be stopped.
No one knows when, or if, the $6.5 million dam will be tested by a landslide, but resident Martin Schmutz calls it an insurance policy for the town.
Of whether a landslide will happen, Schmutz says, "It (could) be soon, we had some heavy rains in other places in Switzerland."
Flooding and an increasing number of rock falls – some deadly — have heightened awareness in Switzerland about the natural hazards this country faces as the earth warms. Pontresina is often described as the first town in this well-organized country to do something proactive to protect itself against the effects of climate change.
But the dam wasn't an easy sell. Some residents doubted there was really permafrost uphill from them. Others doubted it would melt. The number of trees chopped down to make way for the dam was controversial. And then there was the question of what to tell the tourists.
"After the construction, many people asked why did they do that, and is it because before it was not safe? And they had many questions but now nobody asks anymore," says Alexander Pampel, whose family manages the Sport Hotel, directly below the dam.
A brochure published for visitors says a feeling of security is essential for peace of mind, and touts the dam as evidence the resort cares about protecting its guests. And although it increasingly blends into the landscape, the dam has been incorporated into a tourist attraction.
A mountain railway carries visitors to 8,000 feet, the start of Pontresina's climate change trail. Signs along the walk explain the basics of the local geology and global warming. The trail passes through steep slopes littered with avalanche fences, some hewn by hand from stone 100 years ago.
Permafrost expert Keller says a lot time and money was spent here on avalanche protection before global warming became a problem.
"The authorities of Pontresina and also the population, due to the avalanches — snow avalanches — they are used to (acting). They know what they have to do," Keller says.
Towns in this valley are worried the effects of global warming could slow tourism, so they are actively trying to promote themselves as doing something to fight climate change. The neighboring luxury resort of St. Moritz has put together a "clean energy tour" – showing off solar panels on ski lifts and a hotel heated using water from a freezing cold lake.
"St. Moritz is used to (setting) trends," says Hans Peter Danuser, tourism board president. "The Range Rover was launched here worldwide, the Audi Quarto was launched here worldwide. So, we also want to launch ecological trends. It means alternatives are chic and sexy."
After all, he says, the natural environment is ultimately all the area has to sell.
Swiss Resort Towns Promote Climate Friendliness
Swiss resort towns know their glaciers are retreating and that artificial snow eventually won't freeze at lower altitudes.
In an effort to survive, many are beginning to heavily push summer hiking and biking. In addition, some are promoting themselves as leading the fight against climate change. Tourism officials hope this will give them a new edge.
Here's a look at how a few resort areas have approached the issue:
St. Moritz
The famous luxury resort is still home to hedonism, says tourism board president Hans Peter Danusel. But he's also trying to use the St. Moritz image to show the world that alternative energy is chic and sexy.
The town has developed a "clean energy tour" that takes visitors up a cable car partially powered by the sun, past a windmill, and to see various hotels that are using alternative heating systems. And the region has put together a list of anything remotely environmentally oriented local biogas power plants, a dinosaur tracks museum, the Ricola herb garden — and offers it as part of its self-promotion as an environmentally friendly area.
Arosa
Last winter season, this small resort in southern Switzerland started picking up the carbon tab of visitors.
To calculate this total, the tourism office asks participants how they traveled to town, where they stayed and what they did to amuse themselves. Hiking, for example, generally leaves a smaller carbon footprint than alpine skiing. Arosa then spends part of the money it collects through a local tourism tax to buy carbon credits from a German biogas plant.
It touts such visits as "carbon neutral," but no more expensive for the tourists. Participating guests get a certificate proving their vacation didn't hasten climate change.
"Of course it's also a way to promote Arosa," says tourism director Hans-Kasper Schwartzenbach. "But on the other side I have three children. And the global warming is a big problem to us. Normally in the Alps you make studies and studies and studies and no one makes a project, no one makes a real action to do something. We have to begin somewhere."
Last season, Arosa spent only about $600 to buy carbon credits to cover 50 tons of emissions. About 400 people participated in the carbon tab program. The most expensive? A visitor from New York. Schwartzenbach needed to buy 17 tons worth of emission credits to cover his flight alone.
Davos
The 2007 World Economic Forum in Davos focused on climate change at the global level. On the local level, the town compared its CO2 emissions with the amount of carbon-absorbing biomass in the area.
Davos' environmental protection officer, Gian Paul Calonder says there is no way to bring the two into balance, but he says Davos is trying to become "clean" by, for example, collecting the heat generated while cooling the indoor ice rink and using that to warm the indoor swimming pool.
Calonder is skeptical that the political will exists to really fight climate change. But he says vacation destinations need to act and market their climate protection efforts.
"Everyone is going to have to find ways to reduce emissions," he says. "And once this self-awareness has been established, then I think that vacation destinations will be selected on those grounds. That people will go to places that are pursuing the right measures."
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