Mountains and Alpine glaciers are increasingly in check from the climate crisis, in a year, 2023, marked by negative records for high altitudes. To line up data and numbers is Legambiente, which, together with the Italian Glaciological Committee, yesterday, on the occasion of International Mountain Day, presented today the IV final report "Caravan of Glaciers 2023" and, as a preview, the documentary of the same name made by videomaker David Fricano for Legambiente. In this year-end balance sheet, there are some phenomena in particular that weigh on mountains and glaciers: the torrid heat, which made 2023 the hottest year ever; the thermal zero, never so high in the Alps, which arrived at an altitude of 5398 m; and the increase in extreme weather events in all regions of the Alpine arc (Liguria, Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta, Lombardy, Trentino Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia). Among the latter are as many as 144 recorded by Legambiente's Climate Cities Observatory in the first ten months of 2023 (compared to 8 in 2010 and 97 in 2022). A tally that, from 2010 to 2022, rises to as many as 632 extreme events (excluding storm surges) with 3 regione - Lombardy, Piedmont, and Veneto - among the hardest hit. Among the most suffering provinces there are those of Milan, Genoa, Turin, Varese, Cuneo, and Trento. While the climate crisis is advancing impulsively, the other side of the coin is that of a mountain slowly changing face and profile, becoming increasingly fragile. Indeed, in 2023 glacier retreat continues in the Alps, albeit with smaller frontal retreats than in 2022, thanks in part to substantial snowfall in May.
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