There are the expected repercussions of climate change, and then there are the more surprising ones—like two nations having to redraw their shared border due to ice melt. That's what's currently happening in Europe, where Switzerland and Italy are remapping in the Alps, because "large sections" of the border between them are "determined by glacier ridgelines or areas of perpetual snow," per the BBC. Thanks to glaciers melting, the Swiss-Italian border has now shifted, and Switzerland on Friday officially signed off on the changes, already hammered out between the two countries last year.
Italy has yet to give its final approval. The exact border changes will be made public once that sign-off goes through, but they're to affect areas near the Matterhorn, one of the continent's most famous mountains, and popular ski resorts such as Zermatt. Data shows that Switzerland's glaciers lost 4% of their volume in 2023, on the tail of losing 6% the previous year. Swiss scientists have estimated a loss of about 1,000 small glaciers in total, though other countries have had it even worse, per the Washington Post: Venezuela, for instance, said goodbye to its final glacier earlier this year.
Both outlets cite climate change as a contributing factor to the issue, and researchers don't expect a drastic turnaround in the Swiss-Italy region in the near future. "In 2024, glaciers continued to lose ice at a high speed despite much snow in winter that was expected to bring some relief," Matthias Huss, a glaciologist who heads up the GLAMOS glacier monitoring network for Switzerland, tells CNN. "Some glaciers are literally falling apart." Huss adds that although the border change is simply "one small side effect" of glacial melt, it gives more stark visibility to the issue when it "directly affects our world map." (More Switzerland stories.)
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