This summer I went on holiday to Chamonix in France. It’s a wonderful place, with spectacular views of the Mont Blanc and surrounding peaks. It was not my first visit. I came here first in 1986 and have been back many times since. A highlight of any visit to Chamonix is to take the funicular railway up to Montenvers to visit the Mers de Glace, a 7 km long glacier. But as the picture above shows there is a problem. Like all glaciers the world over, the Mer de Glace is rapidly disappearing, losing 30 to 40 metres per year in length.

Each summer they build an ice cave so you can walk inside the glacier. The light blue colour of the ice is gorgeous. But to get to the ice cave at the end of the glacier now requires you to take a cable car from Montenvers followed by a long descent using a metal gantry. The Mer de Glace brings home the reality of global warming in an emphatic and unambiguous way. You can believe in a flat Earth if you want to, it is your right, but the world isn’t flat and global warming is real.

But this is not a climate change blog, so where’s the extraterrestrial angle? No worries it’s coming, I promise you ……..

Image: Display panel in the fascinating glaciology museum in Montenvers.