Melting glaciers create new landscapes

Retreating glaciers reveal new pastures for conservationists. Photo: AFP

Water surged through a desolate canyon of grey rock into a blue-grey lake, an ancient landscape only revealed to humanity in recent decades. This happened because France’s glaciers have retreated so far.

The rocks bore the markings of the ice and, on an unseasonably hot day in October high above the ski resort of Chamonix, experts from the Ice and Life research project were clear that their task was no longer to try to protect the glaciers.