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The Alps’ Snow Is Now Naturally Pink, A Pretty Sight But Grave Warning
By Mikelle Leow, 09 Jul 2020
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Image via Shutterstock
The snow in the Italian Alps has been naturally dyed pale pink, but the apparent stuff of dreams is, in fact, early beginnings of a more nightmarish affair.
The pink snow, also known as “watermelon snow,” poses a warning that the earth is heating up too quickly.
The pastel-hued phenomenon was spotted at the Presena glacier in northern Italy, and while the sight isn’t unusual in spring and summer, it becomes a red flag if it appears more often. Snow takes on a “watermelon” color from algae that blooms in polar regions under the presence of water, warmer temperatures, and exposed sunlight, and the growing frequency of this happening indicates that the snow is absorbing more heat than usual.
This is concerning as snow is designed to regulate temperature. The whiter it is, the more capable it is at deflecting the sun’s glowing rays back into space.
Pink snow won’t be able to modulate heat as effectively, sparking a vicious cycle where the snow melts faster, the algae becomes more abundant—causing even more snow to turn pink and bounce less sunlight into space—and the planet ultimately gets hotter.
Biagio Di Mauro, a researcher at the Institute of Polar Sciences at Italy’s National Research Council who uncovered the pink snow, believes that the algae is of the Chlamydomonas nivalis snow algae species, according to Earther.
The Alps’ tinted snow isn’t the only new warning sign about the planet’s accelerated deterioration by the hands of humankind. The United Nations recently predicted that more “zoonotic” diseases, illnesses transmitted from animals to humans, like COVID-19 will come to exist as a result of environmentally-destructive practices.
It is up to us to ensure Earth will remain liveable for future generations, and helping to safeguard it is as simple as making a few tiny changes in our living spaces.
Scientists in Italy @StampaCnr are investigating the mysterious appearance of pink snow in the Alps. It's caused by #algae that develops when snow melts, coloring the ice. In a vicious circle, the algae increases the melting snow by accelerating the absorption of radiation. pic.twitter.com/NhOFWjn4FX
— DW Global Ideas & Environment (@dw_environment) July 7, 2020
[via BGR, cover image via Shutterstock]
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