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Mont Blanc Shrinks Over 2 Meters in Height in Two Years

FILE PHOTO: A view of the Mont Blanc mountain from Le Brevent, in Chamonix, France, June 14, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of the Mont Blanc mountain from Le Brevent, in Chamonix, France, June 14, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
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Mont Blanc Shrinks Over 2 Meters in Height in Two Years

FILE PHOTO: A view of the Mont Blanc mountain from Le Brevent, in Chamonix, France, June 14, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A view of the Mont Blanc mountain from Le Brevent, in Chamonix, France, June 14, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

Western Europe's highest peak, Mont Blanc, has lost more than two meters (6.5 ft) in height over the past two years, French researchers said on Thursday.
A team of geographical experts who perform the measurements every two years told a news conference in Chamonix in the French Alps that the mountain was now 4,805.59 meters (15766.37 ft) high, lower than their last measurement of 4,807.81 meters (15773.65 ft) in September 2021.
According to Reuters, the experts said it is now up to climatologists, glaciologists and other scientists to look at the data collected and put forward all the theories to explain this phenomenon.
"The measurements are done on a live peak. In view of climate change, monitoring the changes will allow to better understand the impacts," glaciologist Luc Moreau said.
As alarm grows worldwide over melting glaciers, the official height of Mont Blanc has been on a downward slide for over a decade. The reading was 4,810.90 meters (15,783.79 ft) in 2007.
Switzerland's glaciers suffered their second worst melt rate this year after record 2022 losses, shrinking their overall volume by 10% over the last two years, monitoring body GLAMOS said earlier this month.

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Customers at this Starbucks Can Sip Coffee and Observe a Quiet North Korean Village

Visitors at a newly opened Starbucks store as North Korea’s Kaephung county is seen in the background at the observatory of the Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Visitors at a newly opened Starbucks store as North Korea’s Kaephung county is seen in the background at the observatory of the Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
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Customers at this Starbucks Can Sip Coffee and Observe a Quiet North Korean Village

Visitors at a newly opened Starbucks store as North Korea’s Kaephung county is seen in the background at the observatory of the Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Visitors at a newly opened Starbucks store as North Korea’s Kaephung county is seen in the background at the observatory of the Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Coffee drinkers can sip their beverages and view a quiet North Korean mountain village from a new Starbucks at a South Korean border observatory.
Customers have to pass a military checkpoint before entering the observatory at Aegibong Peace Ecopark, which is less than a mile from North Korean territory and overlooks North Korea’s Songaksan mountain and a nearby village in Kaephung county, The Associated Press said.
The tables and windows face North Korea at the Starbucks, where about 40 people, a few of them foreigners, came to the opening Friday.
The South Korean city of Gimpo said hosting Starbucks was part of efforts to develop its border facilities as a tourist destination and said the shop symbolizes “robust security on the Korean Peninsula through the presence of this iconic capitalist brand.”
The observatory is the key facility at Aegibong park, which was built on a hill that was a fierce battle site during the 1950-53 Korean War. The park also has gardens, exhibition and conference halls and a war memorial dedicated to fallen marines.
Gimpo and other South Korean border cities like Paju have been trying to develop their border sites as tourist assets, even as tensions grow between the war-divided Koreas.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been trying to raise pressure on South Korea and threatening to attack his rival with nuclear weapons if provoked. North Korea has also engaged in psychological and electronic warfare against South Korea, such as flying trash-laden balloons into the South and disrupting GPS signals from border areas near the South’s biggest airport.
Kaephung county is believed to be one of the possible sites from where North Korea has launched thousands of balloons over several months.
South Korea’s military said Friday that the North flew dozens more balloons overnight and that some trash and leaflets landed around the capital Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province.