Messner in the tagesthemen interview: “Have lost contact with nature”

According to mountaineer Messner, the glacier break was difficult to predict. in the daily topicsBut he also said in the interview that the climate crisis is particularly noticeable in the mountains – it’s more dangerous there than it used to be.

After the deadly glacier avalanche in the Dolomites, mountaineer Reinhold Messner criticized humanity for dealing with nature. “We all have less connection to nature than generations before us,” said Messner in an interview with the daily topics. “That’s the big problem.” Man has heated up the world and now has to live with the consequences. “We have no chance of stopping this.”

“We have to learn to deal with it”

The consequences of climate change are particularly noticeable in the mountains, said Messner. The glacial retreat will also affect the Alps. Messner thinks little of measures such as white tarpaulins over the glaciers to at least slow down the melting of the ice. “These are ridiculous attempts to defy nature.”

In his opinion, the accident in northern Italy, in which at least seven people died, was difficult to predict. “The avalanche arose under the ice because water had accumulated there.” In hindsight, it’s always easy to say it was foreseeable. However, according to Messner, it is generally more dangerous on the glaciers today than it used to be. “We have to learn to deal with it.”