Melting glaciers are helping police recover the remains of several missing persons.
Global warming has caused the world's oceans to rise as glaciers melt due to rising temperatures. These melting glaciers around the world have had an unexpected consequence - they are helping police recover the remains of several missing persons. A video by Insh explores how this phenomenon is helping authorities close cases that have remained unsolved for years, sometimes decades.
So how are authorities able to identify bodies after so many years?
Well, the freezing temperature found at high altitudes prevents the growth of bacteria and halts decay. This in turn ensures that bodies are well preserved, which helps authorities identify them.
In 2017, Swiss Police found the remains of a German tourist from 1987 in an Alpine glacier. They also recovered remains of a couple that had gone missing 75 years ago. Perhaps most surprisingly, hikers in the Alps in 1991 found the still-intact body of a man who died 5,300 years ago. These cases all point to how melting glaciers are revealing age-old cases.
"Due to climate change and global warming, snow and glaciers are melting fast, and bodies are being exposed and discovered by climbers," says Ang Tshering Sherpa, former President of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, according to news agency IANS.