Scientists expect the disappearance of the Adamello Glacier, the largest glacier of its kind in the Italian Alps, within less than a century, as the glacier is currently witnessing slow destruction caused by climate warming.

Christian Ferrari, head of the glacier committee at the Tridentine Alpine Society, said that "the glacier has lost about 2.7 kilometers from the end of the 19th century to today," noting that the glacier has lost an average area of 15 square meters per year in the last five years, while it lost only 139 square meters last year.

The Italian environmental association Legambiente, which has organized a trip through the Alps to explore the effects of climate change on glaciers over the past four years, has recorded a decrease in the snowfall on the Adamello Glacier by 50 percent last year, similar to other glaciers in the Alps. The snow cover has become thinner, while summers have become longer and experience more heatwaves, giving the glacier less time for its waters to freeze. The glacier is also splitting, exposing additional areas to hot air.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, part of the United Nations, also indicated that temperatures in this part of the Alps will rise by between one and three degrees Celsius by 2050, and by three to six degrees by the end of this century. At this rate, the Adamello Glacier may disappear before the end of the current century.