Can you imagine the Alps without glaciers and without snow?
We saw this on our trip through Oman.
At the beginning of April we arrived in Muscat, the capital of the country and located by the sea. It was already too hot. The mountains border the city and in one or two hours by car you are in a wonderful mountain world that leads up to three thousand meters.
The holiday resorts for the warm season (from April to October) have been created there. Down in the valley almost 40 degrees, up in the resort pleasant summer temperatures with cool nights.
There are many oases in the mountains around the dried up riverbeds. With canal technology developed and sophisticated over centuries, the rainwater from the mountains is collected and distributed before it can reach the sea. Agriculture on mountain terraces.
During heavy rainfall around the monsoon season, the wadis are flooded. And the traffic routes laid out in it, even highways, become impassable for a few days. People have gotten used to that.
During our car journeys through these landscapes, I thought to myself: This is what it could look like in the Alps in 50 to 100 years, when the glaciers have disappeared and it has become too warm for snowfall.
In Oman, life is closely linked to climatic conditions. We could probably learn a lot from the people there now, for example –
✳️ Water management – Oman’s centuries-old falaj technology shows how water can be collected and distributed efficiently.
✳️ Adaptation of agriculture – The mountain terraces in Oman enable sustainable agriculture despite limited water resources.
✳️ Rethinking tourism – Oman has established holiday resorts at higher altitudes to escape the heat.
After my experiences in Oman, I believe in the future of the Alps, no longer as a classic winter paradise, but as a new type of mountain landscape with innovative adaptations.
➡️ What do you think the Alps will look like in fifty years?
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My name is Bernd Scharbert and I deal with business ethics and sustainability, among other things as the topic of my lecture for MBA students as a lecturer at Albstadt-Sigmaringen University. If you are interested in this topic, please feel free to contact me.
