# Swiss village destroyed by landslide; climate change likely culprit **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 31, 2025, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052 "2025-05-31T12:59:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/1 "2025-05-31T12:59:19Z")
Swiss village was evacuated because of danger signs noted by scientists. Evacuation was seen as a precautionary measure. On Wednesday, village was destroyed by a terrible landslide. BBC article with embedded videos: > **[Swiss glacier collapse: How the village of Blatten was wiped off the map -...](https://www.bbc.com/news/resources/idt-c7f929de-96a9-45e5-b1bb-31de82fce72d)** > > Nine million cubic metres of rock and ice came crashing down on Blatten after a landslide. Scientists indicate that the shrinking of Swiss glaciers, and the decline in permafrost that helps to stabilize the mountains, are signs of global warming and climate change. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/2 "2025-05-31T22:07:25Z")
The Swiss glaciers have been shrinking since the late 19th century. A very early sign of global warning, perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/3 "2025-05-31T22:24:59Z")
Thank god they evacuated everyone. It’s good that scientists were monitoring the mountain and they were able to take that precaution - and that the people listened. It could have been a huge tragedy otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/4 "2025-05-31T22:25:53Z")
My understanding is that there was an extended period of colder weather until the middle of the nineteenth century, called the “Little Ice Age.” The end of that period _may_ explain why the glaciers started to shrink. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/5 "2025-05-31T22:50:34Z")
What that story never says is how far in advance the evacuation happened. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/6 "2025-05-31T23:10:37Z")
I know it’s not a joking matter, but… you really couldn’t pick a better name for a town to get _blattened_ by an avalanche. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/7 "2025-05-31T23:26:33Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > My understanding is that there was an extended period of colder weather until the middle of the nineteenth century, called the “Little Ice Age.” The end of that period _may_ explain why the glaciers started to shrink. It does. Ironically, farmlands and some entire villages in the Swiss Alps were lost in the 17th century to encroaching glaciers due to the LIA. These began to recede in the latter part of the 19th century due to the return of more normal regional temperatures and had little or nothing to do with anthropogenic global warming. Due in part to having been mitigated by aerosol pollution, AGW didn’t start to have major global impacts until much later in the 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/8 "2025-06-01T01:17:57Z")
I Google mapped this place, as I do frequently when reading stories and want to “see” the location, and it was a very neat place. There are a couple “roads” that I thought must be hiking trails heading up the mountains but then I found a small car at the end of one and more buildings. Sad story. And sadly, more to come. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/9 "2025-06-01T01:28:01Z")
The evacuation orders were issued about a week ago, I believe. About 300 people lived there. I thought of the Oso, Washington disaster that happened in 2014, although that one happened with little or no known warning. > **[2014 Oso landslide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Oso_landslide)** > > A major landslide occurred 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Oso, Washington, United States, on March 22, 2014, at 10:37 a.m. local time. A portion of an unstable hill collapsed, sending mud and debris to the south across the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, engulfing a rural neighborhood, and covering an area of approximately 1 square mile (2.6 km2). Forty-three people were killed and 49 homes and other structures destroyed. The landslide has been described as one of, if not the most, deadly lan... ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/10 "2025-06-01T07:09:15Z")
Evacuation of Blatten was ordered on May 19th. > **[Landslide threat: authorities order evacuation of Swiss mountain village](https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/various/imminent-landslide-threat-authorities-order-full-evacuation-of-swiss-mountain-village/89343820?utm_source=multiple&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=news_en&utm_content=o&utm_term=wpblock_highlighted-compact-news-carousel)** > > The local authorities have ordered the complete evacuation of the village of Blatten and its 300 residents due to "imminent" dangers. Downstream villagers have been advised to be prepared for evacuation. Fortunately it appears that the flooding may not be so bad. > **[Flood risk threatens Swiss valley after ‘millennium event’ glacier collapse](https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/various/flood-risk-threatens-swiss-valley-after-glacier-collapse/89433920)** > > Days after a gigantic avalanche of ice, mud and debris buried much of the village of Blatten in canton Valais, the danger is not over. Interestingly, when I listened to one of the news reports about the actual landslide, most of it was in German. The English part? “Worst-case scenario.” It seems for such horrible things, only English is enough. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/11 "2025-06-01T11:38:00Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I know it’s not a joking matter, but… you really couldn’t pick a better name for a town to get _blattened_ by an avalanche. “Blatt” means leaf in German, such as a leaf of paper, or watch the leaves fall. So the word play only works in English. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/12 "2025-06-01T11:52:08Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > Interestingly, when I listened to one of the news reports about the actual landslide, most of it was in German. The English part? “Worst-case scenario.” It seems for such horrible things, only English is enough. No, it was all in German. They were just warning residents to stock up on sausage and cheese. (but seriously, that would have been a direct quote from the researchers, who were presumably English-speaking) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/13 "2025-06-01T16:43:14Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > (but seriously, that would have been a direct quote from the researchers, who were presumably English-speaking) Not necessarily. In German reports the term “worst case scenario” is often used instead of the clumsier “schlechtmöglischster Ausgang”, and understood by most. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/14 "2025-06-02T01:49:15Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > schlechtmöglischster Is that an easy word for Germans to say? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/15 "2025-06-02T07:31:30Z")
Not the easiest word in the German language, that’s why I called it clumsy. Though I just noticed that I mistyped the word, in fact it’s “schlechtmöglichster”, but that doesn’t make it easier. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/16 "2025-06-02T07:42:08Z")
I’d use _schlechtestmöglicher_, though, because it is _schlecht_ that is elevated to the superlative. Or “worst case” if I im a hurry. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-village-destroyed-by-landslide-climate-change-likely-culprit/1019052/17 "2025-06-02T10:35:23Z")
You’re right, that would be the correct variant, but I see after googling that both variants are common even in serious publications like newspapers and magazines.