hey guys uh welcome back to foreign reacts we're going to be doing a little a simple
video today it's nothing major it's uh the italian um it's the the title of the video is the italian
switzerland border is melton so i don't know much about uh italy and the uh swiss border
unfortunately i've never been there and um i've never seen it before i didn't even know there
was a border i don't know a lot of stuff going on in italy and switzerland i uh do these reaction
videos so i can actually learn what's going on over there in europe but uh unfortunately i've
not made it over there uh to uh the italian and switzerland borders yet so it's melton
and um i'm gonna be doing this four minute 55 second video to find out what's going on so uh
please do subscribe and leave a like on this video i'd really appreciate it help this channel to do
much better and to grow i'd really appreciate it guys thanks for watching let's get right into it
tucked between the alps at the border of italy in switzerland is a restaurant for
tourists visiting from around the world the refugio guide del chervino offers a break
from winter sports for food drinks lodging and as this reviewer called it a great italian experience
but something unexpected is happening here the nearby theodol glacier is melting and
as it does this little italian ski lodge is on the verge of moving into switzerland what
most of italy's land border follows the watershed along the alps there is this imaginary line that
divides the water that fell into the mediterranean sea south or in the north they go on the black sea
by the danube or the north sea that's marco ferrari he wrote a book about this border
with architect andrea banyato and visual designer elisa pasqual this watershed line traces many of
the highest peaks of the alps forming a natural border between countries much of it is marked by
over 8 000 boundary stones like these some of which have been around since the 16th century
but in the most rugged terrain where physical markers are few and far between
swiss italian and austrian cartographic agencies have long maintained official border records with
meticulous measurements and annotated pictures like these some of these areas are on top of
glaciers their surfaces are too reflective for satellites which are often used to measure borders
the work but the surveyors is done manually so every few years there is a commission of surveyors
the composer members of both countries that actually walk the border and look how this change
early as the 1920s surveyors noticed a slow but progressive shrinking among glaciers and that some
had disappeared but by the 1990s it became clear that summer melt had outpaced winter accumulation
the surveyors realized that the glacier were melting and not humiliating ice anymore this
kind of cyclical change in the shape and geometry of the watershed became more and more permanent
and as glaciers shifted so did the watershed and so did the border here's what that looks like
on many alpine peaks a glacier ridge forms the watershed boundary line and thus the national
border but as those glaciers melt their highest point might shift often dozens of meters away
if they melt far enough they even reveal underlying rock peaks which then become
the borderline these black x's mark the old national boundary between italy and switzerland
but if you trace today's national boundary and compare it to old maps
you can see all the places where the boundary line has moved wow in the most extreme case yet
in the alps shifts in the theater glacier moved the border 150 meters that put this italian ski
lift on swiss soil and the refugio guide del chervino might be next typically when countries
renegotiate borders there's a careful process to make sure that neither country gains territory at
the other's expense but recently italy signed a new type of agreement first with austria in 2006
and then with switzerland in 2009 that recognized the alps as a mobile border acknowledging that the
border was subject to changes in the natural world outside of those countries control
fortunately the refugio is the only inhabited place along this shifting border and if it becomes
swiss it'll be subject to swiss law taxes and customs they might have to change their wall plugs
but for most nearby residents the changes won't mean much but if we think about different areas
of the world whatever processes are happening for example yeah i'm not gonna let you guys those are
things that i never even knew that could even be possible like just imagine your border is shifting
because of ice melting right that's kind of crazy and to think about it it's kind of cool honestly
right just to be uh in italy and um now you're hearing that okay you're gonna have to abide by
the swiss law that's kind of different and i've never actually experienced that before and
europe is kind of cool i'm not gonna lie to you it's really complicated
but it's really cool at the same time so these are completely different political situations in which
also the scale of the phenomenon is much much bigger the histories are much more conflicted
in the himalayas china and india disagree about their border and have fought over it several times
as it continues to melt and shift and in the andes chile and argentina have long disagreed
about their own melting border as climate change warms the planet and moves water-based borders
these conflicts could worsen rivers which make up over a third of the length of all
international land boundaries will be subject to extreme events that can change their course
coastlines will give way to rising seas affecting exclusive economic zones where
a country's sovereignty extends into the ocean and glaciers like in the alps will
continue to melt the alpine mobile border is almost like a laboratory a prototype
of a condition that will happen more and more in a lot of different parts of the world
wow that was crazy i'm not gonna lie to you guys that was really crazy
um i hope if everything goes well with uh you know the melting of the border because that's kind of
really interesting i'm not gonna lie to you guys uh it caught my attention just to think about
the border you know i shifted due to uh melting of ice uh on the mountain it's kind of crazy but um
that was really interesting and great to know that but um y'all let me know more about it if
you want to in the comment section down below please do subscribe i'd really appreciate that
leave a like on this video and i am out of here guys peace