Archives

EClim member Saeid Vaghefi, in collaboration with the SUREAL Lab, has released a powerful open-source library—ParseStudio—designed to tackle one of the most persistent challenges in AI: extracting structured content from PDFs. 📄 Why ParseStudio mattersPDFs are everywhere—from scientific publications and legal documents to datasets and reports. Extracting their content reliably is essential for building tools […]

Two weeks after the devastating ice-rock avalanche in Blatten, questions persist—even within the scientific community—about the role of climate change in triggering the event. EClim’s Christian Huggel offers an important clarification grounded in years of interdisciplinary work and contributions to IPCC AR5 and AR6 reports on climate impact attribution. 🔍 Key insights: 📌 Why is […]

On the afternoon of 28 May 2025, a massive ice-rock-debris avalanche from Birch Glacier and Kleines Nesthorn struck the village of Blatten (Lötschental, Switzerland), destroying large parts of the settlement. EClim’s Christian Huggel provides key insights into the scale and causes of this unprecedented event. 📌 Key facts and context: 📌 Wider implications: This disaster […]

One week after the devastating ice-rock avalanche from Birch Glacier and Kleines Nesthorn in Blatten, Switzerland, a remarkable scientific moment has emerged. SRF – Swiss Radio and Television released extraordinary footage capturing the process of glacier detachment in real time—a rare and previously undocumented phenomenon. EClim’s Christian Huggel highlights the significance of this footage, calling […]

Three days after the devastating ice-rock avalanche in Blatten (Lötschental, Switzerland), EClim member Christian Huggel shared a detailed analysis of the contributing geophysical and climatic factors behind the event, highlighting how climate change plays a critical, though complex, role. 📌 Key causes and mechanisms: 📌 Climate change connections: Huggel stresses that while precise attribution is […]

Just hours before the devastating ice-rock-debris avalanche in Blatten, Switzerland, the Higher Regional Court in Hamm, Germany, delivered its long-awaited ruling in the Lliuya v RWE climate litigation case. EClim’s Christian Huggel, expert witness in the case and specialist in high-mountain hazards, reflected on both events and the deeper connection between them. 🔹 Court ruling […]

In recent days, the full evacuation of the village of Blatten (Lötschental) due to the progressing slope failure at Klein Nesthorn (3342 m a.s.l.) has drawn national attention in Switzerland and beyond. EClim member Christian Huggel shared his expert perspective on the event and its broader implications. 🔹 Permafrost and slope instability: While multiple geological […]

EClim member Dr. Simon Allen participated as a panelist at Sagarmatha Sambaad 2025, Nepal’s premier multi-stakeholder dialogue platform, supported by the Swiss Embassy in Nepal. The 2025 edition focused on the urgent and globally relevant theme:“Climate Change, Mountains, and the Future of Humanity.” Simon joined the session on “Mountain Risk Assessment and Monitoring,” where he […]

The EClim group congratulates Laura Niggli on the successful defense of her PhD thesis titled:“Challenges and opportunities for the management of complex climate risks.” Supervised by EClim member Christian Huggel, Laura’s work breaks new ground by addressing an unusually wide range of climate-related risks—from heatwaves and droughts to glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs)—and analyzing how […]

On 28 April 2025, a glacier lake outburst flood (GLOF) originating near Vallunaraju (5680 m a.s.l.) in the Andes of Peru caused significant destruction in rural and urban parts of Huaraz. EClim member Christian Huggel shared initial insights and satellite analysis from the event, which likely started with a rock slope failure that triggered a […]