SWEDEN'S MELTING SWELTERS

SWEDEN'S highest peak melts away, alarms experts..............

STOCKHOLM Researchers expressed concern about the rapid pace of climate change after a  glacier on Sweden's Kebnekaise mountain melted so much in -

sweltering Arctic temperatures on Wednesday that it is no longer the country's highest point.

''It's quiet scary,' Gunhild Ninis Rosqvist, a Stockholm University geography professor who has been measuring the glacier for many years as part of climate change research, said.

'' This glacier is a symbol for all the glaciers in the world............... This whole environment is melting, the snow is melting, and it affects the entire ecosystem: the plants, the animals, the climate, everything,'' said Rosqvist, who heads the Tarfala research station near Kebnekise.

'' You see the effects of climate change so clearly here. And for Sweden, Kebnekaise's southern peak is such an iconic symbol.''

A  popular tourist destination located in Sweden's far north, Kebnekaise has two main peaks - a southern one covered by a glacier and a neighboring, northern one free of ice.

The southern peak lost  four metres of snow between July 2 and July 31.

''It looked different this year. The snow was melting, the glacier surface has never been as low as it is now. I saw meltwater trickling down the sides, I've never seen that before,''  Rosqvist said.

When measured early Tuesday , the  southern peak reached  2,097 metres above sea level, just  20 centimetres higher than the northern peak.

''We haven't gone up today to measure it, but we've checked the temperature and it was really warm yesterday, it was over 20 degrees C [68F] so it has surely melted'', below the level of northern peak, she said. [AFP].