In 2016, the Alpine Initiative handed over its archive (with annual reports and accounts, correspondence, files on actions and campaigns, topic dossiers and printed matter) to the Swiss Social Archives. The holdings can be consulted in the reading room of the Swiss Social Archive without any restrictions on use.
Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv
With a media conference in Guttannen, broadcast as a livestream, the Alpine Initiative launched its campaign for the referendum on Switzerland’s new CO2 Act. The Alps are running out of time. For the population, as well as the fauna and flora of the Alps, the referendum on June 13th is about more than just the new CO2 Act. Entire habitats and existences are at stake. This is why a YES to the CO2 Act is mandatory.
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The «Berg» table water brand, which is produced with glacier ice from Greenland, has been awarded the «Devil’s Stone» 2020. A clear majority of the public vote of the Alpine Initiative selected the water, which is sold in Manor department stores, as the most absurd product. The melted glacier ice is transported over 9,600 kilometres, and appears particularly cynical in view of the melting polar ice caps. The «Rock Crystal» is awarded to the «Culinary Autumn”, a collaboration of alpinavera and GastroGraubünden. The project raises awareness for regional cuisine and strengthens local supply chains.
“TRANSFER NOW!” Freight transport belongs on the railways – now at the latest! The NRLA, Europe’s heart of freight transport by rail, has been completed.
The Alpine Initiative has made a clear demand with an action at the Ceneri North Portal in conjunction with CIPRA, the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps: Switzerland must take more resolute action to put an end to the currently illegal transit of trucks in the Alps.
The Alpine Initiative has lit this year’s Alpine fire at countless locations throughout Switzerland. It has redimensioned the highly symbolic Alpine fire and split it into many small fires. Decentrally, numerous supporters have lit their own fires. “The mountains are burning”.
Avoiding freight traffic, shifting from the roads to the climate-friendly railways and making the remaining lorry traffic more compatible, all this contributes to saving the Alps.
The consequences of global warming on the Alpine region, the moated castle of Europe, are dramatic: the dwindling glaciers, thawing permafrost and dried-out protection forests favour rock falls, debris flows, forest fires and floods. With its campaign to stop climate warming, the Alpine Initiative calls for committed action and calls for a more consistent climate policy.
In 2019, the Alpine Initiative celebrated a double anniversary: the 30th anniversary of the association (1989) and the 25th anniversary of the “Federal Referendum for the Protection of the Alpine Region from Transit Traffic” (1994).
Swiss Air Deluxe was awarded the “Devil’s Stone” 2019. The “Rock Crystal” 2019 award went to the alliance of consumer protection organizations for their Repair Café project.
For its anniversary, the Alpine Initiative mandated several artists to create a decentralised “land art” exhibition of sculptures along transit routes, with the motto “Gates – Movement – Moving forward”.
In 2019, the traditional Alpine bonfire was lit in Mürren. The protest event against the destruction of the Alps demanded a massive reduction in the CO2 emissions of transport. A total of 30 bonfires were lit across the Alps.
On its 30th anniversary, the Alpine Initiative launched into the future with verve. Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga announced that she wanted to strengthen the transfer of goods from road to rail with various measures.