Washington Post:  “Tucked within an icy mountain lies a meticulously preserved World War I bunker. Climate change means we can now see it. The intact cavern-cum-barracks contains munitions, books, cigarette holders and animal bones, and it was once teeming with Austro-Hungarian troops. They staked out on Mount Scorluzzo, almost 3,000 meters (about 9,800 feet) above sea level, on the Italian-Swiss border, now part of Italy’s Stelvio National Park territory.

“‘These places were literally frozen in time,’ Giovanni Cadioli, a historian and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Padua in Italy, told The Washington Post.  Now, he added, climate change is playing a ‘pivotal role’ in their discovery, as warming temperatures have led to the melting of glaciers and permafrost, revealing a ‘time capsule.’  Amid the backdrop of the COP26 global climate change summit in Scotland, Cadioli underscored that the impressive findings were bittersweet: ‘We’d really rather not have retreating glaciers.’

“The artificial caves were made in 1915 by blowing up parts of the mountain and transforming them into makeshift barracks and shelters to house hundreds of European troops.  The barracks — along with the machine gun emplacements, sheltered walkways and tunnels — were held by Austro-Hungarian soldiers who were fighting Italian troops. They vacated their position on Nov. 3, 1918, in line with retreat orders, just days ahead of the armistice agreement on Nov. 11, which ended World War I.  From 1915 to 1918, European soldiers were stationed in the extremely harsh mountain terrain, facing punitive climatic conditions year-round. Nature, frostbite, falls and avalanches ultimately claimed more lives than enemy fire, Cadioli said.”