Tag Archives: Swiss

Streets of Basel paved with gold: 15 TONS of five cent coins are dumped on city’s streets as protesters demand a basic minimum income for every Swiss household

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Switzerland-government building1

 

For years it’s long been regarded as one of Europe’s richest countries.

As Europe continues to struggle with financial turbulence and unemployment, activists in Switzerland have decided to take a stand and demand a basic income to each citizen on a monthly basis.

Activists piled 8 Mio five-centime pieces, one representing each citizen in Switzerland, in the safe room of the ‘Basler Volksbank’ bank building, in Basel, Switzerland.

Then the team from ‘Generation Basic Income Initiative’ dumped the 15 tons of money in front of the parliament building in Bern, the capital of Switzerland.

The initiative aims to have a minimum monthly disposal household income of CHF 2,500 (US$ 2,700) given by the government to every citizen living in Switzerland.

The organisation presented 130,000 signatures to Parliament urging them to pass a law guaranteeing a basic income of CHF 2,500 for all Swiss nationals.

The Swiss Parliament must address or hold a referendum over any issue which has gathered more than 100,000 signatures.

According to Schmidt the Swiss government is angry ‘because now they have to look into this initiative’.

According to The Richest, Switzerland does not have a minimum wage written into law.

 

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Switzerland-bank 1

Incredible pictures show how one of The Alps’ oldest glaciers is being protected from melting – by covering it in BLANKETS

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Rhone glacier1Scientists in Switzerland are going to extreme lengths every summer to protect one of the oldest know glaciers in The Alps.

Miles of protective blankets have been laid over the undulating mounds and folds of the ancient ice in an effort to ebb the annual melt as average temperatures gradually climb.

The Rhone Glacier, the source of the Rhone River in the centre of the Swiss Alps, has retreated dramatically over the past 150 years, according to research.

The innovative method of protecting the ice has also been designed to allow visitors to witness the incredible ancient ice from an entirely unique perspective.

Researchers have carved a tunnel inside the glacier, large enough to walk through, allowing people to almost step back in time into a world which has not been exposed for many thousands of years.

Samples of ice had previously pre-dated the glacier to at least the 17th century. But new technological advances, coupled with access to recently-exposed rock, have now allowed them to date the ancient structure to at least 11,500 years old.

As recent ice melts have exposed rocks and soil for the first time in thousands of years, they have revealed interesting clues from remnants of organic material and artifacts of human settlements.

Using isotope measurements from rock newly exposed by the melting glacier, the scientists found that for most of the Holocene Epoch period, dating from the end of the last Ice Age about, 11,500 years ago, the Rhone was in fact smaller than it is today.

Using this dating technique, the researchers believe they may be able to apply their model to other glaciers worldwide and use the data to piece together a global picture of the Halocene period.