Martine Rebetez (born 1961) is a Swiss climatologist. She is a professor at the

University of Neuchâtel The University of Neuchâtel (UniNE) is a French-speaking public research university in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The university has four faculties (schools) and more than a dozen institutes, including arts and human sciences, natural sciences, ...

and a senior scientist at

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL (short WSL, , , ) is a solution-orientated research organisation specialising in on forests, landscapes, biodiversity, natural hazards, snow and ice in a changing world. As ...

WSL.

Biography

Rebetez studied geography and climatology at the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; ) in Lausanne, Switzerland, was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second-oldest in Switzerland, and one of the oldest universities ...

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

and

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

from 1979 to 1985. She received her doctorate from 1987 to 1992 at the

and was subsequently a. a. employed at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

and the

. From 1996 to 2006, she was a research fellow at the

WSL before being appointed as a senior scientist at the same institute. In 2017, she was appointed as a professor at the University of Neuchâtel.

Works

Rebetez's scientific work deals with climate change, especially in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, as well as with the

consequences of climate change Effects of climate change are well documented and growing for Earth's natural environment and human societies. Changes to the climate system include an Instrumental temperature record, overall warming trend, Effects of climate change on the ...

for forests, alpine tourism and snow. She contributed to the understanding of the effects of

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

on winter tourism in the context of the

climate crisis ''Climate crisis'' is a term that is used to describe global warming and climate change and their effects. This term and the term ''climate emergency'' have been used to emphasize the threat of global warming to Earth's natural environment an ...

. In 2016, it was able to prove that the skiing and sledding season in the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

was shortened by more than a month for Switzerland compared to 1970; accordingly there are more extreme weather, longer periods of drought and greater precipitation events. In 2019, Rebetez commented benevolently on the concerns of the climate protection movement

Fridays for Future Fridays for Future (FFF), also known as the School Strike for Climate ( ), is an international movement of school students who skip Friday classes to participate in demonstrations to demand climate change mitigation, action from political le ...

: "According to Antoine de St-Exupéry, we do not inherit the land from our parents, but rather borrow it from our children. Today the new generation asks us to give an account of what we have done with the land that we borrowed from them." Rebetez also looks at people's perceptions of climate change. Her investigation of the changed perception of white

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

over time attracted media attention; using a comparison of Christmas postcards, she was able to show that the ideal idea of a snowy Christmas festival only spread around the world from around 1860 onwards.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rebetez, Martine 1961 births Living people Swiss climatologists Women climatologists Academic staff of the University of Neuchâtel