See photos of a Swiss glacier melting in the heat of climate change

RHONE GLACIER, Switzerland (AP) — Drip, drip. Trickle, trickle.

That's the sound of water seeping from a sunbaked and slushy Swiss glacier that geoscientists are monitoring for signs of continued retreat by the majestic masses of ice under the heat of global warming.

In recent years, glaciologists like Matthias Huss of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, known as ETHZ, and others have turned to dramatic measures to help protect glaciers like the Rhone Glacier, which feeds into the river of the same name that runs through Switzerland and France.

One of those desperate steps involves using giant sheets to cover the ice like blankets to slow the melt.

Switzerland is continental Europe’s glacier capital, with some 1,400 that provide drinking water, irrigation for farmland in many parts of Europe including French wine country, and hydropower that generates most of the country’s electricity.

The number has been dwindling. The Alpine country has already lost up to 1,000 small glaciers, and the bigger ones are increasingly at risk.

Huss hosted The Associated Press for a visit to the sprawling glacier this month, as he carried out his first monitoring mission as summer temperatures accelerate the thaw. Under normal conditions, glaciers can regenerate in the winter, but climate change is threatening that.

“I always say glaciers are the ambassadors of climate change because they can spread this message in a very understandable way," Huss said. "They also cause good feelings because glaciers are beautiful. We know them from our holidays.”

The vast expanse of blue, gray and white ice is riddled with cracks and grooves, and Huss says his teams at the Swiss GLAMOS glacier monitoring group have spotted a new phenomenon in Switzerland: holes appearing beneath the surface that at times widen so much that the ice above collapses.

Huss uses an auger to bore into the ice, sending frosty chips upward as if from a gushing fountain. It's part of a process that involves using stakes and poles to track ice loss from melting.

Huss monitors melting not just at the top but also from the base of glaciers.

“Normally glaciers melt from the top because of the warm air, because of their radiation from the sun. But in recent years we realized at several sites that there is a substantive melt from the bottom,” Huss said. “If there are some channels in the ice through which air is circulating, this can excavate big holes under the ice.”

The Alps were covered with ice 20,000 years ago, but no more. It's the same story elsewhere. Experts have warned that some two-thirds of the world's glaciers are set to disappear by the end of this century

Huss says only humans can help save them.

“It’s difficult to save this very glacier because it could only be saved — or at least made to retreat slower — by bringing down CO2 emissions," he said. 'But everybody can contribute on their own to reduce CO2 emissions as far as possible."

“This will not help this glacier immediately, but it will help all glaciers in the long range,” he added. "This is the important thing that we should think of if we see this melting ice and this big retreat — that it’s time to act now.”

The concerns about Switzerland’s glaciers intensified recently after the southwestern village of Blatten, tucked near the Birch Glacier, was largely destroyed by a slide of rock and glacier ice in May. The village had been evacuated ahead of the slide, which covered dozens of homes and buildings and left just a few rooftops visible.

A review of data showed that the Birch Glacier was a rarity in that it has been advancing while most glaciers have been receding. And its advance had been increasing in recent years, to the point that it was flowing at about 10 meters (about 30 feet) per day shortly before the collapse — a rate Huss called “completely unsustainable.”

Huss said the landslide was triggered by rocks piling onto the glacier, though he also called Birch's advance a “precursor."

The main takeaway from the Birch Glacier collapse, Huss says, is that “unexpected things happen.”

“If you ask me, like three weeks ago, nobody would have guessed that the whole village is going to be destroyed,” he said. "I think this is the main lesson to be learned, that we need to be prepared.”

AP journalist Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

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The aftermath of the Birch Glacier collapse is visible in Blatten, Switzerland, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

The aftermath of the Birch Glacier collapse is visible in Blatten, Switzerland, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

The aftermath of the Birch Glacier collapse is visible in Blatten, Switzerland, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

The sun shines over the melting Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Water flows from the melting Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Workers prepare sheets to cover the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Water drips from a melting chunk of ice that originated from the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Matthias Huss, of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and glacier monitoring group GLAMOS, and Monica Ursina Jaeger prepare a camera at the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Matthias Huss, of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and glacier monitoring group GLAMOS, drills holes into the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Matthias Huss, of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and glacier monitoring group GLAMOS, right, drills holes into the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Matthias Huss, of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and glacier monitoring group GLAMOS, drills holes into the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Matthias Huss, of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and glacier monitoring group GLAMOS, arrives at the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Matthias Huss, of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and glacier monitoring group GLAMOS, and Monica Ursina Jaeger arrive at the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Matthias Huss, of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and glacier monitoring group GLAMOS, arrives at the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Matthias Huss, of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and glacier monitoring group GLAMOS, and Monica Ursina Jaeger take measurements at the Rhone Glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Matthias Huss, of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and glacier monitoring group GLAMOS, stands at the Rhone Glacier that is partially covered with sheets near Goms, Switzerland, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.

Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.

The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.

In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.

Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.

The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.

Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.

"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.

There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)