Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.

"What do you think would look better: pink or green?"

The bubblegum hue won. A scientist from the Swiss public university ETH Zurich nodded, pulling out a bottle of pink dye to release from the top of the Rhône Glacier in the Swiss Alps.

Turning the rivulet flowing down a melting glacier into a bright-pink stream was the least scientific test carried out this day. It was intended as a visual aid for journalists like me accompanying the team of scientists measuring the pace at which water flows off this glacier. The result: Faster than ever.

On the August day I joined the team, we were surrounded by a 360-degree aural landscape of running water. Some of th

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