The Swiss branch of the environmental group said it was looking for as many adult volunteers as possible to take part in the publicity campaign shot by world renowned photographer Spencer Tunick.

The campaign is aimed at drawing attention to melting Alpine glaciers, one clear sign of global warming and of man-made climate chang,e according to the organisation.

Greenpeace said the human body was as vulnerable as the glaciers and the world's environment. The campaign group hopes the sight of people exposed to the cold will help mobilise public opinion and politicians.

"We have to act without delay, otherwise it will be too late," Greenpeace Switzerland campaign director Markus Alleman said in a statement.

Tunick is renowned for his spectacular photoshoots involving hundreds if not thousands of naked people grouped in carefully chosen poses around landmarks. He calls them "living sculptures" or "body landscapes."

His backdrops have included the Gateshead Centre for Contemporary Art in Britain (2005), the Biennale in Lyon, France (2005), a bridge in Cleveland, Ohio (2004) and Grand Central Station in New York (2003).

About 18,000 nudes posed for the US-born photographer in Mexico City's Zocalo Square in May.

Tunick told a news conference that he would be happy to find 50 people for the Swiss project, and Alleman said the photographer's usual shots of large crowds might be ruled out due to safety concerns.

The photo session at an undisclosed location in the Swiss Alps has been scheduled for August 18 and 19, a time of year when it tends to be a bit warmer in the otherwise freezing high altitudes.

Volunteers applying on Greenpeace Switzerland's website were promised that they "won't be naked for very long."

All rights reserved. copyright 2018 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.