British Columbia’s glaciers are melting faster than most glaciers elsewhere on the planet, raising concerns in the U.S. It should also increase the level of concern — and action — here in B.C.
A report released by the U.S. government last week says the melting of glaciers in Alaska and B.C. has accelerated and is a major contributor to a rise in sea levels around the world.
The shrinking of glaciers is not new, but the rate at which they are melting has accelerated, said University of Northern B.C. geography professor Brian Menounos, one of the scientists who took part in the cross-border research into glacial loss.
B.C. researchers are monitoring the Lloyd George Icefield west of Fort Nelson, the Castle Creek Glacier near McBride, the Klinaklini and Tiedemann glaciers in the Coast Mountains, and glaciers in the Columbia River Basin.
Data from that monitoring indicate that because of rising temperatures, these glaciers are shedding 22 cubic kilometres of ice each year, or about 22 billion cubic metres of water. The total amount of ice in the glaciers has the potential to raise sea level 30 to 40 centimetres.
Recent research suggests that by 2100, ocean levels will have risen between 76 and 200 centimetres. Even a moderate rise in sea level spells trouble for people who live along coasts — about 100 million of whom live within a metre of mean sea level.
As serious as that problem is, it’s only one of the consequences of disappearing glaciers.
Menounos predicts that the smaller glaciers in B.C. — in the Rocky Mountains and the Interior — will be mostly gone by the end of the century. Glacial water is a thermal regulator in mountain headwater streams, he said, and their loss will affect water temperatures, fisheries and the annual snowpack, which will in turn affect water supplies and agriculture. Loss of glaciers poses greater potential for flooding in wet seasons and drought in dry, creating problems for hydroelectricity, B.C.’s main source of energy.
Higher temperatures might soon mean we will look across the Juan de Fuca Strait in the summer and see no snow on the tops of the Olympic Mountains. We shouldn’t wait for that to happen before we do something.
When global warming was first projected in the late 19th century, it was thought human activity would be a small factor compared to natural forces. Scientists now point to human activity as the major cause.
“The rate of sea-level rise since the mid-19th century has been larger than the mean rate during the previous two millennia,” says a recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“The atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased to levels unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years. Carbon dioxide concentrations have increased by 40 per cent since pre-industrial times, primarily from fossil-fuel emissions.
“Human influence on the climate system is clear.”
Even if carbon dioxide emissions were eliminated today, glaciers would continue to shrink and extreme weather events would continue to increase. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything — we should be taking all possible steps to mitigate and prepare for the changes.
When global-warming predictions started gaining traction in the 1970s, only a few worried about their carbon footprints. Now, millions are concerned, governments and corporations have climate-change policies and measures are being implemented. There’s still a long way to go, but momentum is building.
What can one person do? Drive less, put less methane-producing garbage into landfills, be more frugal with household energy. In reality, that’s a drop in the bucket, but if it’s an attitude that can help persuade governments and corporations to ramp up their efforts, significant change can happen.
