Two days ago Matthew Brown of The Associated Press filed a story about the loss of two more glaciers from Glacier National Park in Billings Montana but it was not picked up by many papers. The Washington Post ran the news as a brief of about three paragraphs. The New York Times devoted more space but not much more prominence.
We are dangerously complacent about what climate change is doing.
Tsunami-level warnings should be going off each time a change of the magnitude of losing a glacier is registered.
Warmer temperatures have reduced the number of named glaciers from 37 to 25 in Glacier National Park.
Dan Fagre an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey warns that the remaining glaciers may be gone by the end of the decade. Can you pause for a moment and consider that all of the ice may have melted in less than 10 years. You probably hope to live that long. If not you your children or grandchildren perhaps. If you are over the age of 16 you know that 10 years go by in a flash.
Our legacy to future generations is destruction and annihilation. Glaciers have been part of the landscape for 7000 years and could be gone in 10 years. That boggles my mind.
Melting glaciers are a dramatic example of irrecoverable ecosystem changes. We cannot make more glaciers. We care more about who gets tossed from “Dancing with the Stars” than we do about the environment.
More than 90 percent of glaciers worldwide are in retreat with major losses already seen across much of Alaska the Alps the Andes and numerous other ranges according to the AP report. When are we going to comprehend the reality of the effects of climate change.