https://www.theguardian.pe.ca/opinion/columnists/russell-wangersky-the-big-melt-339192/
RUSSELL WANGERSKY: The big melt
The Guardian
Published: August 5, 2019
Sometimes, you just need to see things with your own eyes to believe them
Out of sight is quickly out of mind.
It’s sad, but true.
Greenland’s far away from everywhere, and though many people probably
took note of the massive melt of Arctic ice — an estimated 22 billion
tons in a 24-hour period on Thursday alone, 10 billion tons on Wednesday
— it’s the sort of news story that seems like a blip on the global
radar, even though the melt is so huge that its potential effects aren’t
fully understood yet.
Because it’s ice in a place most people haven’t been to, and may not
ever get to, the ice is melting in volumes so large that the numbers are
almost inconceivable. I mean, 22 billion tons of ice melt is comparable
to 8.8 million Olympic swimming pools — what does that even mean?
I think it’s much easier to view the change we’re facing by making it
smaller and more local — one person, one clear-cut experience.
I think of Andrew Nikiforuk and Alberta’s Peyto glacier.
Andrew’s one of Canada’s best environmental reporters, anchored in
Alberta, a thoughtful, charming man with a booming, infectious laugh.
Literally hours after I met him in July of 2004 in Banff, we were on a
dry Bow River trail and he was first rubbing mountain sage between his
fingertips, then poking a pile of bear crap with a stick before stating
sternly, “Pretty fresh stuff,” and looking warily around the flat river
meadow in all directions to ensure we didn’t have company.
We were both in a program working on long-form magazine pieces; mine
later became a book about volunteer firefighting. But part of his
research involved on-the-ground research into receding Rocky Mountain
glaciers. Nikiforuk’s the kind of guy who actually has favourite
glaciers, and one of his was the Peyto glacier, which he would talk
about regularly.
“I’m going to go up and see it — you should come, too,” he said.
Remember, this is 15 years ago, when climate change was far from
everyday discussion.
He had a big old Toyota four by four, it was about 100 kilometres away.
Big bright open Alberta sky, a sunny, hot day.
At the last moment, though, I decided not to go, and I don’t know now
whether I’m glad or sad that I didn’t — because he came back shaken to
the core.
At first, he couldn’t find it. Couldn’t find a favourite glacier he had
been to many times.
He had travelled to where the glacier had been a few years before, only
to find gravel and no sign that the glacier even existed.
He wrote this about it later: “Only after crossing a log bridge,
scrambling up a moraine, climbing for another kilometre and entering a
broad alpine bowl did I finally spy it: a gnarly and unhealthy block of
ice not much more than a kilometre long and gushing like an open fire
hydrant.”
I know he wanted to take his kids there, so that they could see it
before it was gone. They were teenagers then. I know he was firmly
convinced the glacier could be gone by the time they were in their 30s.
Remember: Andrew’s an environmental writer. Climate change was already
firmly on his radar in 2004 — and even though it was, he could be
staggered by the effects when they were right in front of him.
The Peyto glacier is a crucial source of water for the Mistaya and North
Saskatchewan rivers. Yet, even as close as downstream, it may well be
that people who depend on the river’s water don’t know that 70 per cent
of the glacier has vanished in just 50 years.
One person, one experience. People recognize the full effect only when
the experience arrives on their doorstep, far too late to do anything
about it.
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