Glacier National Park centennial – a tough birthday
Posted on 13. May, 2010 by crowley in Blog, General, Renewable Energy News
Age has not been kind to Glacier National Park.The gorgeous million-acre park in northwestern Montana celebrated its 100th birthday today. But many of its glaciers have melted, and scientists predict the rest may not last another decade.
That’s how the story begins about the celebration of the first 100 years of Glacier National Park. The Associated Press story continues:
Many experts consider Glacier Park a harbinger of Earth’s future, a laboratory where changes in the environment will likely show up first.
“What national parks all give us is, in effect, a controlled landscape where we can see the natural and climatic processes at work,” said Steve Running, a University of Montana professor and co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in 2007 for his work on climate change.
Average temperatures have risen in the park 1.8 times faster than the global average, said Dan Fagre, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist.
The change is visible to the naked eye, with the vast moraines left behind as the giant glaciers melt away. Climate change is blamed for the increasing size and frequency of wildfires, and lower stream flows as summer progresses.
What this all means for the bears, wolves and other big predators in the park is unclear, Fagre said.
The article notes that there were 150 named glaciers in the Park 150 years ago, with just 25 glaciers today. It is possible they will all be gone as soon as 2020.
Yes, there is real urgency to our efforts to build the Greater Echanis wind projects. Oil spills, coal mine disasters and disappearing glaciers are signals to us all that we need to take urgent action to reverse our dependence on fossil fuels.
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