Fossil Fuels Drive Rapid Glacier Loss across Western Canada, Study Finds
Melting offers a ‘big signal’ about the climate, expert says.
Western Canadian glaciers, an ancient water bank that maintains stream flow for hydroelectric dams and salmon-bearing rivers, could shrink by 70 per cent by 2100.
The catastrophic loss of ice for Western Canada has major implications for the availability of drinkable water, the survival of fresh water fisheries, and the productivity of hydroelectric generation, finds a new study published in Nature Geosciencethis week.
Western Canadian glaciers, which occupy 26,700 square kilometres, have been retreating for several decades. The surface area covered by ice in the interior mountains declined 11 per cent between 1985 and 2005, and nearly 20 per cent in the eastern slopes of the Rockies.
“We are getting a big signal from the glaciers about what the climate is doing,” said lead author Garry Clarke, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia.
Using comprehensive modelling, which includes ice flow physics, the study found that rising temperatures caused by fossil fuel emissions will wipe out most glaciers in the interior of British Columbia and the Rocky Mountains of Alberta under most scenarios.
The Columbia Icefield, which waters both Banff and Jasper national parks, will disappear altogether by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are allowed to triple beyond current levels under what Clarke called “the bad guy” scenario.
“We won’t see ice in the Rocky Mountain Parks. That would be a sad cultural loss and aesthetic loss for Canada,” said Clarke.
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