Tag: glaciers

Climate Change Visible Worldwide

From the drunken forests of Alaska, to the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park, to the bleaching of coral reefs in the Florida Keys, climate change is impacting our world.

The drunken forests are caused by softening of the permafrost which leads to tilting of the trees. Rising temperatures are threatening the glaciers and warming waters re causing a shift in the composition of oceans that has bleached out color in the reefs.

“There’s more carbon in the water,” explains Mike Gunter Jr. “Some corals are more resilient than others. You’ll see parts of a reef that look really good,” but in others, change is noticeable.

Gunter, a professor at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. has written a new book, “Tales of an Ecotourist: What Travel to Wild Places Can Teach Us About Climate Change.”

El Nino, a cyclical pattern of Pacific storms caused by warm water, has become stronger in recent years, researchers say. That has affected Ecuador’s famed Galapagos Islands known for bird, reptile and sea life.

The lowest place on earth, the Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan, is shrinking, Gunter reports. In the past 40 years, the salt-laden sea has diminished by a third and dropped 80 feet. Much of the change is due to increased use of water from the Jordan River for irrigation.

The flooding which has long plagued the canal city of Venice, Italy, has intensified in recent years. Some areas are regularly inundated at peak high tides. The city is developing plans to build flood walls and other barriers to keep the sea at bay.

The types of species found at Acadia National Park, Maine, is shifting. The area’s lobster population is predicted to migrate north in search of cooler waters, as will the whales that pass by offshore.

In Antarctica, gentoo penguins thrive because they build pebble nests on shorelines newly exposed by melting ice. On the other hand, adelle penguins are having trouble because they fish from floating sea ice, which is less plentiful.

The south-central Kansas town of Greensburg is an environmental survivor, Gunter says. It was nearly destroyed by a 2007 tornado but has been rebuilt as one of the most eco-conscious places in the world. It was the first U.S. city to fully adopt LED street lights, and it gets 100% of its power from renewable energy. It “has rebuilt itself stronger than before,” Gunter notes.

Climate Change Threatens Glaciers

Nearly half of the glaciers in World Heritage sites will disappear by the end of this century if greenhouse gas emissions continue unchecked, according to a study the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) focused on the 46 World Heritage sites where glaciers are found.

The authors predict “glacier extinction by 2100 under a high emission scenario in 21 of the 46 natural World Heritage sites where glaciers are currently found,” IUCN said in a statement.

Sites likely to see the most severe ice-loss are Los Glaciares National Park in Argentina and Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, which straddles the Alberta-Montana border.

Twelve North American conservation groups from the U.S. and Canada petitioned the World Heritage Committee to add Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park to the list of World Heritage Sites in danger due to impacts from climate change.

Climate change is causing rapid disappearance of the park’s glaciers and significant damage to the park’s vegetation and wildlife, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

Glacier National Park once was home to approximately 150 glaciers, but only 27 remained as of 2006, and those are rapidly melting, according to CBD. Global warming is responsible for the disappearance of the park’s iconic glaciers.

“The glaciers that Glacier National Park was named for will vanish entirely by 2030 if current climate change trends continue,” said Kassie Siegel of CBD.

The Alps, Europe’s famous mountain range, still loom over the continent, but warming temperatures are taking a toll. Glaciers in The Alps are receding and plant life is changing as lowland species gain a foothold.

A drunken forest may sound like something out of a “Harry Potter” book, but it is a change caused by rising temperatures. As permafrost, the layer of permanently frozen ground, disappears in Alaska, trees begin to tilt. “There are forests that are leaning like a hurricane blew them. They look like they’ve had too much to drink,” says Mike Gunter Jr., a professor at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.