A decade or so ago we stayed in a Fairmont Hotel next to Lake Louise. Feeding down to the lake was the impressive Victoria Glacier. Within the hotel were some historical photos from the 1920s. Back then the glacier was wider and came much further down the its carved valley to the lake than what I could now see for ourselves.
Nothing had really hit me so personally about climate change until seeing that photo as my eyes alternated between the photo and what I could see. I knew about climate change, I believed in the science but here seemed to be living proof of a much reduced glacier.
It is early days in terrible raging river destruction in Nepal and Tibet, with a horrendous loss of life, include dual figures of Australians killed. It is also early days to call the cause of the flood being a result of climate change, but I'd put pretty good money on it being warming glacial ice breaking away and causing the flood.
Most of the world is making good noises and some even taking lots of action to stem climate change, but Fuckwit #47 has pulled back on clear climate science in his country. Just one more reason to despair about the future of the US.
Rising sea levels are already shrinking the shores of low lying South Pacific islands. It's gonna be us, Australia and New Zealand, who will have to pick up the pieces of no long inhabitable islands. We can call them Climate Change Refugees. We can't let them drown. Well, it won't be slowly rising seas that does them in. It will be events of nature, cyclones, sea storms, high tides etc, all making island living more dangerous.
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The raging river and land collapse destruction is endless :(
ReplyDeleteIt is frightening how rapidly it has hit us all, in every corner of the world. We ignored the warnings decades ago and now look at us.
ReplyDeleteDreadful happenings, Andrew.
ReplyDeleteI can comment once again after not being able to along with others. Let's hope it continues.
I agree a glacier break probably contributed to the Nepal disaster, but how good is it they are still pulling out people still alive?
ReplyDeleteThere's a glacier further down south from where I live, look up photos of Franz Josef Glacier and you'll see the difference from 20 years ago to today, it's shocking.
ReplyDeleteAmy, we flew on a plane and landed on Franz Josef Glacier in the mid 1980s. It was magical. How disappointing to learn it has shrunk so much.
DeleteI echo Hels' comment. ♥️
ReplyDeleteVery interesing...Hug Andreja!
ReplyDeleteWhere I lived in Seward Alaska and skied with a friend on a glacier just outside town, was shocked to see that glacier is gone in photos my brother sent me when they visited Last year.
ReplyDeleteIt is scary times, Andrew.
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