(Vancouver) On a mountain overlooking Metro Vancouver, tucked away at the base of a north-facing gorge, the region’s last glacier is melting at full speed.
Posted at 10:06 am
Amy Smart The Canadian Press
The Coquitlam Glacier has survived 4,000 or 5,000 years in hiding on the east side of the Coquitlam watershed.
However, researchers warn it is one of thousands of glaciers melting faster than expected across Canada due to climate change, which could impact ecosystems, climate regulation, water supplies and tourism.
“It’s continuing, but right now it’s going away very quickly, that’s for sure,” said hydrologist Peter Marshall of Metro Vancouver water utility.
Mr. Marshall and his team are monitoring the glacier with lights and lasers, and the results are disturbing.
Between 2015 and 2018, the glacier lost about 50 centimeters per year. But since then the pace has increased to 2.25 meters per year. If the glacier’s disappearance is expected, that five-fold increase is astounding, especially since it coincides with years of heavy snowfall, Marshall said.
“With above-average snow cover, we thought it might slow down (melting) a bit, but I think the long, hot, dry summers we’ve had over the last five or seven years have really accelerated the change,” he explains .
In 20 or 30 years, “we’re going to officially say there are no more glaciers in our region,” Marshall said, before warning that it could happen even sooner.
Coquitlam Glacier is one of many glaciers in western Canada being monitored by researchers as rising temperatures and soot from wildfires contribute to melting.
Mark Ednie, a glaciologist at Natural Resources Canada, explains that Canada’s glaciers play a special role in regulating global climate, as the country has more square kilometers of glaciers than any other region in the world except Antarctica and Greenland.
And those of British Columbia, Yukon, and Alberta are notable for the speed of their melting.
“The melting of glaciers in western Canada and northern United States is some of the fastest in the world, so that’s very, very telling,” Ednie said.
Western Canadian glaciers are an important source of water, feeding waterways such as the Bow and North Saskatchewan Rivers. As glaciers melt, water levels and water quality will decrease, which could potentially have a major impact on people in those areas, he added.
Mr. Ednie compares glaciers to reservoirs or water banks. Right now we’re removing water that was stored in the 19th century, he said. “But eventually, very soon,” he said, the melting of glaciers will peak, and then the flow to streams and rivers will decrease.
“We need to be prepared for that,” Mr Ednie warned, noting that the impact will be felt in everything from hydropower to agriculture. Understanding what is happening and preparing for the future is my key message. »
Mr. Ednie is one of three members of the National Glaciology Project run by the federal government. At least twice a year, he and his colleagues travel by helicopter and on skis to visit and measure the same ten glaciers.
Like Coquitlam Glacier, it has had alarming results. In Alberta, in Banff National Park, Peyto Glacier retreated nearly 200 horizontal meters in 2021 after losing just 500 meters in the previous decade, he revealed.
“We’re really nearing the end point of this glacier’s disintegration,” Ednie said.
Brian Menounos, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Glacier Evolution, says he fell in love with glaciers in his youth while hiking in the Austrian Alps.
“It was spectacularly beautiful. Especially the ice. I always tell my students it’s the most valuable mineral on earth,” said Menounos, who teaches at the University of Northern British Columbia.
The role of glaciers in supplying water to rivers and streams after snowmelt is crucial. Their disappearance would have dramatic consequences for salmon and other species, indigenous cultures, the economy and tourism, he added.
And while glaciers in western Canada don’t contribute much to sea-level rise, neither do the ice caps and ice fields in the eastern Canadian Arctic, which has global implications.
“This should be another unequivocal wake-up call to act now and decarbonize quickly,” Menounos said.
But the threats continue to mount, he stressed. Last year saw the so-called “heat dome,” followed by wildfires that deposited black soot on the white surface of glaciers, causing them to absorb more heat. .
Snowfall was plentiful this year, but the summer and hot season extended into October.
“It is a special meteorological event. But if you string all of these annual anomalies together, you get a much faster melt than we typically see, he said. If I had to sum it all up, I would say that glaciers never rest. »
And despite what we know about the vulnerability of glaciers, there are still many we don’t know.
For example, only recently has it been accepted that wildfires and their role in reflecting light contribute significantly to melting, he said.
Mr Menounos added that there is an urgent need to invest in research to get the data that will help us understand the impact and develop better answers.
“We need to improve our ability to effectively monitor glaciers in British Columbia, Alberta and elsewhere,” he said.