Date of publication: 10 Apr 2022 • 14 hours ago • 3 minutes reading • 66 comments REMAIN: Coquitlam Glacier in 2006. Note that the rock is less exposed in this image. RIGHT: The same glacier in 2021 as it recedes and shrinks in depth due to climate change. Note how much of the rock exposed rock to the left-middle of the glacier. The image of 2021 shows the flattening of the glacier (result of destruction / melting in its place) in a state more “like a pancake”. Photo by Dave Dunkley
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The last remaining Vancouver Metro glacier is shrinking rapidly due to man-made climate change and could disappear within three decades, says a geoscientist.
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Dave Dunkley, a geologist at Metro Vancouver who has been studying the glacier for more than 15 years, said it would probably disappear by 2050, which would mean no more cool glacier water would be fed to the area’s reservoirs. “It’s always shocking to be back, especially when I look at the 2006 photo,” he said. “As you approached the glacier, when you walked towards it, it was quite steep, quite high. It was a fairly intact giant ice cube. “But now the changes are quite dramatic; there are a lot more cracks and more water running in the summer. There is a piece that is carved, it just broke immediately “. Dunkley said Coquitlam Glacier is on the verge of death. He added that the ongoing study of the glacier retreat is vital so that the region can plan for greater resilience to climate change, including finding another source of water.
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“The glacier is dying before our eyes there,” he said. “It’s really sad. “To me, it’s like losing an endangered species.” Coquitlam Glacier, pictured in 2006. The rock is less exposed in the left-middle of the glacier. Photo by Dave Dunkley The Coquitlam Glacier, pictured in 2021. Photo by Dave Dunkley By comparison, in 2008 Dunkley estimated that the glacier would have disappeared within 100 years. Without the glacier, the snow will melt sooner and, with more intense heat, water consumption will increase in the area. Dunkley said they need to plan now for more water savings. “We have switched to outdoor watering twice a week to once a week in the summer, but in the future I would not be surprised if there was no outdoor watering in the summer.” Dunkley said he actually noticed changes to the Coquitlam Glacier after the drought in 2015. That summer was one of the worst droughts in the county on record. An early heat wave and hot and dry conditions led to strict water containment measures in much of the southern part of BC.
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“This level of drought, this was something we imagined in 2050, not 2015,” he said. Metro Vancouver’s last remaining glacier, Coquitlam Glacier, is shrinking due to man-made climate change. Photo by Metro Vancouver / PNG Heat waves, such as the deadly heat dome of BC last June, will accelerate the melting of already fragile glaciers, experts say. Dozens of temperature records were broken during the heat dome, including a Canadian record of 49.6 C in Lytton. Climate scientists, who have linked the heat dome to the anthropogenic climate crisis, say global warming will lead to more intense and frequent disasters, such as heat waves, droughts, floods and fires. Brian Menounos, the Canadian president of glacier change research at the University of Northern British Columbia, said temperatures were six degrees above average during the heat wave, even at altitudes of 3,000 meters.
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Menounos said on Thursday that last year was a record year in terms of mass loss for some of the glaciers of BC, especially those in the southern part of the province, such as Garibaldi Park and Comox Glacier on Vancouver Island. The Garibaldi Lava Glacier, for example, had a dramatic loss of three meters in most areas and up to six meters in some places after the heat dome, he said. The Comox glacier will disappear in the middle of the century, Menounos calculated. Source: Etienne Berthier (Legos) and the Pleiades Glacier Observatory. And the Hakai Institute for LIDAR equipment. The pictures show how much the altitude changed after the heat dome on one of the glaciers in Garibaldi Park. Apart from the heat dome, in BC. also had a devastating period of fires. He said the ash and smoke darkened the surface of some glaciers, so they absorbed more energy from the sun. “It was a very bad year for the glaciers,” he said, adding that the smaller BC glaciers would continue to melt until they disappeared.
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“It’s sad. Even if society stopped emitting greenhouse gases, we would find that glaciers would continue to lose mass simply because they were out of balance with the climate,” he said. However, he added that there is hope for some of the largest glaciers of BC. to the north, if people can put a brake on greenhouse gas emissions and limit heating to 1.5 C. “We need to recognize that these glaciers are really important freshwater resources and we need to find collective and innovative ways to continue monitoring in the future,” Menounos said. – with archive from The Canadian Press [email protected] twitter.com/tiffycrawford13 More news, fewer ads, faster load time: Get unlimited, ad-lite access to Vancouver Sun, Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites for just $ 14 / month or $ 140 / year. Register now through Vancouver Sun or The Province.
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