yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Photo Evidence: Glacier National Park Is Melting Away | National Geographic


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

All the glaciers are shrinking. In the 1800s, they were estimated to be about 150 glaciers here; however, today we only have 25 glaciers. The glaciers are measured by a number of different ways. One of the most obvious ones is using repeat photography, where we go and occupy a site from which a photographer took a picture in, say, nineteen ten, and then we photograph that from exactly the same spot.

Once you go every several years, to five years or ten years, that's when you see the really big changes. When we first started this project, we thought every other year was going to be too much, but recently we've seen so much glacier change that now we are increasing our frequency of repeating photographs or visiting glaciers. You can see that it's all melted away; the lake has gotten bigger. All this ice is contributed to the water and has retreated back up towards the head of the mountain.

I also do things that are a little bit more modern, such as taking precision global positioning systems and going along the margins of the ice, so that we can look at changes in the area of the ice through time. Glacier National Park is an excellent natural laboratory to examine the effects of climate change. This area is actually warming at two to three times the rate of the global average rise in air temperatures.

So, these increased air temperatures are decreasing the snowpack and the glaciers in the high country and increasing disturbance events, like wildfires that we're experiencing. Some of the species that we're studying, these aquatic insects, might be the first species actually to go extinct due to the effects of global climate change. We've already seen a contraction in the distribution of some of these species in comparison to collections that were done back in the 1960s.

Even though glaciers may seem disconnected and far away to people, they actually affect a lot of things downstream. That's even evident in other things, such as the way that the snowpack affects the huckleberry crop, and this is, of course, a vital food source for grizzly bears. Animals that live in these upper elevations are adapted to the colder temperatures there, and because we're predicting warmer temperatures, they may be particularly vulnerable to these changes.

They also have very specific food needs, and the food changes for them could also influence their ability to thrive. In spite of the fact that it will be different in the future, it's still going to be a valuable asset to Americans, both as a research outdoor laboratory and maybe as a kind of iconic lesson as to what climate change can do to natural landscapes.

More Articles

View All
Gordon Bakes Using a Hot Spring | Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted
With enough salmon for the final cook, I’m off to meet a guy who’s been innovative with Iceland’s geothermal energy. I’m told he has a very unusual way of baking bread. “Hey! Hi, Captain. Very good!” “Good to see you, man.” “Good to see you! Oh boy, yo…
overstimulation is ruining your life
Imagine being on a sinking ship, and instead of trying to save yourself, you’re scrolling through a never-ending feed of memes and gossips. That exactly reflects what’s happening in our lives; we are drowning in a sea of overstimulation and digital distra…
Day In The Life of a Millennial Millionaire
What’s up guys, it’s Graham here! So this is a video that I’ve been meaning to make for over two years now because so many of you guys have asked me to film a day in the lifestyle vlog. Well, I guess now is the perfect time to film that video because with…
Worked example: Calculating mass percent | AP Chemistry | Khan Academy
So right over here, I have the molecular formula for glucose. And so let’s just say that I had a sample of pure glucose right over here. This is my little pile of glucose. I’m not even going to tell you its mass, but based on the molecular formula, can yo…
What I Spend In A Week As A Millionaire
What’s up, guys? It’s Graham here! So if you haven’t noticed, we have an exciting new trend going around here on YouTube, and this is so perfect for me, I swear. It’s called “What I Spend in a Week.” It’s where people go and document their normal everyday…
How to Implement AI in Your Classroom
Okay, big welcome to everyone who’s joining! I know it takes a little while to get every possible Zoo member line signed up, but I have to tell you all I am so thrilled to be here today with you with a rock star panel of teachers. We have so many great Ed…