Fourteen months after tests of Benton Harbor’s water system first revealed elevated lead levels, state environmental staffers had begun to feel “caught between a rock and a hard place.”
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy had ordered Benton Harbor to fix water system problems, including several that predated the lead contamination crises. But the city, lacking enough money or staff to quickly comply, had sought extension after extension.
Each year the global temperature is 1 C above the 1951-80 average temperature, glaciers lose, on average, about 0.8 metres of water equivalent depth. (Jeff Walllis/flickr), CC BY-SA
The year 2021 will likely be one of the worst for glaciers in southern British Columbia, Alberta, Washington and Montana.
It started out OK. A weak La Niña arrived in the fall of 2020 and continued through the winter. La Niñas tend to favour cool conditions and ample snowfall, so the winter of 2020-21 wasn’t bad for glaciers. But what followed was.
In late June, the so-called heat dome settled over the west, creating exceptional warming that melted snow cover on the glaciers and exposed ice in a matter of days. The timing was especially bad, as it coincided with days when energy from sunlight is at its maximum.
The hot weather also helped spark wildfires in British Columbia, Oregon and California that spread through the mountains. When soot, dust and debris from wildfires settle on snow and ice, it darkens the surface, causing them to absorb more solar energy and melt more.
The warm conditions continued throughout the summer, and preliminary work suggests that these summer events led to exceptional rates of mass loss from glaciers. As a glaciologist who has been studying glaciers for over two decades, it is clear that that glaciers are unwell — thanks to us. To avoid widespread loss of glaciers in the Earth’s mountainous regions, policy-makers need the courage to commit to meaningful reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
A vital natural resource
Mountain glaciers are vital reservoirs of frozen water. There are more than 15,000 individual ice masses in western North America — an area that lies outside of Alaska and the Alaska-British Columbia and the Alaska-Yukon borders.
Helm Glacier in the Southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. (Hakai UNBC Airborne Coastal Observatory)
Glaciers are primarily nourished by snowfall during the winter and depleted by melting seasonal snow and ice during summer, releasing large volumes of cool water into headwater streams. Glacier runoff buffers aquatic ecosystems that can suffer from heat or water stress, especially during late summer or years of drought.
To measure the year-to-year health of a glacier, scientists convert winter accumulation and summer melt to a measurement called “water equivalent depth,” which can also be converted to “mass.” The sum of these two terms define the glacier’s health over the year, or its “net mass balance.”
Glaciers are like mother nature’s bank account. If more water is deposited into them than withdrawn, then the glacier had a year of positive mass balance. A negative mass balance means that the glacier lost more water.
Sensitive indicators of climate change
In 1965, two things happened that, at first glance, seem unrelated. The first was that Frank Sinatra recorded the song It Was a Very Good Year. The second was the start of the International Hydrologic Decade, a period that aimed to recognize hydrology and standardize the ways in which scientists study water resources.
One outcome of the Hydrological Decade was that Canada established a glacier monitoring program to assess and report how much water was gained and lost each year from its benchmark glaciers, including three in Western Canada: Peyto, Place and Helm.
Back then, Canada’s glaciers were probably valued more as a water resource than as sensitive indicators of climate change, but make no mistake, even in 1965, scientists were sounding the alarm about the dangers of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Since then, carbon dioxide levels have jumped 120 per cent, and surface air temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere are now about 1 C above the 1951-80 average.
Warming of surface air temperatures since 1965 mostly explains the trend of mass loss from our monitored glaciers. Looked at another way, each year the global temperature is about 1 C above the 1951-80 average, those monitored glaciers lose, on average, about 0.8 metres of water equivalent depth.
Global temperature anomaly (1951-80) versus globally averaged net mass balance records. Data: World Glacier Monitoring Service. (Brian Menounos)
In particular, glacier mass loss over the past two decades in western North America has accelerated, with losses in the past decade that were four times greater than the decade before. This acceleration coincides with warm, dry conditions over some of the region’s largest icefields, namely those in the Southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia.
Back to Frank’s song. This song always made me sad. But was it because the character in the song was in the autumn of his life, its melancholy composition or perhaps a combination of both? It also makes me think of the current state of glaciers in western North America. I’ve taken the liberty to tweak the lyrics somewhat: When I was 51, it was a very bad year …
This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world. Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. More.
Wildfires are likely accelerating mass loss for glaciers
Although heightened glacier mass loss coincides with continued warming, accelerated mass loss may be driven by other factors such as changes to how reflective the ice and snow surfaces are to incoming solar energy.
Dust and soot from wildfires or burning fossil fuels can darken the surface of glaciers, and absorb more solar energy, which leads to more melt. (Drew Brayshaw/flickr), CC BY-SA
Debris, dust and black carbon from wildfires or fossil fuel consumption can darken snow and ice surfaces allowing them to absorb more solar energy, thereby enhancing melt. Warm, dry summers often favour wildfire activity and lead to pronounced darkening of snow and ice surfaces, and more melt. Warm temperatures also allow snow grains to become less reflective, lowering the snow reflectivity and thereby enhancing melt.
How will glaciers fare in the decades ahead?
Glacier mass balance is the direct response of meteorological conditions during the year, but it takes time for glaciers to adjust their dimensions. Even if temperatures were to remain stable for the next several decades, glaciers would continue to lose mass and shrink simply because they have not had sufficient time to adjust to present-day climate.
A modelling study in 2011, for example, showed that Alberta glaciers would lose 31-40 per cent of their volume even if temperatures stopped increasing immediately. A more recent study reveals nearly complete deglaciation in mid- to southern areas of British Columbia and Alberta even under moderate future emission scenarios.
Neither of these earlier projection studies take into account the most recent collection of global climate model experiments from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report. The scientific community is currently using these scenarios to update projected glacier loss for many regions, including western North America, which will help clarify the rates and pattern of glacier loss in the decades ahead. But we should anticipate continued glacier shrinkage since glaciers remain strongly out of balance with present-day climate.
Sadly, losing these frozen reservoirs will impact us in ways we are only beginning to comprehend. A lack of real progress at COP26 will seal their future fate.
Lummus Technology announced that it has executed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Braskem Netherlands B.V., a subsidiary of Braskem, the largest biopolymer producer in the world. The MOU is for the licensing of Braskem’s green ethylene technology for two ethanol to ethylene conversion projects under development in North America and Asia, signaling a global interest in the technology.
As organizations around the world take action to address climate change, many are committing to ambitious climate goals, including net zero carbon emissions, carbon neutrality and science-based targets. However, knowing the proper steps to take to achieve climate goals can sometimes be a challenge, particularly as it relates to Scope 3 value chain emissions. Value chain emissions lie outside an organization’s direct operations, and can therefore be more difficult to address — but they often represent the majority of a company’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There are three key steps to addressing value chain emissions — measurement, materiality and engagement — that will help demystify the process of reducing Scope 3 emissions.
Namib desert beetles capture water droplets from fog. To fight water scarcity, an MIT-spinoff uses the same concept to capture and recycle vapor from cooling tower plumes, saving water and cutting costs in manufacturing facilities.
Modern society benefits when people understand science concepts. This knowledge helps explain how cryptocurrency works, why climate change is happening or how the coronavirus is transmitted from person to person.
Yet the average American spends less than 5% of their lifetime in classrooms learning about such topics. So, besides school, where else can people go to study and explore science?
Here are four alternative venues where the general public can enjoy nature, engage in hands-on science learning and get a behind-the-scenes look at scientific research in action.
1. National parks
Visitors to national parks dramatically increased over the past two years as the pandemic inspired people to go outside and enjoy nature more regularly. However, people often don’t realize that many parks offer lecture series, nature walks and interactive science learning opportunities for those interested in adding an extra layer of scientific and environmental knowledge to their outdoor experience.
For those who don’t wish to venture into the great outdoors, the National Parks Service has a variety of online resources, such as virtual park visits and webcams that present real-time views of weather, dramatic scenery, wildlife and more.
The W.K. Kellogg Biological Station in Michigan has a bird sanctuary that offers adult courses on botany, ornithology and nature drawing, as well as volunteer opportunities. There’s also a dairy center that hosts open-house events where visitors can learn about cutting-edge dairy management and research.
For learners who want to get involved in the scientific process, engage in a longer-term experience or participate as a family, Mohonk Preserve in upstate New York enlists volunteers to monitor bird activity and habitats, record the seasonal changes in plants and engage in other activities.
Biologists and volunteers in Brooklyn, New York, plant an oyster reef to clean a local waterway. Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images
4. Marine labs
Marine laboratories are similar to biological field stations but are typically located on coasts or other water bodies.
In Alaska, the Behind the Scenes program provides adults a look at the skills and science of running the Sitka Sound Science Center, like monitoring the genetic interaction of wild and hatchery salmon. Its feature event, the Sitka WhaleFest, includes wildlife cruises guided by scientists, science lectures and storytelling. For learners worldwide, the center hosts a podcast and offers recorded lessons on how to say the names of local animals in Tlingit, the language of the Sitka tribe.
As people continue to reap the mental and physical benefits of spending more time outdoors, I believe it’s important to mitigate any harm this extra activity may have on the environment. These four venues can help anyone learn more about the science behind natural spaces and also how to help preserve them.
Following the ‘first wave’ of the smart cities movement, local leaders describe how they have largely shifted from a tech-first to a resident-first approach.
Many of us are keen to eat more sustainably – but is a vegan croissant better or worse than locally sourced sausages? And can climate-conscious eating ever be enjoyable? One writer finds out.
Environmental News Bits 