CLIMATE CHANGE in the High Wallowas—former Benson Glacier [click photo for next . . . ]
—now the Benson Icefield—northside of Glacier Peak, seen from the
summit of Eagle Cap, VIII.18.2009. Eagle Cap Wilderness . . .
On the road in the American Northwest.
KNOW YOUR MOUNTAIN CLIMATE FACTS
With Climate Change, ice world-wide is disappearing at an
ever-accelerating rate. If Lewis & Clark would have entered the
Wallowas just 200 years ago, they would have seen small glaciers
and ice fields in all the high cirques and hanging valleys. Since
the end the Little Ice Age (c. 1850), these ice fields have all but
vanished. Over the same period:
(1) the average temperature has increased by,
in round numbers, 1 c.;
(2) snowpack has decreased by 50%, begins to build
about three weeks later, and melts three weeks earlier;
(3) and most importantly, atmospheric CO2 has risen by
30% from 250 to over 390 ppmv.
Because CO2—a greenhouse gas—holds warmth, this is like
the Earth putting on an ever-thicker down jacket. And because
CO2 remains in the atmosphere more than 100 years, even if all
emissions were to stop today, we’re already committed to
unprecedented human-caused climate change on a scale
never before witnessed. This is not some hypothetical future,
but happening right here, right now.
In the Northwest, the tendency to watch is that of drier winters
and hotter summers.
By 2020, the Benson Icefield, pictured above, like the once
giant Ponderosas and Doug-firs of eastside forests, telling relics
of a different climate, will most likely have vanished into the thin
air of unrecorded history.
Watch the Photoweek Northwest
slideshow I did in August of 2009
called, (Lost) Glacier Peak.
[requires QuickTime]
| download slideshow (36.3.Mb) |
| view / download as PDF (56.9 Mb) |
(90 larger, medium resolution, black &
white images |
| to download: Windows: r click;
Mac: opt + click |
sEXTERNAL LINKS of interest; copy and send as tweets!
5 STAGES OF #CLIMATE GRIEF: Steve Running's talk (mp3) http://tinyurl.com/climate-grief #wallowas Best info on climate change in Northwest
LISTENING: The brilliant late Dr. Hermann Scheer, "Follow the Sun" in an historic interview with Amy Goodman http://tinyurl.com/scheer-mp3
GET THIS PODCAST: Dr. Lonnie Thompson MELTING OF HIGH MOUNTAIN GLACIERS http://tinyurl.com/3xeom57 Maria Gilardin's http://tucradio.org
READING/WATCHING: #ClimateChange Everest http://bit.ly/oo9Sos Compare (Deutsch) #eco Gefahr Gletzchersee: Grindelwald http://bit.ly/pU2GbU
LOOKING: #photog @garybraasch World View of Global Warming--THE #PHOTO DOC OF #CLIMATECHANGE (see esp. Mt Hood '82/02) http://bit.ly/pdU8cr
READING: H. Scheer: Der energethische Imperativ: 100% jetzt: Wie der vollständige Wechsel zu erneuerbaren Energien zu realisieren ist #ows
WATCHING: Dr. Dan Fagre "How Glacier National Park Responds to Climate Change" http://bit.ly/rVnbkJ One of the world's great glaciologists.
WATCHING: James Balog's EXTREME ICE http://to.pbs.org/srFTno Revealing more effects of #ClimatChange on cryosphere than any living #photog
READING: via @courtneyflatt Excellent summary of Cascade Glaciers: Mt Adams' ice 1/2 gone, Hood 1/3, Rainier 1/4 http://bit.ly/zV89xj Why?
Please visit my picture-poems.com MOUNTAIN WATER
print gallery. Above is a set recent images.
(Mouseover controls.)
I might just mention here, following the ethical principle,
First, do no harm, I never use cars or snowmachines. I
do everything on foot, bike or ski. I think this in a
deep and direct way affects my work, and how I see
the world. So all the photos above were approached
on foot, including all the in between spaces, sometimes
involving journeys of weeks or months.
I would not want to work any other way.
All Photographs & texts by Cliff Crego © 1999-2011 picture-poems.com
(created: VII.25.2009)
