Growing up in Montana less than an hour away from Glacier National Park, I was lucky to experience the beauty of nature there in many forms. I spent my childhood hiking, visiting lakes, seeing mountain goats and grizzly bears, and even seeing a couple of the giant snow-and-ice forces themselves, glaciers. The shrinking glaciers in this Montana park have long been seen as a bellwether of, and darkly ironic warning against, the human-induced warming of our climate: Imagine a world where the very things that a national site was set aside to preserve, the very origins of its name, no longer exist there.
In recent years, it has come to light that this world will be here within our lifetimes—and that it is not difficult to imagine at all. The park’s 37 glaciers, already merely vestiges of their former powerful, mountain-carving selves, have appeared closer to large snowfields for years; what’s more, most are tucked away behind mountaintops and far from any accessible spot. There are trails that can take intrepid hikers up close, but most visitors to Glacier today will only see glaciers from a far distance; far fewer of those visitors will know that they are actually looking at glaciers. The common response to learning of the upcoming loss of our glaciers seems to be, “Well, they were almost gone anyway!”
This is not at all to say that melting glaciers do not constitute a serious issue or that they should not be talked about. This is to say that, like many topics of conservation, this is unfortunately not an immediately visible issue. It nevertheless receives the lion’s share of airtime when it comes to conservation in the park.
Meanwhile, the park faces a host of other environmental challenges that risk being overlooked. Montana’s fight against invasive Zebra Mussels comes to a head in Glacier; its landscape is set to change drastically, with higher treelines and less alpine meadow; the park is home to four animal species currently listed as endangered, which merits extra conservation efforts. All of these facts are dwarfed under the simple headline, “The Glaciers are Melting.”
But here’s the thing: the Glaciers melting will make all of this worse. If these separate but related conservation issues are allowed to hide behind a seemingly uncomplicated and all-encompassing headline, the domino effect leading to them may not be taken seriously. Conversely, I submit that if they are emphasized more, the glacial melt will be understood as the dire ongoing event that it is. So, amidst the call to preserve our park’s namesakes for their own sakes, consider the sakes of everything mentioned in the last hyperlink as well. It just might work.
In recent years, it has come to light that this world will be here within our lifetimes—and that it is not difficult to imagine at all. The park’s 37 glaciers, already merely vestiges of their former powerful, mountain-carving selves, have appeared closer to large snowfields for years; what’s more, most are tucked away behind mountaintops and far from any accessible spot. There are trails that can take intrepid hikers up close, but most visitors to Glacier today will only see glaciers from a far distance; far fewer of those visitors will know that they are actually looking at glaciers. The common response to learning of the upcoming loss of our glaciers seems to be, “Well, they were almost gone anyway!”
This is not at all to say that melting glaciers do not constitute a serious issue or that they should not be talked about. This is to say that, like many topics of conservation, this is unfortunately not an immediately visible issue. It nevertheless receives the lion’s share of airtime when it comes to conservation in the park.
Meanwhile, the park faces a host of other environmental challenges that risk being overlooked. Montana’s fight against invasive Zebra Mussels comes to a head in Glacier; its landscape is set to change drastically, with higher treelines and less alpine meadow; the park is home to four animal species currently listed as endangered, which merits extra conservation efforts. All of these facts are dwarfed under the simple headline, “The Glaciers are Melting.”
But here’s the thing: the Glaciers melting will make all of this worse. If these separate but related conservation issues are allowed to hide behind a seemingly uncomplicated and all-encompassing headline, the domino effect leading to them may not be taken seriously. Conversely, I submit that if they are emphasized more, the glacial melt will be understood as the dire ongoing event that it is. So, amidst the call to preserve our park’s namesakes for their own sakes, consider the sakes of everything mentioned in the last hyperlink as well. It just might work.
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