Greenpeace activist Erika Augustinsson comparing a photo of Blomstrandbreen (1928) with the present situation.
We all do it. We return to a spot from our childhood or youth,
stand itthat same spot and marvel at how the world has changed.
Sometimes thechanges are subtle, even unnoticeable, other times, we
are appalled andalarmed by how the world has changed around us,
seemingly overnight.
But what if you could visit one of the most remote areas of
theplanet a hundred years later and see how it has changed? How
activitiesthat take place far from sight have a lasting impact on
ourenvironment. Would the changes be so subtle?
Not in the far reaches of the Arctic circle, the changes
areobvious. Almost a hundred years later, standing where
researchers fromthe Norwegian Polar Institute took photos
documenting glaciers on theisland Svalbard, we can see that there
have been remarkable changes,and not for the better.
Theisland is more than 600
kilometres from the northern coast of Norway.The name Svalbard
means "the land with the cold coasts" and about twothirds of the
landmass is covered in glaciers. It is a sad irony thattemperature
increases due to climate change means that the glaciers ofSvalbard
are retreating.
It doesn't take specialised scientific instruments or even a
longmeasuring tape to know that the landscape has changed
dramatically onSvalbard over the last hundred years.
The glaciers in the Kongsfjorden area, where we documented
thelandscape during our voyage, began an almost continuous retreat
around1900. Blomstrandbreen has retreated around two kilometres in
the last80 years. Since 1960, the average retreat of the glacier
has been about35 metres per year, and even higher in the last
decade.
Theresults of our research
came as no great surprise. Glaciers in thisspectacular Arctic
region are showing an overall retreat because ofhigher
temperatures. And it fits the pattern of mountain glaciersaround
the world. Glaciers are on the wane and we risk losing
themaltogether if we don't massively reduce greenhouse
emissions.
Glacier retreats are one of the most visible and reliable signs
thatwarming and climate change is real - not just figures in a
scientificreport. In this way, they are also important indicators
of globalclimate change.
The blame can be put squarely on human activity. Our addiction
tofossil fuels releases millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into
theatmosphere, and this is what is causing temperatures to rise,
and ourfuture to melt before our eyes.
Glaciers are more than just magnificent landscapes of ice and
snow.Around the world glaciers provide water for millions of
people, animalsand plants. Increased temperatures brought about by
greenhousepolluting fuels like coal, oil and gas, are destroying
glaciers. Unlesswe break our addiction to fossil fuels, we risk the
wholesaledestruction of glaciers, which would have a huge impact on
billions oflives.
Climate change is a global problem - not only do we risk losing
theworld's glaciers, but we face many other impacts such as
increasedfloods, droughts and storms, loss of coral reefs, sea
level rise andrapid spread of vector borne diseases.
World leaders are slow to take up the warning so we have come to
theends of the Earth, literally, to remind governments of what is
at stakeif they do not take action at this month's Earth Summit
inJohannesburg. Climate change is hurting the whole world, not just
theArctic, and clean renewable energy is a crucial. They must get
it rightnow, or there will be many places we won't be able to stand
and ponderthe past.
Read about the crew
experiences onboard the Rainbow Warrior in the Arctic
Circle.
More on Glaciers:
Introduction
to the issue pdf file (9k)
Background on global
glacial retreat pdf file (16k)
Send in your
Glacier pictures
Links:
Alpine Glacial
Retreat (in german)
Backgrounders on the individual Glaciers:
Franz
Josef - New Zealand, pdf (7k)
Grinnell
- US, pdf (6k)
Orubare
- Uganda, pdf (7k)
Qori
Kalis - Peru, pdf (7k)
Pasterze
- Austria, pdf (8k)
Imja
- Nepal, pdf (10k)
Historic images used by kind
permission of the Norwegian Polar
Institute.