Mt. Hood Glaciers Shrinking Rapidly - ENN

[hatrack]

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The seven largest of Mount Hood's 11 glaciers have already shrunk an average of 34 percent since the beginning of the last century, according to calculations by Keith Jackson, a Portland State University graduate student who is part of a glacier research team financed by the National Science Foundation and NASA.

It happens even faster now, as rising temperatures accelerate change in the region. Scientists in the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group predict the Northwest will warm nearly as much in the next 20 years as it has in the last 100 -- about a degree Fahrenheit. "In 20 years, it's going to look a lot different, without a doubt," said Andrew Fountain, an associate professor at Portland State heading the research project, which examines and catalogs western glaciers. "The glaciers are continuing to retreat. They're getting a lot smaller. The glaciers today look a lot different than 20 years ago."

Mount Hood's glaciers are especially vulnerable to global warming because they hang onto a lonely volcanic peak at lower elevations and are closer to balmy ocean weather than ice in many other mountain regions. Living in an atmosphere that is already warmer, they are that much nearer the point of no return.

Glaciers in the Northwest and nearby Canada are melting faster than any other mountain glaciers in the world, said Mark Dyurgerov, a glacier scientist at the University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.

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http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=10144

[Ready4Change]

1. That's a problem.

Lots of agriculture in that area depends on mountain melt-off. If accumulation rates aren't matching melt rates, then those farmers are living on credit, water-wise.

Having driven through Eastern Oregon, it's weird to me there is so muh Ag there. It's arid grassland to desert. Totally reliant on irrigation.

[Caoimhe]

2. The Cascades act as a "rain wall" and I live in the "rain shadow"

east of them. We in Central and Eastern Oregon are completely reliant on mountain snow runoff to irrigate the fields and pastures. Each year it gets a little worse with less snowpack, but this year seems to be better than the last 10.

This from Central Oregon Irrigation page:
"The weather continues to be very favorable for the upcoming irrigation season. The Cascade snowpack is currently 140% of normal and Wickiup and Crane Prairie continue to fill accordingly. Weather for the remaining two months before the irrigation season begins will, as always, be crucial for the reservoirs. The above average precipitation and increased river flows since late December has allowed the SPP hydro facility to generate some power."

Of course, yearly snowpack has no impact on the health of the glaciers, which are centuries old ice flows. They are shrinking and disappearing, and until our Government takes that first step to recognizing the problem, watchiing these crucial ice flows disappear will be like a runaway freight train that no one has the power to stop..