Vanishing Glaciers
Glaciers come and glaciers go. It's been like that for ages before man. It's sad to see the glaciers go this time around.
Our children won’t know them the way we do; we don’t know them the way our parents did; and our grandchildren won’t know them at all, except in our photos and in the great moraines they left behind. These last days I’ve been wandering mountains clearly carved by glaciers, but no ice has lived here for a while. And yet it’s still beautiful.
The above paragraph is true, but incredibly shallow. The problem we now know is not just that the planet is warming a little and we’ll lose things we find precious. The problem is that the warming is being caused by CO2 and other gases we’re releasing at a rate that is crossing the earth’s threshold to absorb. Even if we stopped all CO2 release now, the planet still warms for a century or so. But we’re not about to stop now. As we pass a certain point, the warming becomes a vicious cycle both unknown and out of control.
A couple of days ago I was chased from the mountains by weather. From the Swiss crest where I wanted to be down to the Italian valley where the road was. The weather is local. The climate is global and respects no political boundaries. A few days ago I was scared for my life. Every day, though, I’m scared for our future. I vow when I get home to make this my life’s work.
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