The great Canadian meltdown
Posted: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 11:41 AM
Filed Under:
On Assignment
By Jim Maceda, NBC News Correspondent
It is an icy spectacle to behold – the Columbia Icefield certainly lives up to its billing.
This 130-square-mile complex of mint-green headwalls and moraines, up to nine football fields thick, contains the largest glaciers in all of the Canadian Rockies.
 |
| Jim Maceda / NBC News |
| The Columbia Icefields on the boundary of Banff and Jasper National Parks in the Canadian Rockies. |
This was to be the perfect "get-away" from my more routine "mountain" experiences with U.S. forces in the remote, arid ridges separating Afghanistan and Pakistan. But another kind of war – the one on the environment – has taken a serious toll here as well.
A pilgrimage to see the glaciers
Unlike most glaciers, these were accessible by road. My family (of 14, with in-laws, nieces and nephews) piled into the specially adapted, high-torque "snow-bus" and drove from the well-appointed terminal – half way between the Canadian Rockies towns of Banff and Jasper – to the edge of the Athabasca glacier, the largest within the icefield.
 |
| Jim Maceda / NBC News |
| The “headwall” of the Athabasca glacier in the Columbia Icefields of the Canadian Rockies. |
The drive was pleasant – at 10 mph it took about 20 minutes – and offered wonderful photo-ops of the glacier, as well as the stark, treeless valley between the bus terminal and the glacier’s edge.
As we drove – and gazed – we learned why it was all so stark and treeless. "What we just drove over used to be part of the glacier," explained our 22-year-old driver and guide, Jamie Bosom, who grew up near the icefield. "But you can see for yourself what has happened. This glacier, one of the world’s largest, is melting FAST."
Very fast. Thirty years ago my brother-in-law says it took only several steps to WALK to the glacier’s edge. Now we had to take a bus ride.
 |
| Jim Maceda / NBC News |
| A view of the receding Athbasca glacier in the Columbia Icefields. |
And, despite Canada’s signing of the Kyoto protocols on climate control, and general acceptance of the threat of global warming by most Canadians, the Athabasca continues to recede some 50 feet a year (as do its sister glaciers in Glacier National Park in Montana, just over the border, which scientists say will disappear by 2070 at the current rate of retreat.)
Cold hard facts
Bosom drove home these cold facts, it turned out, to make a larger point. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is not just about the loss of a beautiful work of nature." He went on to explain that the glacier complex is part of a "triple continental divide," with its melted waters flowing into three oceans – the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic – providing a source of pure, natural water to hundreds of thousands along the way.
Also, some 13 hydroelectric dams built along the glacial rivers since the 1950’s account for a quarter of British Columbia’s electricity. In fact, the Canadian government even sells a surplus of that power to Los Angeles, Calif. So, as the glacier recedes, there will be less water and less power, not only for Canadians, but for Americans as well. A delightful detour on our excursion through the Canadian Rockies had suddenly taken a more sobering turn.
 |
| Jim Maceda / NBC News |
| The Athabasca glacier is receding at a rate of approximately 50 feet per year. |
Of course, it didn’t ruin our day; we romped, gingerly, on the still massive glacier, peered into deep milky crevasses and took too many family photos along the way.
Bosom himself put the meltdown into context, explaining that the glacier had been in a "receding" phase for centuries. And he let us draw our own conclusions about the connection between the 2 degrees Fahrenheit increase since 1907, the 40 percent increase in CO2 emissions, and this majestic wonder disappearing before our very eyes.
He wasn’t insistent, or on any pro-active Greenpeace mission. He wasn’t looking for donations or selling membership cards. This articulate young man, who grew up on the glaciers, was clearly losing a chunk of himself. And he wanted to share that with any "customers" who would listen. Who would think hard about what they had seen. And what his great-grandchildren may never get to witness.
It was a special – unexpected – bonus to an amazing spring break.
Jim Maceda is an NBC News correspondent based in London. He just returned from a vacation in the Canadian Rockies.
