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Thursday, April 8, 2010
Two more glaciers gone from Glacier National Park BILLINGS, Mont. — Glacier National Park has lost two more of its namesake moving ice fields to climate change, which is shrinking the rivers of ice until they grind to a halt, the U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday. Warmer temperatures have reduced the number of named glaciers in the northwestern Montana park to 25, said Dan Fagre, an ecologist with the agency. He warned the rest of the glaciers may be gone by the end of the decade. “When we’re measuring glacier margins, by the time we go home the glacier is already smaller than what we’ve measured,” Fagre said. The two latest to fall below the 25 acre threshold were Miche Wabun and Shepard. Each had shrunk by roughly 55 percent since the mid-1960s. The largest remaining glacier in the park is Harrison Glacier, at about 465 acres. On a local scale, fewer glaciers mean less water in streams for fish and a higher risk for forest fires. More broadly, Fagre said the fate of the glaciers offers a climate barometer, indicating dramatic changes to some ecosystems already under way. While the melt off shows the climate is changing, it does not show exactly what is causing temperatures to rise. In alpine regions around the world, glacier melting has accelerated in recent decades as
AP PHOTO
Jon Crandall of Coram, Mont., paddles his canoe across Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, Mont. Scientists said Wednesday, April 7, 2010 that Glacier National Park has lost two more of its namesake moving icefields to climate change, which is shrinking the rivers of ice until they grind to a halt temperatures increased. Most scientists tie that warming directly to higher atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Some glaciers, such as in the Himalayas, could hold out for centuries in a warmer world. But more than 90 percent of glaciers worldwide are in retreat, with major losses already seen across much of Alaska, the Alps, the Andes and numerous other ranges, according
to researchers in the United States and Europe. In some areas of the Alps, ski resorts set atop glaciers have taken drastic measures to stave off the decline, such as draping glaciers in plastic sheeting to keep them cooler. It could prove a losing battle: Scientists working for the United Nations say the last period of widespread glacial growth was more than three decades ago, lasting
only for a few years. Since about 1850, when the Little Ice Age ended, the trend has been steadily downward. The area of the Rocky Mountains now within Glacier National Park once boasted about 150 glaciers, of which 37 were eventually named. Fagre said a handful of the park’s largest glaciers could survive past 2020 or even 2030, but by that point the ecosystem would already be irreversibly altered.
Fagre said geological evidence points to the continual presence of glaciers in the area since at least 5000 B.C. “They’ve been on this landscape continually for 7,000 years, and we’re looking at them disappear in a couple of decades,” he said. A glacier needs to be 25 acres to qualify for the title. If it shrinks more, it does not always stop moving right away. A smaller mass of ice on a steep slope would continue to grind its way through the mountains, but eventually could disappear completely. Smaller glaciers and warmer temperatures could lower stream flows, which in turn prompt fishing restrictions and hobble whitewater rafting businesses, said Denny Gignoux, who runs an outfitting business in West Glacier. Tourism is a $1 billion-a-year industry in the area. “What happens when all these threats increase?” Gignoux asked. “We’re losing a draw to Glacier.” A report released Wednesday by two environmental groups highlighted the threat to tourism of fewer glaciers. The study by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and Natural Resources Defense Council included an analysis of weather records that showed Glacier was 2 degrees hotter on average from 2000 to 2009, compared with 1950 to 1979. —AP
STATE BRIEFS OKLA. CITY MAN ARRESTED FOR MURDER IN FETUS’ DEATH
ecology, for five year reviews of the project and other activities related to the cleanup.
OKLAHOMA CITY — An 18-year-old Oklahoma City man has been arrested for murder in the death of his pregnant girlfriend’s fetus. Police say Deontaye Frederick was arrested Tuesday and is being held in the Oklahoma County jail. Records did not indicate whether he had yet hired an attorney. Frederick is accused of punching 18-year-old Brittany Davis in the stomach on March 31 — leading to the stillborn birth of her fetus a day later. Davis told police Frederick was the father of the child.
CHEROKEES DEDICATE NATIONAL SUPREME COURT MUSEUM
EPA AWARDS $324,000 TO QUAPAW TRIBE OF OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMA CITY — The Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma will receive $324,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency for management assistance at the Tar Creek Superfund site. The site in Ottawa County in northeastern Oklahoma has been contaminated after years of lead and zinc mining in the area. The money is to be used to investigate and study the cleanup, assess the risk to human health and the
TAHLEQUAH — One of the state’s oldest buildings now will be used as a museum operated by the Cherokee Nation. Tribal officials including Cherokee Chief Chad Smith gathered Wednesday to dedicate the Cherokee National Supreme Court Museum. The building was built in 1844 and the tribe says it is Oklahoma’s oldest public building. Smith says the building was the site of the first sessions of the Cherokee National Supreme Court more than 165 years ago. The museum will feature exhibits focusing on the Cherokee judicial system, the Cherokee Advocate and Cherokee Phoenix newspapers and the Cherokee language. The tribe’s preservation projects in recent years have included the building, Ross Cemetery, the Cherokee National Capitol Building and Cherokee National Prison. All are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. —AP
OG&E opens wind power transmission lines OKLAHOMA CITY — Transmission lines carrying electricity, generated by wind, are now open from Woodward to Oklahoma City. Oklahoma Gas and Electric announced Tuesday it has turned on its new 121-mile Windspeed transmission line that connects wind farms in northwestern Oklahoma to OG&E’s power grid. Company officials called the line a vital pathway for wind power produced in northwest Oklahoma. It connects wind farms in that area to OG&E’s power grid. “This is an important milestone in the ongoing development of renewable energy in our state,” said Pete Delaney, OG&E Energy Corp. chairman, president and CEO. “The new line supports a more robust build-out of Oklahoma’s wind potential; producing revenue for
landowners, creating jobs, increasing tax revenues in northwestern Oklahoma, and delivering renewable energy to Oklahoma consumers.” Delaney said the $200 million project, which was approved by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in 2008, was completed on time and on budget. OG&E customers paid for construction of the new power line with a monthly charge averaging about $1.40 a month, company spokesman Brian Alford said. The transmission line runs from northwest Oklahoma City to Woodward. It connects OG&Es new extra-high-voltage substation near Woodward with the company’s existing transmission grid. The new Woodward substation also will serve as a renewable energy transmission hub as more wind farms are developed in
“The new line supports a more robust build-out of Oklahoma’s wind potential, producing revenue for landowners, creating jobs, increasing tax revenues in northwestern Oklahoma and delivering renewable energy to Oklahoma consumers.” PETE DELANEY, OG&E ENERGY CORP. CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO the area. The Southwest Power Pool, a regional organization that manages transmission in Oklahoma, Kansas, parts of Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, could add two more lines: one
connecting Woodward to the Panhandle and another north to Kansas. OG&E has about 777,000 customers in its 30,000-square-mile service area in Oklahoma and western Arkansas. —AP