Join the Mazama Conservation Committee for the second insta llment of \;Melting Mountains: More Than A Decade Later\, an online se ries of presentations on the impact of climate change on alpine environmen ts.
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\n\nThis presentation will cover glacier trends in the mountain west all the way through Greenland and Antarctica. Continued climate warming is causing our glaciers to continually retreat. Warming n ot only increases ice melt in summer it also starves the glaciers in winte r by changing snow to rain. A temporary benefit of this loss is enhanced f low to alpine streams due to the release of water from its storage as ice. However\, this enhanced streamflow is clearly not sustainable as the glac iers shrink and disappear. Studies show\, as expected\, the lower elevatio n glaciers are being most affected by climate warming. \; One example are the low elevation glaciers of the Olympic National Park\, which may la rgely disappear by 2070. In addition to alpine glaciers\, Greenland and An tarctica are being affected as well. Greenland is particularly susceptible given its position between two ice-free continents. Currently the global loss of ice\, and its contribution to sea level\, is equally divided betwe en alpine glaciers\, Greenland and Antarctica. \; Unlike alpine glacie rs\, the two ice sheets are susceptible to processes that will greatly acc elerate ice loss and these processes are underway. The loss of glacier ice \; from all three sources is causing sea level to rise leading to a g rim long-term future.
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\n\nDr. Andrew G. Fountain is a professor emeritus at Portland State University in the departments of Geol ogy and Geography. His early start was collecting and preserving snowflake s in junior high school. He spent two years in Alaska enjoying ice in all its forms while working on his MS degree at the University of Alaska. Afte r joining the USGS in Tacoma\, WA he started working on glaciers and durin g that time completed a PhD at the University of Washington. After a reloc ation to Denver\, CO Andrew joined the faculty at Portland State Universit y\, where he studied glaciers in Alaska\, Sweden\, and Antarctica. His cur rent focus is on the glaciers of the American West\, how they are changing and their possible futures. In 2018 he was made an Honorary Member of the Mazamas in recognition of his lifelong scientific work in glaciology and global warming issues.
\n\n LOCATION:Zoom URL:https://mazamas.org/event/1864/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR