B.C. glaciers melting 7 times faster in past decade than previous years, UNBC study finds

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled Our Changing Planet to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.

Glaciers in British Columbia and Alberta have been melting an average of seven times faster over the past decade than in previous time periods, according to a new study from geologists at the University of Northern British Columbia.

PhD candidate Alexandre Bevington and professor Brian Menounos used new technology to conduct the study.

They fed more than 12,000 satellite images from Google Earth Engine to a computer that was able to automatically map the rate of retreat of glaciers between 1984 and 2010 — significant, because there are approximately 14,000 glaciers in the two provinces, Bevington said.

What they found confirmed other research: That a warming climate is causing glaciers to disappear faster than in the past.

Their paper, which will be published in the academic journal Remote Sensing of Environment, found the average rate of retreat between 2010 and 2020 was seven times faster than that recorded between 1984 and 2010. Smaller glaciers on Vancouver Island are shrinking even faster — 32 times faster between 2010 and 2020 than in the period from 1984 to 2010.

"There [are] a lot of reasons for people to be concerned about how quickly the retreat of these glaciers is accelerating," Bevington told Matt Allen on CBC's Daybreak North. "I think it's going to affect people pretty profoundly in different ways."

The scientists also looked at the rate of growth of new lakes being formed in front of glaciers as they melt.

Menounos says accelerated glacier retreat could increase the exposure of unstable slopes.

"An increase in lakes adjacent to unstable slopes elevates the likelihood for flood hazards downstream of these lakes if they were to suddenly fail," he said in statement.

Bevington says glaciers play other important roles as well, such as providing fresh water to generate hydroelectric power and moderating extreme temperatures.

Bevington says given the accelerated rate of melting, glaciers could possibly disappear in about 70 years, which should serve as a climate change wake-up call to politicians and British Columbians.

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