B.C.'s `iconic' Kokanee Glacier in rapid decline, says scientist
Ice field `is in a death spiral', on track to disappear within 50 years
B.C.'s “iconic” Kokanee glacier is showing signs of rapid decline, says a B.C. scientist who contributed to the latest World Meteorological Organization report on climate change.
The State of the Global Climate 2021 report, released May 18, found that four key climate change indicators — greenhouse gas concentrations, sea-level rise, ocean heat and acidification — set new records in 2021.
Ben Pelto, a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of B.C. who contributed to the section of the report on exceptional glacier mass loss in Western Canada, has been studying the Kokanee glacier, located north of Nelson, for about nine years.
He said the glacier, which is a popular destination for backcountry enthusiasts, has been losing mass every year since 2017. But last year was the biggest loss in mass scientists have recorded yet, with the glacier losing five to six per cent of its total volume, said Pelto.
“It was the worst year I've seen at the Kokanee glacier,” he said. “It was like the equivalent of taking a two-and-ahalf-metre slice off the entire glacier.”
Since 2017 the glacier has lost just over 11 per cent of the total volume, Pelto said
“So in those five years, about half of the mass loss happened in one single year,” he said, adding that B.C.'s record-setting heat dome in June significantly contributed to the loss in 2021 — not just at the Kokanee Glacier but at many of B.C.'s glaciers as well.
June is the month when the snowpack just begins to melt in B.C. so if it melts rapidly earlier in the year and the snowpack is gone sooner, that exposes the darker glacier ice which can speed up the process, said Pelto.
“So if we had that heat wave in August I think it would have been less impactful because you are already getting closer to the end of the melt season ... stripping that snowpack off earlier in the summer is harmful for the glaciers,” he said. The Kokanee “is in a death spiral,” he said, with an estimated 50 years left before it disappears.
“That's a best-case scenario,” he said. “It's really the loss of an iconic glacier and the namesake of the Kokanee Glacier Park.
“It has so much significance to the people of B.C.”
The WMO report found the ocean has warmed to a new high in 2021, and is expected to become even warmer, while it's also now its most acidic in at least 26,000 years as it absorbs and reacts with more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Sea level has risen 4.5 centimetres in the last decade, with the annual increase from 2013 to 2021 more than double what it was from 1993 to 2002.
It also listed individual extreme heat waves, wildfires, floods and other climate-linked disasters around the world, noting reports of more than $100 billion in damages.
The report follows the latest UN report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that warned that humanity must drastically cut its greenhouse gas emissions and stop burning fossil fuels to prevent more and intense climate-driven disasters, like the deadly heat wave last June or B.C.'s catastrophic floods and landslides in November.
“Our climate is changing before our eyes. The heat trapped by human-induced greenhouse gases will warm the planet for many generations to come,” said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas in a statement. “It is just a matter of time before we see another warmest year on record.”
Following the WMO report, the UN secretary-general called for a global coalition to speed adoption of battery technology, urging countries to ease intellectual property constraints to hasten the transition from fossil fuels and combat climate change.
Antonio Guterres said the global energy system is broken and is bringing “us ever closer to climate catastrophe.”
It was like the equivalent of taking a two-and-a-half-metre slice off the entire glacier.”
Ben Pelto, researcher