Throughout Glacier National Park there are signs, posters and statements predicting that all of GNP’s glaciers will disappear by around 2030. The government films and flyers provided at GNP also make this claim.
A new government website–published by the U.S. Geological Survey–now suggests this (2030) prediction is too conservative:
A computer-based climate model predicts that some of the park’s largest glaciers will vanish by 2030 (Hall and Fagre, 2003). This is only one model prediction but, if true, then the park’s glaciers could disappear in the next several decades. However, glacier disappearance may occur even earlier, as many of the glaciers are retreating faster than their predicted rates.
Dr. Roger Roots has offered $5,000 if the glaciers at GNP are all gone by 2030. Thus far, no one has taken him up on the bet.
