INTRO:
Glaciers in America's National Parks are disappearing rapidly - reducing as much as 85% in the last 50 years. Some of these glaciers have been there for 7000 years - but if current trends continue there will be no more by 2030.
In Montana - the melting is happening far faster than elsewhere, with temperatures doubling compared to the worldwide average. Frances Read reports.
IN: "In the peace and quiet…"
OUT: SOC
DUR: 2,12"
http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0526Glaciers-fr-gen.mp3
VO1: In the peace and quiet of Montana's Rocky Mountains is Glacier National Park. Millions of visitors come here every year to see its glaciers. But scientists say, soon, there may be no more to see - because these giant bodies of ice are shrinking. Dr Daniel Fagre is from the US geological survey. He's been studying glaciers here in Montana for almost 30 years.
"I think most of these glaciers will be gone in a few decades and certainly within our lifetime. The fact they've survived 7000 years suggests we've had a pretty major shift in the regional climate these glaciers experience so it's a fairly unprecedented event. Almost 40% of the ice has disappeared since 1966 which is a pretty rapid decline for glaciers which are almost synonymous with moving slow and changing slow and now you have something from a glacier standpoint is very abrupt and rapid."
VO2: These ice giants move under their own weight and gravity - that's what makes them glaciers. But when they shrink that movement stops and it's happening all over the world. Andrew Fountain is a professor at Portland State University in Oregon and studies glaciers across the western United States. He says the shrinking will impact on humans and countries' economies.
"The glaciers are emblematic of the amount of snowfall we get and if that snowpack decreases then the major water supply for massive agricultural interests and activities in California become that much more threatened. We will have to increase our dams for water supplies for cities in the west because again we get a lot of our water flow from melting snow. The thing with the snow s that too is a natural reservoir it piles up in the winter and then slowly melts in the spring and summer giving us the water when we need it."
VO3: As the glaciers melt, the landscape is changing in places like California too. But scientists say as the temperature heats up globally it's humans that will have to find the solutions to our changing climate. Frances Read, California.
Glaciers in America's National Parks are disappearing rapidly - reducing as much as 85% in the last 50 years. Some of these glaciers have been there for 7000 years - but if current trends continue there will be no more by 2030.
In Montana - the melting is happening far faster than elsewhere, with temperatures doubling compared to the worldwide average. Frances Read reports.
IN: "In the peace and quiet…"
OUT: SOC
DUR: 2,12"
http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0526Glaciers-fr-gen.mp3
VO1: In the peace and quiet of Montana's Rocky Mountains is Glacier National Park. Millions of visitors come here every year to see its glaciers. But scientists say, soon, there may be no more to see - because these giant bodies of ice are shrinking. Dr Daniel Fagre is from the US geological survey. He's been studying glaciers here in Montana for almost 30 years.
"I think most of these glaciers will be gone in a few decades and certainly within our lifetime. The fact they've survived 7000 years suggests we've had a pretty major shift in the regional climate these glaciers experience so it's a fairly unprecedented event. Almost 40% of the ice has disappeared since 1966 which is a pretty rapid decline for glaciers which are almost synonymous with moving slow and changing slow and now you have something from a glacier standpoint is very abrupt and rapid."
VO2: These ice giants move under their own weight and gravity - that's what makes them glaciers. But when they shrink that movement stops and it's happening all over the world. Andrew Fountain is a professor at Portland State University in Oregon and studies glaciers across the western United States. He says the shrinking will impact on humans and countries' economies.
"The glaciers are emblematic of the amount of snowfall we get and if that snowpack decreases then the major water supply for massive agricultural interests and activities in California become that much more threatened. We will have to increase our dams for water supplies for cities in the west because again we get a lot of our water flow from melting snow. The thing with the snow s that too is a natural reservoir it piles up in the winter and then slowly melts in the spring and summer giving us the water when we need it."
VO3: As the glaciers melt, the landscape is changing in places like California too. But scientists say as the temperature heats up globally it's humans that will have to find the solutions to our changing climate. Frances Read, California.