Among the great compendium of things related to changing climate, such as droughts, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and heatwaves – and what that means for people – mountains aren’t usually at the top of the list.
And even today, on National Mountain Climbing Day, nature’s biggest structures are probably not at the forefront of your mind.
After all, they’re mountains. What could climate change possibly do to a mountain range formed 80 million to 55 million years ago – just like the Rocky Mountains did?
As it turns out, mountains play a crucial environmental role that is felt far beyond their slopes. They are home to glaciers and snowpacks, and those are disappearing fast.
Mountains provide water
Increased global temperatures are melting glaciers at alarming rates and not allowing as much snowpack to form. If that continues, it will contribute to rising sea levels and disrupt drinking water supplies. And if you don’t think glaciers and snowpacks are essential, look at the Himalayas, where 2 billion people rely on them for drinking water.
In California, around 30% of the state’s freshwater needs come from snowpack. While California’s snowpack doubled last year, an anomaly in recent years, a slight increase in temperature could turn that snow into rain, which will come with a whole bunch of issues.
For every 1-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures, scientists anticipate an average increase of 15% in rainfall at higher elevations. That means less snow collecting over the winter and providing water through warmer months. The snowpack and glaciers are basically a piggy bank that saves fresh water for drier periods.
You might wonder, won’t we get the same amount of fresh water through the rain anyway? No, because, as we found out with the atmospheric rivers in late 2022 and early 2023, western states don’t have many storage solutions for that amount of water. When it comes in intense periods of rainfall, it flows out to sea before we can save it. The…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply