Mount Rainier Is, Reaching a Tipping Point , as Glaciers Rapidly Decline.
According to estimates from a National Park Service report, increasing temperatures have already melted three glaciers on Mount Rainier, NBC News reports.
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The report, published earlier this month, presents further evidence of the world's declining mountain ice.
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Compared to 1896, the total mass of ice on Mount Rainier is less than half of what it used to be.
According to the report, the pace of ice loss on the tallest volcano in the lower 48 states is increasing.
We’re getting to a tipping point on some of the south-facing glaciers.
We’re reaching points where there’s really not a lot of ice to be lost, Scott Beason, Geologist at Mount Rainier National Park, via NBC.
The area change is accelerating in the last six years.
, Scott Beason, Geologist at Mount Rainier National Park, via NBC.
That’s kind of a big, scary thing, Scott Beason, Geologist at Mount Rainier National Park, via NBC.
NBC reports that Mount Rainier's glaciers provide drinking water, feed mountain springs and turn hydropower turbines to generate energy.
It’s going to turn into a darker-looking mountain.
Everything is going to look different in the next century because of this.
It will be interesting to see how we adapt.
, Scott Beason, Geologist at Mount Rainier National Park, via NBC.
According to scientists who contributed to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, glaciers around the globe are in prolonged decline.
Scientists warn that the trends have been driven by the human use of fossil fuels and an accumulation of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere
