Big Cars, Shrinking Glaciers

Glacier National Park with no glaciers? That’s not only possible, it’s likely within the next 30 years, experts say. Alpine glaciers everywhere are retreating at an alarming rate. The evidence is overwhelming that the cause is global warming fueled by so-called greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide.

The United States needs to get serious about reducing these gases. While the Bush administration is not likely to act, something can be done. California can, and should, set an example of greenhouse gas reduction that is more than just symbolic.

There is abundant evidence about the retreat of glaciers and the Antarctic ice cap, but it often appears in relatively obscure scientific journals. The current issue of Climbing Magazine has some dramatic anecdotal evidence that should catch the eye of more people.

Author Mark Brown reports that a climber had to walk on ice for a quarter-mile just a few years ago to reach the base of the east face of Longs Peak in Colorado. Now climbers cover the same ground without touching ice at all. The snowfields on Mexico’s volcanoes are rapidly retreating. Glaciers in Europe’s Alps have lost half their volume since 1850.

One expert estimates that the ice field that once covered 18,000-foot Quelccaya in the Andes to a depth of 500 feet will be gone within 15 years. In half a century, every glacier in the high-altitude tropics--from South America to Africa to New Guinea--will have disappeared, says Lonnie Thompson, a climber and climatologist at Ohio State’s Byrd Polar Research Center. There may be no more snows of Kilimanjaro by 2010, he says.

The state of California already has expressed concern about a reduced snowpack in the Sierra Nevada in recent years and about forecasts of more of the same. State water supplies may be at risk.

One step the Legislature and Gov. Gray Davis should take next year is to pass AB 1058, by Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), intended to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide from autos sold in California.

The legislation is anything but onerous. It specifies that auto makers will have “maximum flexibility in how they choose to meet any greenhouse gas requirements.”

The measure adds that reductions are to be achieved without additional costs to manufacturers. Proposed standards would be set by the state Air Resources Board by 2005; they would be in effect for a future model year to be determined by the board. A welcome likely byproduct would be better gasoline mileage.

The automobile makers are taking their typical position that such “command and control” regulatory tactics don’t work, although in the past they have worked time and again. They resulted in cleaner cars and better air without crimping industry profits. If the auto makers don’t want to think about faraway glaciers, then they should consider the new research released this year about the harm that smog does to children. Cleaner, more efficient cars are once again in style.