Athabasca Glacier Vanishing Act is a photograph by Joan Carroll which was uploaded on August 16th, 2016.
Athabasca Glacier Vanishing Act
Visiting a glacier should be an awe-inspiring event, all those millennia of snow compacted into one giant mass of ice grinding over the landscape and... more
by Joan Carroll
Title
Athabasca Glacier Vanishing Act
Artist
Joan Carroll
Medium
Photograph - Photography And Digital Art
Description
Visiting a glacier should be an awe-inspiring event, all those millennia of snow compacted into one giant mass of ice grinding over the landscape and carving out the magnificent valleys. However, the Athabasca Glacier, along the Icefields Parkway in Jasper National Park, Alberta Canada is a tragic vanishing act and a sad reminder of the impact we humans are having upon the planet. More sad than happy story: I first visited the Athabasca Glacier in about 1980 and when I first glimpsed the glacier in 2016, I immediately saw how far it had receded. Amazingly a long ago memory surfaced and I could remember immediately where the glacier had been. I didn't need the signposts along the way that indicated where the glacier had been over the past several decades. The 1980 picture in my head was vivid and I was not surprised to find the signpost indicating the glacier's position in 1982 almost exactly where my memory suggested it would be. I'm not sure the signposts really register with visitors. After all, you can' actually see the glacier at that past point in time, you can only see it as it is. And the visitors just tramp right past them up to the glacier. Even worse, the field at the base of the glacier is littered with fake cairns. People stack rocks on top of one another for unknown reasons, though probably as some kind of personal or "spiritual" statement. It's more of a pathetic reminder of man's footprint on the earth. I was profoundly depressed. Still, the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks of Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho along with three provincial parks comprise a UNESCO World Heritage site. The seven parks of the Canadian Rockies form a striking mountain landscape. With rugged mountain peaks, icefields and glaciers, alpine meadows, lakes, waterfalls, extensive karst cave systems and deeply incised canyons, the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks possess exceptional natural beauty, attracting millions of visitors annually.
FEATURED PHOTO, Topaz Simplify-glow-impression Photo Renderings group, 8/16/16
joan carroll, glaciers, Columbia icefield, icefields, ice, snow, canadian, frozen, ecology, columbia, retreat
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August 16th, 2016
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Viewed 3,099 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 03/28/2024 at 3:01 AM
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