The hottest July on record came to a close last week, and as climate change deniers continue to ignore the obvious, I thought of two very real examples of the impact of global warming.
On the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island, Franz Josef Glacier (pictured above) has retreated several kilometers since the 1840s, a distance made all the more real because of the hike along the valley floor to the face of the glacier. About 150 years ago, the glacier covered the spot where tourists park today.
One hundred years ago Franz Josef Glacier filled this valley.
Our experience in New Zealand confirmed what we has seen in South America. We first witnessed the impact of global warming when we visited Cotopaxi in Ecuador.
Our indigenas tour guide described the impact to the local ecosystem and showed us the spot on the mountain where the snow line once was. Today mountain bikers begin their decent of the mountain from a spot once covered year round by snow and ice.
The day we visited Cotopaxi our tour guide asked a simple question. At the time I wondered if she was asking about the climate — or human behavior.
“How does it change?,” she asked.
