In a melting world, Alaska glaciers are a big asset

While the debate about climate change being the result of natural earth processes or human activity continues unabated, Alaska's glaciers are dramatically and irrefutably demonstrating the consequences of that change.

Senator Mark Begich's plans for bringing an entourage of his Senatorial colleagues to Alaska for a Climate Change Tour has the potential to contribute constructively to this global debate. One way to ensure that the Senator's tour does make a constructive contribution is to emphasize the potential role Alaskan glaciers can play in helping us better understand the dynamics behind the changes being experiences by all the world's glaciers.

It is surely not new news for our visitors from Washington DC that Alaska has glaciers. What most likely is news, however, is the global uniqueness of our glacier regime, and the opportunity that uniqueness offers for the study of shrinking glaciers worldwide.

Alaska is well positioned to take center stage in the international scientific community's study of how our planet's glaciers are changing. Alaska's mid-latitude glaciers have four distinctive characteristics that make them particularly good subjects for study: Alaskan glaciers are dynamic, they are diverse, they are accessible, and they are projected to survive into what is predicted to be a warmer future.

Alaskan glaciers are dynamic: Unlike the large relatively static ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland, Alaskan glaciers are, in glacial terms, extremely dynamic. Alaska is not a place where scientists can extract ice cores dating back 400,000 years. The time typically required for an ice crystal to make the journey from one of Alaska's glaciated mountain ranges, through a glacial system, to its terminus is not measured in millennia. This dynamism makes Alaskan glaciers particularly sensitive indicators of climate change.

Alaskan glaciers are diverse: Alaska is also noteworthy for our many different types of glaciers. Included in our roughly 100,000 glaciers are high altitude and low altitude glaciers, tidewater and inland glaciers, small cirque and massive piedmont glaciers. We even have a couple hundred of the very exotic surging glaciers, and some contrary glaciers that are bucking the general trend by increasing their mass and advancing their termini.

Alaskan glaciers are accessible: Alaskan glaciers are relatively easy to access. Anchorage and Juneau are both globally distinct for having more glaciated terrain located within their respective municipal boundaries than any comparable cities in the world. Some Alaskan glaciers are located within easy access from our limited road system, and as a result of our robust air transportation infrastructure, even Alaska's more remote glaciers are uncommonly accessible.

Alaskan glaciers are survivors: Of particular significance is the fact that our glaciers will continue be around for a while. It is anticipated that by mid-century Alaska and the mountain ranges shared by Southeast Alaska and Western Canada will become the sole remaining sanctuary for North America's surviving mid-latitude glaciers. Indeed, current computer modeling indicates that even Glacier National Park will have no glaciers after 2030. With an alpine terrain that includes the world's highest maritime mountains capturing snow generated by the Gulf of Alaska's perpetual low pressure system, Alaska's glacial prominence is assured well into the future.

Clearly, Alaska has the potential for becoming a nexus for the scientific study of the changes being experienced by the world's glaciers, and Senator Begich's Climate Change Tour to Alaska is an opportunity to highlight that potential.

Tom Yeager is President of the newly-formed nonprofit Alaska Glacier Institute, Inc.