Glaciers Falling on Tourists: Yet Another Danger of Climate Change

The Atlantic ^ | September 11, 2018 | by ELIZABETH EARL

[Oldeconomybuyer]

In the summer of 1987, a woman visiting Alaska was crushed by a 1,000-pound chunk of ice. According to news reports at the time, Thais Grabenauer, 59, had been taking pictures with her husband at the foot of Exit Glacier, a towering wall of ice that’s one of the most popular attractions in Kenai Fjords National Park. A half-ton piece of the glacier calved off as the couple was snapping, killing Grabenauer and injuring her husband.

It was one of those wrong place, wrong time tragedies that seem unlikely to happen again. But in the three decades since Grabenauer’s death, it has happened again - in Alaska and around the rest of the world. In 2009, for instance, two brothers crossed a safety barrier on New Zealand’s Fox Glacier and were buried under a collapsing ice shelf.

Deaths like these remain rare, but they’re also telling cases of a broader trend. In recent years, people have been increasingly flocking to the world’s glaciers. This boom in “glacier tourism” seems to be dually spurred, at least in part, by climate change: For one, people seem eager to glimpse the majestic monuments of ice before they melt away. And as ice sheets disappear, many glaciers are becoming more accessible - and unstable. T

Still, it’s likely that people visiting glaciers may not anticipate consequences quite as immediate as dislodged half-ton chunks of ice. The growing risks to travelers on melting glaciers are cruel reminders of all the smaller-scale and sometimes unpredictable damages climate change can inflict—even in the places where its broadest impacts are most visible.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[DannyTN]

I hate when a glacier falls on me.

[pepsionice]

You know....eighty years ago, you probably wouldn’t have found more than 5,000 Americans who’d ever stepped on or near a glacier.

Today, I bet there are 5,000 Americans a week who go looking for glaciers.

[Still Thinking]

Still, it’s likely that people visiting glaciers may not anticipate consequences quite as immediate as dislodged half-ton chunks of ice. The growing risks to travelers on melting glaciers are cruel reminders of all the smaller-scale and sometimes unpredictable damages climate change can inflict—even in the places where its broadest impacts are most visible.

Right, because a glacier isn't a flowing river of ice and pieces NEVER broke off till desperate libs invented this scam.

[econjack]

The organization has added more warning signs and tries to remind people that glaciers can be dangerous, she says: “There are trails that go up to the toe of the glacier … but you know, people can’t resist scrambling up the sides..."

In other words, people get hurt when they ignore danger signs. Glaciers have been calving since the first one formed millions of years ago. The only difference today is we have people stupid enough to stand under them.

[dainbramaged]

We lived in Juneau for 25 years, two miles from the Mendenhall Glacier. If you've taken a cruise up the Inside Passage, and a tour bus to that particular glacier, you passed by our house and probably didn't honk or wave.
Most folks with any common sense know that standing beneath the face of ANY glacier, summer or winter, is a really bad idea.

[CIB-173RDABN]

A good portion of what is today North America was once covered by five miles of glaciers.

Those that support the idea of man caused climate change please explain what happen to these glaciers?

[Flick Lives]

In 2009, for instance, two brothers crossed a safety barrier on New Zealand’s Fox Glacier and were buried ...

—

It’s not an increase in global warming causing these deaths, it’s an increase in stupid.

[PetroniusMaximus]

“a woman visiting Alaska was crushed by a 1,000-pound chunk of ice”

You know that had to be a bloody mess.

[READINABLUESTATE]

Gravity sucks.

[tomkat]

Hiya Joe > you still suck, ya nazi bastard

[Tzimisce]

Because glaciers have ever been known to melt before?

[SkyDancer]

OMG!! Climate change causing climate change!!!

[Deaf Smith]

They got Iced.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I am still baffled why you post all this propaganda shit. I mean, we know already. You dont have to post 10 pro global warming articles a day anymore. I doubt you are a troll, but you would not be any less effective as one if it was your intention to spew this propaganda on FR daily.

I have no clue why you keep doing the bidding of the zcimate Alarmists by posting this shit here CONSTANTLY.

Why? What are you trying to prove? Do you think we dont get it by now after your first 1,000 pro global warming articles.

How about just posting the anti-alarmist articles insteat of helping them make their argument here day after day after day after day after day.

Gife it a rest already. We dont need another 1000 pro global warming alarm articles to get the point.

WE GET IT ALREADY.

Sheesh!

[red-dawg]

Abolish Ice!!

[Vaquero]

It taking that plastic straw at McDonalds will fix those glaciers you betcha!

[MyKidsDad73]

Trump’s fault!

[TangoLimaSierra]

...you passed by our house and probably didn't honk or wave.

I did and got nothing from you. Stuck up.

[Moonman62]

We are in an interglacial period, and incredibly, this one is cooler than the last, in spite of Al Gore emitting CO2 with his SUVs, private jets, and gluttony.