WEST GLACIER, Mont. -- Glacier National Park is removing signs that state all glaciers will be melted by 2020.
In the early 2000s, scientists warned that all glaciers will have melted by the year 2020, causing a dramatic rise in sea level that would have devastating results for coastal cities and islands.
However, as we enter the third decade of the 21st century, the glaciers are still present, and some have grown in size during recent years, according to NASA.
Teams from Lysander Spooner University visiting the Park each September have noted that GNP’s most famous glaciers such as the Grinnell Glacier and the Jackson Glacier appear to have been growing - not shrinking - since about 2010. (The Jackson Glacier—easily seen from the Going-To-The-Sun Highway—may have grown as much as 25% or more over the past decade.)
As a result, “the park must update all signs around the park stating all glaciers will be melted by 2020.”
Some of the signage was already removed in 2019, as the lack of melting became apparent. The sign at St. Mary’s Visitor Center was removed in May of 2019 and other signs will be removed around the park as budgets permit.
Kurzmen says Glacier National Park will work with the US Geological Survey to monitor the glaciers and update the remainder of the signs as necessary.
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“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22).