Mountains Matter

Editor’s Note - Mountains are sentinels for change and play an important role in the telling of the story of climate change’s effects on our world.

One year ago, the ACC published the 2018 State of the Mountains Report, which continued the work we began in our 2011 report, of describing the impacts of a warming world on the mountains.

The ACC has committed to publishing the State of the Mountains Report annually, with the 2019 edition set to drop next week. As we look forward to the next edition, we’re reflecting back on the 2018 report with a look at the opening essay by editors Lael Parrott, Zac Robinson and David Hik about how mountains matter to us all.

This article first appeared in the ACC's 2018 State of the Mountains Report. We'll continue to publish articles exploring the science on our current state of Canada's alpine on our blog throughout the year - starting the next one with our new 2019 report. Find them all here.

Helen Lake and Dolomite Pass, Canadian Rockies. Photo: Laurie Shannon.

Commitment to being stewards of the environment

In 2011, The Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) published the first State of the Mountains Report, which highlighted the startling impacts of climate change on the alpine environment of Alberta and British Columbia. As Canada’s national mountaineering organization, the ACC has a responsibility to act as a steward of our mountains, and the 2011 report was motivated by a commitment to summarize and better communicate an understanding of the environmental forces affecting these high places.

The 2018 report continues this tradition and is the beginning of an annual State of the Mountains Report, produced by the ACC in collaboration with mountain researchers, community members, and partner organizations. We are particularly grateful to the experts who have provided their insights and perspectives this year, and to the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and Canadian Geographic magazine for their contributions. The “On the Map” pages in the May-June 2018 issue of Canadian Geographic complement the material in this report, and we hope that these will together provide a valuable resource for learning about Canada’s mountains.

Why mountains matter

Globally, mountains matter more than ever. They comprise a quarter of the world’s land surface and are home for a quarter of the world’s human population. They hold extraordinary cultural significance for societies around the globe, and are venerated in religion, art, and literature. Mountains can be sites of extraordinary possibility and wealth, but are also regions of debilitating poverty: places on societies’ margins, where communications are poor, and infrastructure, jobs, services, education, and health care are lacking. Mountains provide the world with critical ecosystem services, from minerals to forests to unique species of plants and animals. They serve as the headwaters for so many of the world’s major rivers, and are the lifelines that connect much of our remote, high-alpine regions to urban populations. Mountains also respond rapidly and intensely to climatic and environmental variation, and are increasingly coming to be recognized by both social and natural scientists as ‘sentinels for change.’ Mountains truly impact everyone, everywhere.

What’s in the State of the Mountains

Across Canada, from coast to coast to coast, mountain landscapes look out over a quarter of our country’s landmass – 1.5 million square-kilometres; that’s seven times the total area of the European Alps! Our mountains, however, like those around the world, are experiencing a variety of rapid and worrying changes. This 2018 report begins with a feature essay, by Dan Shugar and John Clague, describing the dramatic changes that occur when retreating glaciers abruptly alter the flow of mountain rivers and entire watersheds. In many ways, these observations can be considered a form of time travel into the future, providing a glimpse of some of the consequences associated with the rapid loss of mountain glaciers to come.

This essay is followed by 11 shorter “knowledge highlights,” providing expert summaries related to ways that people live in changing mountains, and some of the striking transformations occurring in the physical environment and for plants and animals. A consistent theme throughout is a call for better information about the magnitude, rates, and projected impact of changes that are taking place.

What in it for the future?

In spite of the serious consequences of some of the changes documented in this report, all of the contributors remain optimistic that Canadians care about our mountains. For example, the current state of mountain literature, film, and digital media in English Canada has never been more vibrant, nurtured by the annual Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival. New research is developing operational tools to help organizations like Avalanche Canada reliably assess avalanche hazard conditions and inform decision-making to improve recreational safety. Scientists at the Canadian Ice Core Archive at the University of Alberta are working with the climbing community in efforts to collect samples from remote alpine environs to better understand the potential release of contaminants stored in glacier ice into the headwaters of major rivers. And numerous opportunities have been developed for volunteers and community-based organizations to participate in efforts to restore endangered high-elevation whitebark pine forests.

Neil Bosch, ACC president; Lael Parrott, ACC VP Access & Environment; Aaron Kylie, Editor In Chief, Canadian Geographic; and Zac Robinson, ACC VP Mountain Culture. Ottawa, 2017. Photo: David Hik.

Never before in human history have mountains, globally, been in such demand or regarded with such favour as they are today. This widespread reverence, in addition to environmental change, has created unprecedented pressures on mountain environments and communities whose livelihoods and well-being are dependent on mountains. Despite these pressures, there’s solace to be taken in the fact that so many care deeply about mountains. In Canada, and around the world, there is a growing recognition of the universal cultural and environmental value of mountains, which has led to the increased conservation and preservation of these special places. And so, love mountains — but not merely because they’re a valued destination to visit; what is a “playground” to one is a home for another. Cherish these diverse and dynamic landscapes for all that they do, for us, for the planet, and for the future.

In times of change, mountains need stewards more than ever.

Lael Parrott, Zac Robinson, and David Hik May, 2018

Lael Parrott is the ACC Vice-President for Access & Environment, Professor of Sustainability, and Director of the Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, and Ecosystem Services at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan.

Zac Robinson is the ACC Vice-President for Mountain Culture, and Associate Professor of History in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta.

David Hik is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta