In the frigid Antarctic, a mammoth environmental shift occurred earlier this year when a 3,000-kilometre ice shelf, more than 200 metres thick, simply broke apart.
On the other side of the world in Greenland, the ice isn’t breaking apart it’s shrinking, in some places up to 30 feet in the past five years.
And in Tanzania, Africa, the famed ancient icecap of Mount Kilimanjaro is quickly vanishing. Its time on earth will most likely melt away in the next quarter of a century.
Closer to home the story is much the same. Only a century ago in Garibaldi Provincial Park there was 30 to 40 per cent more ice cover than there is today.
It’s hard to refute the fact that the world is getting warmer.
While killer snowpacks in recent years, pristine snow-capped peaks and fresh mountain air may belie the gravity of the global situation, Whistler is not immune to the threat of global warming.
And maybe because its livelihood depends upon it, the resort has been actively working towards the Kyoto Protocol – the international agreement aimed at reducing the harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which are contributing to global warming.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien has promised to ratify Kyoto, the only international agreement addressing global warming, by the end of the year.
"A warming climate here for Whistler is clearly not a good thing," said Arthur DeJong, mountain planning and environmental resource manager at Whistler-Blackcomb.
"We are, as a ski operator, very concerned about global warming."
He admits that it’s hard to believe there’s any real threat to the ski industry, especially with the sheer amounts of snow Whistler has received over the last ten winters.
But the world’s glaciers have been acting as giant thermometers, sending out warning cries for the last 100 years.
Glaciers are one of the most sensitive ecosystems to temperature change.
"(The glaciers are) all rapidly diminishing in size," said John Clague, earth science professor at Simon Fraser University.
"If you look at any mountain range throughout the world you’ll see the glaciers have retreated and decreased in size over the last century."
A snapshot of Whistler at the turn of the century would have revealed a glacier under the chair lift above Harmony Lake and one in The Couloir on Blackcomb.
Warmer weather has made them extinct.
"Little ones below the critical threshold elevation just don’t seem to be making it," said Karl Ricker, a local scientist and naturalist who has been studying Whistler’s glaciers for most of his adult life.
On the other hand Whistler’s bigger glaciers do not seem to be following the climate change model.
Although Wedgemount Glacier has been steadily retreating backwards for the past century, there are factors other than climate change at work.
It was once sitting on a lake and is currently sitting in a rainshadow, and it’s these elements that may be causing the retreat, said Ricker.
While Overlord Glacier is further back than it has been in recent years, it’s not as far back as it was in 1951. Ricker says it still has a ways to melt before reaching that level of "disaster."
If climate change means more precipitation in winter and warmer weather in the summer, Ricker says one factor may cancel out the other and the effects on Whistler’s big glaciers may be minimal.
But those future effects remain unknown and scientists cannot agree on one set of common predictions.
"We don’t know what’s going to happen to the big ones," said Ricker.
It’s this unknown future that has many concerned.
"You can’t be absolutely sure, not being an expert myself," said DeJong at Whistler-Blackcomb.
"But the consequence of it is so significant that the right thing to do is to treat it with concerned sincerity, with a frame of mind to take action on it."
He is encouraged to see the Canadian government take action in the form of the Kyoto Protocol.
That the world is hotter than it was 100 years ago is hard to refute.
The average global temperature has risen by almost one degree Celsius in the last century. Nine of the 10 hottest years on earth have taken place in the 1990s.
"The last 10 or 20 years have been exceptional and it leads me and most scientists to conclude that we are seeing emerging from the background a strong human anthropological signal in all this," said Clague.
"There’s something very unusual about what’s going on now and it’s hard to ascribe that to just a natural sort of rhythm in climate."
Instead, most scientists are ascribing it to GHG emissions from the burning of fossil fuels – the primary fuels that power industry, homes, and transportation.
The world first sat up and took notice of this global plight 10 years ago at the Rio Summit in Brazil.
One hundred and seventy countries pledged to reduce their emissions to 1990 levels on a voluntary basis.
Meanwhile, carbon-based emissions continued to rise by almost 10 per cent globally throughout the ’90s.
This initial treaty wasn’t effective because it relied on voluntary action, said Gerry Scott, climate change program director at The David Suzuki Foundation.
"They’ve spent 10 years making the problem a lot worse," he said.
The Kyoto agreement was a response to Rio’s failure. One hundred and sixty countries originally negotiated the agreement in 1997.
So far, only about 40 developed countries have agreed to the reductions. The list does not include some of the world’s major polluters like the U.S., China and Russia.
If Canada ratifies the Kyoto Protocol, as Prime Minister Jean Chretien has promised, Canadian emissions must be reduced by 240 million tonnes a year by 2010.
In other words, current emissions must be reduced by 19 per cent.
"What Kyoto does is give us a target and a timetable and a framework for everybody to start making the changes we have to make," said Scott.
"It helps get us on the path so it’s a very important and essential first step.
"This is a long term proposition that we have to engage in of cutting GHG emissions."
In an effort to make the steep GHG emissions reductions less onerous, the Canadian government has asked the United Nations for clean energy credits. This would mean that Canada would get credit for the "clean" energy – natural gas and electricity – that it exports to the U.S., rather than reducing emissions at the source.
The clean energy credits would make emissions reductions less onerous here.
Critics call Canada’s quest a huge loophole in the protocol, a protocol intended to ultimately turn the tide of global warming.
The deal does not include emissions in developing countries. Those countries produce roughly 45 per cent of GHG emissions worldwide.
The United Nations is hopeful that after 2012 when the Kyoto process is finished, a new deal will begin that will include countries like China and India.
That means that even with the Kyoto Protocol in place, there will still be smog in our cites, air quality-related illnesses in the hospital and freaky weather patterns worldwide.
Glaciers will continue to melt. Sea levels will continue to rise. The earth will get warmer.
Kyoto will not reverse those trends.
"Kyoto, I don’t think, means a radical shift," said Scott, who called it a modest first step in the right direction.
"I think obviously, in the longer term, the existence of climate protection helps any community that is dependent upon natural resources or the environment in an economic sense."
Whistler is one of those communities.
From the gondola window, checking out the valley vista below, it’s hard to believe that parts of the world are choking in smog.
The resort is still a natural mecca for city slickers escaping the grime of metropolitan life. Visitors can smell how clean the air is up here.
This excellent air quality is due in part to the lack of polluting industry in the resort.
"We have the good fortune of not having a local industry (which pollutes)," said Dr. Paul Martiquet, medical health officer for the Coast Garibaldi Area.
But if Whistler stays on its current course, ignoring the guidelines set out by Kyoto, there will a 44 per cent increase in GHG emissions here in the next 20 years.
That means there will be more small particulates in the air. These particulates are microscopic pieces that often carry other pollutants. They bypass the cilia, which act as filters, and settle right at the bottom of the lungs.
They are associated with a variety of health problems, from bronchitis and emphysema to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
"When the air gets worse you get more people dying of heart and lung disease," said Martiquet.
The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution causes 700,000 deaths a year.
The B.C. Medical Association, of which Martiquet is a member, has written to Prime Minister Chretien, encouraging him in his efforts to ratify the accord, which works towards clean air.
Whistler’s air is getting dirtier not as a result of industrial emissions but from the exhausts of cars, buses, SUVs and trucks. Almost half – about 48 per cent – of Whistler’s emissions come from transportation within the resort.
"I can’t think of a better example of energy waste than our current transportation system which is dominated by very, very fuel inefficient motor vehicles," said Scott.
"The development of more and more transit within Whistler and to Whistler I think will be encouraged by the adoption of Kyoto."
Taking a stand before the federal government, Whistler’s council adopted the Kyoto Protocol earlier this year, following the lead of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
"The biggest factor institution-wise in reducing greenhouse gas emissions is local governments," said Mitch Rhodes, president of the Association of Whistler Area Residents for the Environment.
"That’s where the greatest control is over our waste management, land use, transit, green spaces. That’s where the reductions are going to come from."
The resort’s leadership in Kyoto may be because its success is uniquely tied to a reduction of GHG in the air.
A direct link in Whistler’s movement towards the Protocol is a municipal draft document which will come before council in the next few months.
The Community Energy Management Plan is focused on reducing energy use and GHG emissions in Whistler.
"There’s a linkage, certainly there is a movement in the same direction with the Kyoto Protocol and Whistler’s draft Community Energy Plan. They’re both focused on reducing energy and the reduction of greenhouse gases," said Brian Barnett, general manager of engineering and public works for the RMOW.
The draft plan outlines ways to move towards a future that will reduce Whistler’s emissions.
Among the recommendations is:
• Fuel switching from piped propane to natural gas;
• Achieving a 75 per cent diversion of solid waste by 2020;
• Replacing large scale hydroelectric energy with local small renewable sources, and;
• Implementing an expanded Whistler Comprehensive Transportation Strategy.
"Whistler’s Community Energy Plan is providing the local details on how Whistler can move forward in terms of helping to achieve the Kyoto Protocol," said Barnett.
While the municipality can provide transportation incentives within the resort, and encourage locals to get out of their cars and into the bus as was done in the recent Commuter Challenge, it has little control over transportation to and from the resort.
These emissions are huge in comparison to those within the resort.
Barnett said there have been discussions with various partners to look at alternative fuel sources, like hydrogen fuel cells, in the Vancouver to Whistler corridor.
These hydrogen fuel cell discussions are still in the early conceptual stages but the idea is that the municipality is heading in the right direction.
"Kyoto encourages us to evolve and when you set that benchmark to evolution, you innovate to that benchmark," said Brent Leigh, president of the Whistler Chamber of Commerce.
"We’re obviously in a very small microcosm of trying to secure the same kind of thing for our residents that Kyoto is trying to do for the global community."
The movement away from fossil fuels is high on the list at Whistler-Blackcomb too.
"The very core in my goals is to eliminate fossil fuel use here, or the amount of it," said DeJong.
Over the past four years the company has reduced its fuel consumption by just over 30 per cent by using the latest motor technology in its grooming machines.
On the innovation side DeJong has been studying other power sources like wind generation and a small renewable hydroelectric project on Fitzsimmons Creek.
He is also looking at models to see how much carbon is absorbed through the forests in the so-called "carbon sinks."
"In our 7,000 hectare ski area there is certainly a considerable carbon absorption and we’re working on models to determine at what point we have a break even," said DeJong.
"We ought to put a value on the positive input that our forests have. It makes you more aware of the importance of retaining forests."
Its innovative movements like these in Whistler that have the resort positioned to accept the challenges of Kyoto.
"Simple technology is going to move more quickly in addressing the requirements of Kyoto," said DeJong.
"Some of the old-school industry practices are going to change all the quicker.
"Whistler has already positioned itself to take a lead in conservation and sustainability. We’re probably going to become a model in not just how to take steps but in meeting and exceeding the Kyoto requirements."
Meanwhile on a national and global scale the Protocol continues to flounder.
Many argue that the agreement was lost when the Bush Administration pulled out.
Even though the U.S. is the single largest producer of GHG emissions in the world, Washington rejected the accord last year as potentially damaging to the U.S. economy.
It was a dark moment for the environmental push to reduce GHG emissions.
"We lost the moment when the U.S. pulled out," said Leigh.
"That moment will have to cycle past again."
Now Leigh said there are bigger dramas unfolding in the world than the Kyoto Protocol, pointing to a looming was between the U.S. and Iraq.
"It is very unfortunate that history is playing out, that America is playing out a global jihad. It will take decades to play out," he said.
The Canadian ratification of the accord could hurt our economy said Leigh because the U.S. is not playing by the same rules and because Canada’s economy is so closely linked to the U.S.
This concern about the Canadian economy has been strongly echoed ever since Chretien promised to ratify the agreement by the end of the year.
The B.C. Chamber of Commerce has been very vocal about the economic ramifications of Kyoto.
President of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, John Winter, says the Canadian government should come up with new solutions other than Kyoto – a "made-in-Canada" approach.
"Because we are a highly-industrialized society the negative impact will be disproportionately large," said Winter.
"So a made-in-Canada solution in the absence of the Americans coming on seems to us to be much more palatable, something that we could do in lock-step with the Americans."
This solution should do everything it can to mitigate the pain to the economy of implementing Kyoto.
"I think we have to do it in a way that reduces the pain because Kyoto to us has a lot of pain and very little gain," Winter said.
Since Kyoto was agreed to five years ago, many things have changed, Winter added.
B.C.’s population has grown by 21 per cent, which means there are more cars on the road and more homes to heat.
The B.C. Chamber of Commerce has taken the position that Kyoto should not be ratified until all the impacts for Canada are fully understood.
Still, when the Whistler Chamber of Commerce polled its 500 members via e-mail in response to the B.C. Chamber’s position, only two out of the 30 who replied supported that made-in-Canada approach.
Whistler it would seem is ready to accept the challenges set out by the accord.
Many in Whistler agree that it is a necessary step in the right direction.
"Kyoto for me is really just a symbolic gesture that there is a problem," said AWARE’s Rhodes.
"It’s a recognition at a political level that there is a problem that we as a globe and a country are facing."
There will be economic impacts with ratification.
"I guess the impact would be generally felt across all sectors of the economy so Whistler, being no different, probably the impact would be felt by visitors whether it’s road traffic or air," said Winter.
"Your economy is totally driven by tourism and they have to get there. Now skiers don’t emit but their cars do, I guess. And the trains do and the airplanes do, everything that gets you there. And all those condos have to be kept warm."
In the absence of a detailed plan from the federal government on how it is planning to achieve its Kyoto targets, it’s hard to determine the economic implications.
It is fair to say that Kyoto will demand change from every Canadian.
"Kyoto is not a radical change," said DeJong at Whistler-Blackcomb.
"It’s phased and adjusted and it has to be balanced with economic needs.
"I don’t believe that there are going to be less planes in the sky or less cars. Simple technology is going to move more quickly in addressing the requirements of Kyoto."
The major problem with the Kyoto Protocol is that while the world appears to be getting sicker with global warming, there is still no imminent threat of our lives changing forever at this point.
"Because climate change is not immediately there in our lives, we can’t engage ourselves in it," said Rhodes.
"We don’t have the crisis enough to say that we have to fight this."
But each year the glaciers are a little smaller.
