Our Vanishing Glaciers: The Snows of Yesteryear and the Future Climate of the Mountain West

Description

Written by one of the most respected experts in water and water-associated climate science and featuring stunning photography collected over the past four decades, Our Vanishing Glaciers explains and illustrates why water is such a unique substance and how it makes life on this planet possible. Focusing on the Columbia Icefield, the largest and most accessible mass of ice straddling the Continental Divide in western North America, and featuring photographs, illustrations, aerial surveys and thermal imaging collected over more than 40 years of the author's personal observations, the book reveals the stunning magnitude of glacial ice in western Canada. Citing evidence to suggest that in the Canadian Rocky Mountain national parks alone, as many as 300 glaciers may have disappeared since 1920, this large-format, fully illustrated coffee table book graphically illustrates the projected rate of glacier recession in the mountain West over the rest of this century and serves as a profound testament to the beauty and importance of western Canada's water, ice and snow.

Robert William Sandford is the author of some 30 books on the history, heritage and landscape of the Canadian Rockies, including Water, Weather and the Mountain West (RMB, 2007), The Weekender Effect: Hyperdevelopment in Mountain Towns (RMB, 2008), Restoring the Flow: Confronting the World's Water Woes (RMB, 2009), Ethical Water: Learning to Value What Matters Most (RMB, 2011), Cold Matters: The State and Fate of Canada's Fresh Water (RMB, 2012), Saving Lake Winnipeg (RMB, 2013), Flood Forecast: Climate Risk and Resiliency in Canada (RMB, 2014), Storm Warning: Water and Climate Security in a Changing World (RMB, 2015), North America in the Anthropocene (RMB, 2016) and The Columbia Icefield 3rd Edition (RMB, 2016). He is also a co-author of The Columbia River Treaty: A Primer (RMB, 2015) and The Climate Nexus: Water, Food, Energy and Biodiversity in a Changing World (RMB, 2015). Robert lives in Canmore, Alberta.

Our Vanishing Glaciers is an informed and compelling siren call book, framed in an aesthetic yet judicious manner, and should be standard reading for Canadians (and others, of course) concerned with the future of the climate, water, glaciers, icefields and the place of humanity in such a delicate yet real changing world.-- (09/12/2017)