In the Time of Glaciers

Abstract

A stiff breeze is blowing off the glacier. The grey, spitting clouds are not the least bit inviting. Even so, I will paddle my kayak across the lake to the base of the towering wall of glacier ice. The deep blue colors of the ice lure me closer, while the moans of cracking, heavy ice caution distance and respect. It is the tug of life carried out in one of Nature's grandest settings—the Mendenhall Glacier, which descends 12 miles through granite towers to release icebergs into Mendenhall Lake. I'm drawn here today, not just for the alluring blue, but in hopes of seeing Arctic terns returning from Antarctica. After journeying more than 10,000 miles from the other end of the world, terns roost on the grounded icebergs. Their marathon journey ensures that each bird sees two summers each year and more daylight than any other creature on the planet. In other words, more than any other species, the arctic tern seeks to live its life in light. So too must I seek to live my life in light, in the hope that it's not too late to turn back the worst of climate calamity.