Nathan Cutler

AWD-Musselman
January 19, 2015
APA citations
1503 words
The Humbling Influence of Nature
I found it impossible to grow up in a place like Seattle and not gain an appreciation for
the mountains, rivers, and carpets of green that give character and nuance to our landscapes. The
two dozen glaciers collaring our reigning peak, Mount Rainier, are often shrouded in fog, but on
those special days when the mountain rears its head the sight commands attention (USGS, 2014).
The mountain is the greatest symbol of our pride and wonder for that place called home, a
presence to be revered and but also feared. Every time I stand on a hill in the city and glance east
to the Cascades or west to the Olympics, I am reminded of the stoic vigilance from the pair of
tall, icy chains that hold the Northwest in a close embrace and provides for its people. Yet, they
also constantly remind me of their fragile and declining state and the human responsibility for
that threat. The power those mountains possess is immense and it always humbles me to think of
that power being unleashed upon the society that has crept up around the masses of rock and ice.
I imagine twenty years of scanning the southern sky for Rainiers frosty summit
somehow instilled a thirst for those high, wild places before I even knew quite what existed
among those distant peaks. I can still remember the first time I reached a high ridge on my own
two feet, and gasped at the expanse of white snow and ice and jagged black granite extending as
far as the eye could see. The Central Cascades appeared so pristine and powerful in their
silencesurely indestructible, I thought as a puffy cheeked five year old. Of course, this was far
from the truth. Back then as I was just getting my first alpine taste, I had not yet been told of the

legacy of carelessness plunder that has been left to us. I had not yet been told about the most
frightening reality facing our generation, and I had not been told that the very glacier I was
standing in awe of was slowly melting away.
My love of mountains was unleashed that spring afternoon sixteen years ago and, even
lacking the complete picture, it would continue to swell and swell until high school when I was
venturing east from Seattle to the Cascades every chance I got. Around this time, as the political
discourse over climate change continued to rage, I started to appreciate how everyday life and
scientific pursuit constantly intersect. When I was younger I had never been particularly drawn
to science, something I attributed to a long series of uninspiring teachers, yet I soon discovered a
connection that intrigued me. Climate change kept coming up again and again in classes from
government to English, with repeated reminders that at the very least my ability to escape to the
wilderness was at stake. Science finally beckoned.
Climate science has emerged at the forefront of scientific discussion not due to a
groundbreaking finding or controversial theory, but as a result of the certainty that the changing
Earth will have implications for our society and economy. While there is no longer any real
question among scientists whether or not anthropogenic climate change is real and already
beginning to have a physical effect (IPCC, 2014), the debate rages on at the cusp of
understanding exactly how and when the climate will change. Scientists are busy attempting to
document and understand the complex global, regional, and local factors that shape climate
change, and translate those into accurate expectations for the future. No longer do simple
warming temperature trends dominate the discussion since scientists now realize that the changes
taking place involve not only temperature, but also precipitation, humidity, storm events, and
other factors of both global and local scale. At this horizon of our understanding of climate-

bearing factors and consequences, the knowledge-front of climate science sits, waiting to be
prodded and pushed outward. I hope to venture into the unknown just below the horizon as I
continue my academic and professional career.
One point along this horizon has to do with the stability of glaciers and the snowfall that
sustains them. Close to the north and south poles and in alpine environments at high altitudes all
across the Earth, glaciers hold a vast amount of water in solid form that, as the climate warms,
becomes liquid water contributing to the rising sea levels we are experiencing today. Glaciers
also represent an invaluable freshwater resource for communities all across the world, and help
sustain alpine and river ecosystems in countless ways. A 2014 study appearing in Nature
Geoscience, Snowfall less sensitive to warming in Karakoram than in Himalayas due to a
unique seasonal cycle, by Kapnick et al., looks at the possible disparity of how climate change
is impacting specific alpine environments. Focused on the highlands of Asia, the study takes a
look at three mountainous regions of similar altitude: the Karakoram, the central Himalaya, and
the eastern Himalaya (Kapnick et al., 2014). The three regions are similar and contiguous, yet
demonstrate some significant differences in how climate change impacts snowfall patterns.
Kapnick et al. (2014) attempt to understand why the weather in the Karakoram Mountains
appears to behave differently than in the other two regions when confronting a changing climate.
While the most prevalent climate models in use today display helpful trends, Kapnick et
al. (2014) show that especially for isolated, high-elevation regions, it is key to continue
improving upon the broad, low-sensitivity projections. The goal is to discover climate impacts on
as local of a basis as possible, so that specific detailed expectations of the future may be
available to help communities avert crisis. The study demonstrates an intriguing circumstance in
Asia where glacier mass and snowfall may not all be declining across the board, as feared.

Temperature increases are projected to be generally uniform across the three regions studied,
which can be expected to lead to less snowfall, as some potential snow becomes rain, as well as a
drop in freezing levels. However, the Karakoram region actually shows stable to fractional gain
in snowfall even with the increased temperatures, as dictated by regional geography and
topography (Kapnick et al., 2014). Most of the annual precipitation for the central and eastern
Himalayas arrives from the south during the summer monsoon season when temperatures are
most likely to be above freezing, and are warming now more than usual. Conversely, the source
of precipitation for the Karakoram is dominated by westerly winds with the majority falling
during winter months that are normally well below zero even with the warming trends, resulting
in mostly unchanged snowfall volumes. The study shows that even among abutting lands with
similar characteristics, local and regional factors can shape the larger, general global influences
(Kapnick et al., 2014).
As the study points out, the specific details of a landscape are crucial in determining how
the landscape is altered. Society must take note when considering how to mitigate the effects of
climate change. A one-size-fits-all approach will never be successful for dealing with the
problems that arise from climate change. Instead each range, river, and drainage must be
examined as a unique cog in a larger system, and dealt with as such. The key is for the public to
be aware of the full slate of scientific knowledge so that the value of this information can be
realized. Unfortunately, although the scientific community is near a complete consensus on
climate change, the general public lags far behind due to skepticism bred by corporate interests.
Voters remain divided on what has become an issue of political squabbling, despite repeated
warnings of irreversible change from scientists, because those interests who benefit most from
the status quo also have the power to maintain it.

Widespread accessibility to the science should be guaranteed to citizens and the

dissemination of information when society confronts a threat as serious as climate change should
be a huge priority. Faced with the unwillingness of most politicians to have a frank dialogue
about climate change, scientists must step up and improve direct communication between the
public and the scientific community. Government cannot be relied upon to make a difference in
the publics awareness of the immediacy of the climate change threat so the responsibility to
maintain an educated public will have to fall in part to direct communication from experts. If
communities become better informed of their local environmental risks and constraints then
policies and social norms may become more conducive to a sustainable planet and respectful of
the natural limitations that surround us. As I had only started to recognize years ago, nature
humbles easily, and its gentle appearance is not something to take for granted.

Acknowledgements
I owe infinite gratitude to my mother for first showing me the wonder that wilderness has to
offer. I also received some very helpful guidance from Dr. Cecelia Musselman.

References
Kapnick, S. B., Delworth, T. L., Ashfaq, M., Malyshev, S., & Milly, P. C. D. (2014). Snowfall
less sensitive to warming in Karakoram than in Himalayas due to a unique seasonal
cycle. Nature Geoscience, 7, 834-840.
IPCC Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report. (2014). Summary for Policy Makers. Retrieved
from http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/SYR_AR5_SPMcorr1.pdf.
USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory. (2014). Glaciers Help to Shape Mount Rainier. Retrieved
from http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mount_rainier/geo_hist_glaciers.html.