Snow patterns are changing across the world in mountain communities, and the time is now for places like Durango to adapt, said Heidi Steltzer, a Fort Lewis College professor and local climate scientist. Steltzer spoke Wednesday afternoon at the San Juan Citizens Alliance’s Green Business Roundtable about the future of mountain economics amid a warming climate. Recently, Steltzer was an author on the mountains chapter of the United Nation’s International Panel on Climate Change report on how less snow is expected to alter the environment. The report was released in September. Steltzer said mountains don’t cover much of the Earth’s surface, but they serve as the headwaters for vast numbers of people, cities and agricultural lands. But increasingly, with global temperatures on the rise, the presence and persistence of ice and snow on the landscape are changing across the world’s mountains. “Systems are changing in a way I never expected to see,” Steltzer said. One of the key findings in the IPCC’s report, for instance, was weighing the reality of disappearing glaciers and the potential impacts on the communities that rely on them in places like the Andes and the Himalayas. To view the full article visit the Durango Herald.
