Troubled waters ahead for shrinking Bridge Glacier in southwestern B.C.

At the headwaters of the Bridge River in southwestern British Columbia, Bridge Glacier is breaking apart. The lake at the base of the glacier is littered with icebergs. Some are full of cracks and dirt, others pale blue and recently born. Here and there are little bits of ice that are almost gone, the colour of ice cubes in water on a summer day.

Every year, the lake is getting bigger and the glacier is getting smaller. Over the past 40 years, Bridge Glacier has retreated more than three and a half kilometres.

About one in 12 of the world’s approximately 200,000 glaciers are in British Columbia and Alberta. Glaciers in B.C. alone lose 22 billion cubic metres of water every year. Almost all of the world’s glaciers are in retreat – which means they lose more mass during the summer from melting ice than they gain during the winter from fresh snow.

By the end of the century, places such as the headwaters of the Bridge River may still have ice, but they will look very different.