Glacier Melt Rate Measured by Skiing Down a Mountain

(dramatic music) - Every day, there are news stories about climate change. And it's overwhelming and scary. But the overarching one that I've picked up on is that glaciers are melting. Goliath masses of ice, some of which have actually been around since the Ice Age. They hold about 70% of Earth's fresh water. But they are melting faster than scientists anticipated. And when ice melts too fast, sea levels rise. And that's a really big problem. But if we start to learn about this problem, we can start to make changes.

Hey! - How are you? - I'm good. Hey, JT, I'm Diana. I figured that I would need help from someone that actually knows glaciers. And so, my sister happens to know a professional skier, JT Holmes. So I gave him a call. So I want to get a sense for how fast glaciers are melting. So I had this idea to sort of measure the meltwater off of one of the glaciers, and then, at the same time, fill something like an Olympic-size swimming pool. I think people can get a better sense for how fast a pool fills and get a sense for how fast these glaciers are melting. So I thought of you.

- I've skied a bunch of glaciers up in British Columbia and that's where I'd say we should go. I think we should go to BC. But I gotta say, they're in a tough spot right now. - Got outta town just in time. - (bleep!) I can feel the heat here. (JT): There are just forest fires everywhere. They had this weather phenomenon called a "heat dome," and I think all the helicopters are fighting fires, but I'll look into it, I'll try to help you out. - What JT was talking about in BC was also sitting over most of the West Coast of the U.S.

It's just this concentrated super-hot weather phenomenon, and scientists actually say that without climate change, this type of heat dome would not have happened. (soft music) (JT): Blackcomb helicopters, Whistler base. We're gonna do a big old lap looking for the best terrain. (through headphones): This is one of the zones that I've personally seen the most amount of change in the last few years. So, here was about 50 feet of ice here. - Yeah. That's all gone. (Diana): I've always lived near the ocean. I grew up in Hawaii. We would go to the beach and go surfing and snorkelling and scuba diving.

I'm worried about my day-to-day life and my nostalgic childhood, but some communities are gonna be completely wiped out. - Well, I mean, this is beautiful, but it also says melting glacier. Like, it's so obvious that's receded back up that rock. (Diana): 40% of the human population lives in areas that are densely populated and will be incredibly affected by increased flooding, shoreline erosion, things that come with rising sea levels. And it's already happening.

(JT): Heading up on the hill, going to Rhododendron Mountain. Weather seems to be throwing us a bone. (man): Okay, JT, we are ready for you. Just give us a confirmation when you're ready. Three, two, one, JT dropping. (Diana): I honestly wish I could do something like that, but it's probably best that it's JT and not me. How do you even. How do you even ski down a glacier? There's no one grooming the trail for you. (laughing) Especially looking here at the Google Maps, this looks mad.

(exclaiming) (groaning) (JT): I go into these environments and I feel tiny and humble and powerless, but I appreciate it immensely. It's given me joy and it's enriched my life. - What do you think the damage is there? - Sprained thumb I think is fine. Just throw in a little brace. I've skied many days with that.

I believe that, as a human race, we should fight like hell to save nature in its form which we thrive. (Diana): That's why we're working on this video. Really understanding how fast and how dire these problems are in order to act as quickly as possible. We wanted to see whether the glacial meltwater from one glacier could fill an Olympic-size swimming pool and the time it took him to go from the top to the bottom of the mountain.

Now, if you use a normal garden hose, it would take about 19 days. These pools are huge: 2.5 million litres of water. So it's sort of a race. Man vs. meltwater. - Made it to the summit. - Oh, my God, it looks beautiful. How's the weather feeling? (JT): It's warm. I was sweating the whole way up.

It's even warm up high. - I wish you the best of luck getting down. - See you at the bottom. (rhythmic music) I descended from the peak up there, and now, all I see are glacial cracks and the glacier just drops off. - Can you see any of the meltwater from there?

- There are little, mini streams like this and there's just so much water moving. I don't think I could ski from here, that's for sure. (Diana): If all of the glaciers on our planet melted, sea levels would rise by 230 feet. That's the height of a 16-story building. (epic music)

Now, of course, glaciers always melt in the summer, but what's happening is that they're melting at unprecedented rates and faster than they can be replenished. So they're shrinking year on year. (JT): Hey, hey. (Diana): Are you ready for this? It's taken you an hour to get from the top to the bottom, and in that time, 22 Olympic-size swimming pools would've been filled with the meltwater from that one glacier. - Wow! That's fast. - That's 2.5 million litres of water every 166 seconds. - I'm just not surprised 'cause there's just water coming down.

Those glaciers, they're just dripping. - Do you have any sense for what this means? What it means for the planet? - It means consequences. Unfortunately, the human race doesn't have a parachute. (Diana): Out of all the science experiments, this one's probably the most surprising and shocking. It really underscores that things have to change. Subtitling: difuze