North Cascades Not So Snow-Capped
Posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009
Last month, my awesome friend and kayaker-with-a-cause Andy Maser and I headed up for a weekend of paddling around Timothy Lake in the Mount Hood Wilderness. We were shocked and, frankly, disgusted by the prominent profile of Mount Hood reaching into the sky with no snow. None. Never have I seen that mountain without a snow-capped peak.
Hood’s scarily bare summit is just another reminder that climate change is happening fast, and affecting special wild places in our own backyards. I’m sure those who read this blog have had similar experiences. Well, I don’t know about you all, but I’m not ready to give up my snow-capped peaks just yet.
We have less than two months until environment ministers from about 190 nations will gather in Copenhagen in December to try to seal a U.N. climate pact to take over from the Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012.
Andy, a co-founder of the Epicocity Project, is helping to organize River of Action as part of the 350.org International Day of Climate Action. Next Saturday, Oct. 24, people around the world will form “350” to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis. The number 350 represents the number of parts per million scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere.
(Buster the Wild Salmon; photo © Ethan Smith)
I work on salmon recovery issues in the West, and salmon need a lot of cold water to survive, so we at Save Our Wild Salmon are always down to help fight climate change. And we’ll be taking action on Oct. 24. How about you? Visit 350.org to find an action in your area.
Emily Nuchols is the communications manager for Save Our Wild Salmon. She is based in Portland, Ore., and runs around in a salmon suit more than she would like to admit.
