Glaciers in the Rockies could virtually disappear by 2100: UBC

VANCOUVER - Glacial thawing is likely to be worse than earlier forecasts, with ice caps in places such as Banff and Jasper National Parks potentially vanishing completely within the next 100 years.

That's the conclusion of a study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience that uses a 3D computer simulation to make more detailed predictions than ever before.

The simulation found that if climate change continues at the same rate or worse, glaciers in the Rockies and Columbia mountain ranges could melt by about 70 per cent.

Mount Garibaldi on the southern coast is expected to survive, along with ice caps in B.C.'s northwest, close to the Alaska and Yukon borders.

Co-author Garry Clarke, at the University of British Columbia, says problems associated with melting glaciers may include salmon-spawning rivers drying up and some ski slopes disappearing.

But Clarke says there's still hope -- the simulation shows the glaciers can be preserved if carbon emissions are slowed.

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  Tourists take in the views from the newly opened Glacier SkyWalk near the Columbia Icefields in Jasper National Park, Alta., on Wednesday, May 7, 2014. (Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS)