MY CAREER OF STUDYING GLACIERS: AM I EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATING WHAT I KNOW AND IS MY MESSAGE SUSTAINABLE?

My fascination with glaciers began as a child. I grew up in New York on the Pleistocene outwash plain that comprises much of southern Long Island. I was fascinated by the diverse lithologies of the small pebbles that covered my front yard. When I entered junior high school, I began to ask my science teachers for an explanation for what I found. Most answers that I received were short and simple and were some variation of “Oh, that’s because of the glacier.” Although these answers were pertinent, they ultimately failed to satisfy the information need that prompted the initial inquiry. In fact, they only raised more questions in my mind, strongly influencing my future career path.

It is now almost 50 years later and the paradigm has changed. I have spent much of the ensuing time studying glaciers in Alaska. My present focus has expanded to Afghanistan, where changes in glacier volume and runoff may significantly influence the sustainability of the regional water supply and the stability of regional politics. I am now the one being asked the questions. My early teenage experience has significantly influenced how I respond to these questions.

The question that I am most often asked is some variation of ‘What’s happening to Earth’s or Alaska’s or Afghanistan’s glaciers? Frequently, there is some mention of global warming or climate change in the discussion associated with the question. I try to answer in a way that provides a short, factual, and unambiguous answer at a level of complexity that parallels the discussion that led to the question. Depending on how the question is phrased, my answer may range from a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to a half-hour discussion. If my answer is more than perfunctory, I always try to convey the importance of glaciers as a water resource and explain both their role as the largest freshwater resource on Earth and their fragile nature as they respond to changing climate.

This presentation explores several different approaches that I have attempted to effectively communicate to a diverse community of non-scientists what I have learned during my career of studying glaciers. Over time, the focus of these communications has shifted from erosion and deposition to the changing role of the cryosphere in maintaining sustainable water supplies and the societal impacts of a rapidly changing climate.