Oops: Glacier National Park to Replace Signs Predicting Glaciers Would Be Gone By 2020

Brittany M. Hughes | January 8, 2020
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Glacier National Park is replacing its decade-old dire warning signs that the landmark’s famous glaciers would have vanished by the year 2020 thanks to man-made climate change, because…well, it's 2020, and the glaciers are still around.

Shockingly.  

According to park spokeswoman Gina Kurzman, “The signs in the Montana park were added more than a decade ago to reflect climate change forecasts at the time by the US Geological Survey,” CNN reports.

The federal agency told the park back in 2017 that the glacier’s imminent demise was no longer expected so quickly, but the park says they couldn’t update their “Danger, Will Robinson” warnings because of budget setbacks. The park has reportedly replaced signs at its most popular look-out points, but is still waiting on money to update two others. 

But if you think this major flub means the park’s nixing their doomsday predictions entirely, think again. GNP is simply updating their old placards with new ones that sport a less specific prophecy. The new signs will reportedly read, "When they will completely disappear depends on how and when we act. One thing is consistent: the glaciers in the park are shrinking.” 

But whether that will be in a few years or decades (or not at all), no one knows.

"In several decades they will be mostly gone. They will grow so small that they will disappear. They will certainly be gone before the end of the century," said Dan Fagre in a  2017 study released by USGS and Portland State University.

Yep. Sure they will. And we can all cry about it in the glass dome we’ve built over New York City when it finally goes underwater.

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