DRAFT TEN August 23 rd, 2006 Climate Change Impacts On The Alpine: The Future of Our Mountains Introduction In imagining the impacts of climate change, think of where the dawn s light first strikes at the beginning of the day. It strikes the tops of mountains. When you think of climate change, think also of where the sunlight touches the Earth most persistently and that is where twenty-four hour light falls on the poles. It is to these places we should look first for the most pronounced and immediate evidence of how climate change has begun to alter our world. Climbers are already seeing dramatic impacts of climate change in all of the world s great mountain ranges. A century after one of Europe s best known mountaineers laid down the foundation for modern climate science, the UN s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is predicting a projected mean annual global atmospheric temperature increase of between 1 C and 6 C in the coming decades. Evidence of these changes is already becoming obvious in the mountain regions all over the world. As the host of the General Assembly of the prestigious International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation in 2006, the Alpine Club of Canada will run a two-day workshop on the impacts of climate change on the physical nature and experience of the world s mountains and how the mountaineering community might respond to these changes. The object of this workshop will be to put forward the latest climate science information and emerging climate change adaptation strategies as basis for establishing a protocol for action that will allow the Alpine Club of Canada to recognize and address climate change impacts on Canadian mountain regions. It is hoped that this protocol will serve as a template for other alpine organizations around the world interested in doing the same. It is anticipated that the draft Alpine Club of Canada protocol will be composed of three pillars. The first of these relates to the mechanisms by which the Alpine Club of Canada will make accurate, peer-reviewed information about climate change impacts and adaptations to their members and partner organizations. The second will relate to the appropriate standards to which The Alpine Club of Canada and related Canadian organizations might hold themselves within the context of their climbing and adventure activities and in the operation of mountain facilities especially as they relate to energy, water and waste management. 1
The third pillar will establish how the Alpine Club of Canada will affect public policy locally, nationally and internationally in response to the climate change threat now, and in the future. A Climate Change Working Group has been created by the Alpine Club of Canada to craft the language for each of the pillars of the protocol. The Alpine Club of Canada Climate Change Working Group will develop the first drafts of each pillar and make them available for review and comment by representatives of the UIAA member organizations attending the Climate Change Workshop to be held in association with the UIAA General Assembly in Banff, Alberta in October of 2006. Each of the pillars will be discussed in turn at the workshop and input captured for inclusion in later drafts. The ACC will then advance the approved drafts to its National Board after further discussion with Parks Canada and with other interested organizations and institutions. Partners: The Workshop Sponsors The Climate Change Research Institute, Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative, UN Water for Life Decade, IUCN Commission on World Protected Areas, the University of Calgary, the University of Lethbridge, Western Watersheds Partnership and the Banff Centre for Mountain Culture. The Workshop & Its Contents When: October 10 th & 11 th, 2006 Where: Purpose: Organizer: Facilitator: The Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta To examine the effects that climate change is having on alpine environments in Canada and abroad and to create the first draft of a formal protocol defining appropriate general policies, mitigations and adaptations that should be adopted by the Alpine Club of Canada and the mountain community in Canada. The Alpine Club of Canada Cam Roe, President, The Alpine Club of Canada Program Design: Part 1: What we know about climate change impacts on mountain regions. Part 2: Presentation and discussion of each of the three pillars of the proposed Banff Protocol. Part 3: What should the mountain community be doing to encourage appropriate policy to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts. 2
Program Outline: Day One: Tuesday, October 10 th, 2006 Part 1: What we know about climate change impacts on mountain regions. 8:30 AM Welcome and Introductions: Mike Mortimer Director, External Relations, The Alpine Club of Canada David Morris, President, UIAA Mountain Protection Commission Dr. Robert James, Chairman of the Board, Climate Change Research Institute Outline of objectives of the workshop: Bob Sandford, Vice President, Mountain Culture, The Alpine Club of Canada. 9:00 AM Canadian Climate Change Impact Overview: Dr. David Sauchyn, Chief Scientist at the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative at the University of Regina, and member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 9:45 AM Implications of Global Change for Canadian Mountains Dr. Shawn Marshall, The University of Calgary Presentation and Field Trip Shawn Marshall joined the Department of Geography at the University of Calgary in 2000, where he is an Associate Professor in glaciology and climatology. He is an Associate of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR) Earth System Evolution Program and has served on the Council of the International Glaciological Society and as past Chair of the American Geophysical Union Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Committee. In 2005, Marshall was awarded the inaugural Young Scientist Award from the Canadian Geophysical Union and he was 1 of 20 Canadian scientists invited to participate in the Leader of Tomorrow Symposium of the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering Research (PAGSE), Ottawa. Marshall s current research projects include field and modelling studies of glacier-climate processes in the Canadian Rockies, the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, and Iceland. He is also the lead investigator in the Foothills Climate Array, a 320-station regional meteorological network in the Canadian Rockies that has been designed to examine mountain weather and climate processes and to better inform climate change impact studies in mountain environments. 10:00 AM Field trip from Banff to Bow Lake and to the Columbia Icefield to examine evidence of change in the alpine over the last century. 6:00 PM Return to the Banff Centre 3
Day Two: Wednesday, October 11 th, 2006 8:30 AM Seminar presentations at Max Bell Auditorium the Banff Centre in Banff. Speakers: Welcome: Ron Hallman, Director, Mountain National Parks, Parks Canada. 8:45 AM Climate Change Impacts on the World s Mountains from a Global Perspective: Michael Pupezza, UIAA, Romania 9:30 AM IUCN UIAA Melting Glaciers Project: Linda MacMillan, IUCN World Commission for Protected Areas; Mountain Biome Deputy Vice-Chair. Break 10:30 AM Separating Access and Environment Issues in a Canadian Climate Change Context Peter Muir, Secretary, The Alpine Club of Canada 11:15 AM Part 2: Presentation and discussion of each of the three pillars of the proposed Banff Protocol. Presentation of Pillar 1: Mechanisms by which The Alpine Club of Canada will make accurate, peer-reviewed information about climate change impacts and adaptations to their members and partner organizations Discussion to be led by Isabelle Daigneault, Vice President Access & Environment, The Alpine Club of Canada, Kate Sinclair and Tara Moran of the University of Calgary. 12:15 PM Lunch 1:15 PM Presentation of Pillar 2: Strategies for sustainability in the operation and use of mountain huts in Canada. 4
Discussion to be led by Dr. Carl Hannigan, Vice President, Facilities, The Alpine Club of Canada and Roger Tierney, Recreation Section Head, Environmental Stewardship Branch, B.C. Ministry of Environment. 2:15 PM Presentation of Pillar 3: How The Alpine Club of Canada can affect public policy locally, nationally and internationally in response to the climate change threat to Canadian mountains now, and in the future. Discussion to be led by Bob Sandford, Vice President of Mountain Culture, the Alpine Club of Canada. Break 3:30 PM The Role of the UIAA and its Member Organizations in Addressing Climate Change Impacts on Mountain Regions Globally: David Morris, Director, The Ramblers, Scotland; President, UIAA Mountain Protection Commission. Conclusion Cam Roe, President, The Alpine Club of Canada Evening Program 7:30 PM Public Presentation Climate Change Impacts on the Mountains of Canada from an Inter-generational Perspective Dr. Henry Vaux, University of California, Berkeley 5