Western Canada’s glaciers face second-highest ice loss on record in 2025

united nations nominated 2025 is slated to be the “International Year of Glacier Conservation,” but a climate researcher in northern BC now says last year turned out to be the second-worst year on record for glacier loss in western Canada.

“We have to understand that it’s not a question of whether glaciers will disappear, it’s that they are going to disappear,” said Brian Menounos, professor of earth sciences at the University of Northern British Columbia and chief scientist of the Hakai Institute’s Airborne Coastal Observatory.

“What we’re finding is that these glaciers are disappearing at a faster rate than previously thought.”

Menounos estimates that about 30 gigatons of glacial ice were lost in the region last year. One gigaton represents one cubic kilometer of water – approximately equal to BC’s entire Okanagan Lake.

“The first and most important factor is really warming temperatures and that’s largely driven by rising greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel use,” Menounos says.

Menounos and a team of international researchers have been Tracking global glacier health Using satellite and aircraft observations as well as on-ice sampling.

Last summer he published a peer reviewed study Unprecedented ice loss reported in western Canada, the contiguous US and Switzerland between 2021-2024.

a peer-reviewed study Warnings of global glacier loss were published in the journal Nature last February.

“We’re finding that there’s this clear uptick, not only because of the warmer conditions, but also because of the lack of snow at the end of the summer. This is important because it really changes how reflective these glacier surfaces are,” Menounos said.

Warmer conditions cause ice particles to become larger and alternatively darker and less reflective, creating a feedback loop that increases glacial melting. Winter snowfall, even during heavy seasons, cannot compensate for lost snow.

Mark Edney, a glaciologist Geological Survey of Canada Says there is clear scientific consensus on glacial loss.

“We are seeing glaciers shrinking, receding, thinning and losing mass everywhere in the world, and Canada is no exception,” he says.

Edney says the loss of glacial ice could have a direct and devastating impact on the environment and economy.

“Glaciers… are basically like storing water in banks. So water is stored in cold times and then released in warmer times for industry, for agriculture.” He says. “Once these glaciers are gone … we will see a difference in the amount of water available for our entire human consumption.”

In BC, which is home to about 17,000 glaciers, glacial melt also impacts river levels that are important for fisheries and hydropower.

Ottawa Climate Action Plan: “Have it both ways”

Both the federal and provincial governments say they are committed to fighting climate change.

In a statement to CBC News, B.C.’s Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Management said the government has partnered with researchers to track glaciers and understand how climate change is affecting B.C., but it remains a complex inter-jurisdictional issue to resolve.

of the federal government climate action plan Promises to ‘have it both ways’ and is committed to meeting emissions targets while maintaining economic growth.

This reflects recent federal and provincial government partnerships to expand North Coast LNG facilities and build new fossil fuel facilities such as the potential Northern Pipeline.

For glacier researchers like Menounos, the choice between the economy and the climate is cold comfort.

“Fossil fuels have been really important to the livelihoods of Canada and other developed countries, but they come with tremendous costs.”