I feel my individual responsibility for combating global climate change is to try my best to become ‘greener’ in order to make my footprint on this earth less noticeable. This means riding my bike more often, turning off the lights when I leave a room, and even putting a brick in the upper part of a toilet to use less water. When hydrogen cars become cheaper and fueling stations become accessible, I wouldn’t mind owning one of those to reduce carbon emissions.
I realize it will be difficult for me to carry out all these ‘green’ actions. It is easy for me to follow whatever the rest of society is doing. Also, since I live on a hilly, dangerous road to bike on, I will most likely not bike everywhere I go, and taking my bike with me is an inconvenience. Becoming ‘green’ is an inconvenience, but after all I have learned on Discovery, I am willing to give it a try.
We woke up bright and early at Glacier National Park in Montana. After eating our breakfast of bagels and packing our lunches, we got on the bus to drive to our hike up Grinnell Glacier, one of the few left in the park. On our drive to the trailhead, we saw a golden mother Grizzly bear and her two cubs.
Once we got off the bus at the trailhead, we met our guide named Ranger Rick. Our hike started off by going around several gorgeous turquoise lakes. We stopped at one to dip our hands in the cool clear water. We began hiking up the side of the mountain, and soon the glaciers were in view. Ranger Rick stopped several times and had a lot of information to tell us about the geology of the park and the global warming issue at hand. He showed us three glaciers—Salamander, Gem, and Grinnell—Grinnell being the largest and yet melting the quickest. He told us that in 30 years there will not be a glacier left in Glacier National Park. The view overlooking the valley carved by the glaciers many years ago was breathtaking.
Our hike was cut short due to a dead mountain goat on the upper trail that could attract bears and wolverines. Because of this, we did not have the opportunity to touch the Grinnell Glacier as originally planned. We stopped near the top for a lunch break. The hike back down the mountain was considerably shorter than the hike up, which gave us plenty of time to take a swim in the cool refreshing lake water. On the way back, we stopped at a souvenir shop where we could by bumper stickers, t-shirts, and ice cream cones.
Once we arrived at our campsite, we had a much needed coach cleaning time then played a competitive game of Ultimate Frisbee. After supper and a few evening activities, we went to bed.