John Muir’s discovery of Glacier Bay, Alaska and our losing of Glacier Bay, Alaska

John Muir set off on the exploration of Glacier Bay in Alaska on October 14, 1879 and published an essay in The Century Magazine (June, 1895).

We first pursued a westerly course through Sumner Strait, between Kupreanof and Pice of Wales islands; then, turning northward, we sailed up the charming Kiku Strait, through the midst of innumerable picturesque islets, across Prince Frederick Sound, up Chatham Strait, and thence northwestward through Icy Strait and around Glacier Bay. Thence, returning through Icy Strait, we urged our way up the grand Lynn Canal to the Davidson Glacier and Chilcat, and returned to Wrangel along the coast of the mainland, visiting the icy Sum Dum bay and the Le Conte Glacier on our route. Thus we made a journey more than eight hundred miles long; and though hardships were encountered, and a few dangers, the wild wonderland made compensation beyond our most extravagant hopes.

Native wilderness is near-impossible to find and experience in the present world. Largely because we ware irretrievably losing it.

Glaciers normally melt. But not at the pace at which they are currently doing so.

The pace of glacier loss has accelerated from 9 inches per year in the 1980s to 17 inches per year in the 1990s to 2.2 feet per year in the 2000s to 3 feet per year for 2010–2018.

For the idiots who see no problem with this and use the analogy that human cells also divide and die, yes, normal cells divide and die but when there is accelerated cell division we call it cancer, when there is accelerated cell death we call it necrosis.

The principle is the same but not the pace. And therein lies the problem.