Doug’s Dime: The Glaciers Are Melting

In the middle of the 20th century, the contiguous 48 U.S. states were home to 1,453 glaciers that covered 562 square kilometers across six Western states. As of today, that total area has shrunk by 35 percent, and over that time, 398 glaciers that had been cataloged in the original assessments disappeared. That doesn’t even include the glaciers that made a slightly more dramatic exit, including the ones on Mt. St. Helens that were destroyed in a rather unconventional fashion — one where humans are, frankly, blameless — when the mountain exploded. Andrew Fountain, The Conversation