Glaciers as a Resource

Following on from my previous post, I am now going to focus on Why a Glacier is a resource for people.

Refrigeration

This is considered to be one of the earliest uses of Glacier Ice. Caves within Glaciers were used as stores to preserve food and ice cut from the Glacier was commercially and domestically.

In the 1850's, Ice from Alaska was transported to California and Ice from Glaciers in Southern Peru was exported as far north as Peru. Norway was exporting Glacier Ice before refrigerators were invented. Not only was Glacier Ice used as a simple way to preserve food, it was classed as an valuable commodity. This statement I also true today, Iceland market this Glacier Ice and melt water as a unusual form of pure mineral water. Peru grind the Glacier Ice and add different flavours to it, to create a form of natural snow cones.

Water

Glacier are a natural source of one of humans basic necessities. Not only is melt water a natural source of pure mineral water, the run-off is also used in many other ways for human survival.

Sources of Rivers:- Glacier melt water run off is the source of many of the worlds major Rivers. The Gangotri Glacier is the source of the Ganges River. Not is this huge River a water supply for many people, the source has actually become an attraction for tourists and pilgrims. This human activity is actually being blamed for it rapid retreat.

Irrigation:- Many arid areas, including the Thar desert and the Atacama desert receive the water for their irrigation for crops from draining Glacier melt water from adjacent mountains.

This is not a new concept or one that is restricted to arid areas. In Switzerland's Rhone Valley, for centuries farmers have channelled Glacier water to irrigated their crops.

Power

One of the most recent developments to make use of Glacier melt water run off is Hydroelectric Power. Scientists and engineers in Canada, New Zealand and Europe have worked together to find ways of tapping into the massive potential of using melt water as a form of renewable energy.

Norway is one of the more innovators in this field, 1877 was the first time hydroelectric power was used in Norway . Today, approximately 99% of electricity is from  hydroelctric power schemes,of which a big proportion of this hydroelectric is from Glaciers. There are many projects going on in Norway but here is a link to the Svartisen Hydroelectric Project, which is an interesting website to understand what goes on in this Hydroelectric plants.

The Svartisen Hydroelectric Project : - http://www.robbinstbm.com/case-study/svartisen/

Tourism

Increasingly tourism has become a major feature when thinking about Glaciers. Countries have gone to great lengths to attract tourists to these areas, as it boosts the local economy.

With walkers and mountain hikers these areas have always been popular due to the challenging landscape and the beautiful unique scenery. When there is fresh snow on Glaciers, they provide opportunities for skiing. Skiing resort are a massive tourist destination, that attract people from all over the world. Using this crevasse free Glaciers as ski resorts, main that in some places skiing can occur around the year.

 Another big tourist attraction is guided Glacier walking, this attracts people of all ages to try a new incredible experience. This is something that I can say I have done at Franz Josef in New Zealand and this unique experience was a once in a lifetime activity. Below is some images of me attempting to climb Franz Josef:-

 Here is the website that shows you the main home page of Franz Josef and the way they are attracting tourist to the area:-  http://www.franzjosefglacier.com/

Sources:-

Other than the main websites I have highlighted throughout the Blog, here are some general websites that talk about Glaciers as a resource.

http://nsidc.org/glaciers/questions/people.html

http://www.nature.nps.gov/views/KCs/Glaciers/HTML/ET_Monitoring.htm



Tasks for Students:-

As in the previous posts, I do not want Students to think about this 'human' impacts as purely Human Geography. So to make them think of Glaciers as having both Human and Physical aspects, I would like them to devise their own advantages and disadvantages of using Glaciers as a resource.

A way to possibly expand on the Students theories on advantages and disadvantages, is to conduct a class debate. A group on the side of using Glaciers as a resource and the other as why they should not be used. Possibly having another group as the judges and vote of which group had the best arguements and had reasons and examples to back up their points.