Latest news with #NorthCascadeMountains
CBS News
a day ago
- Science
- CBS News
Capturing the melting of glaciers, with data and art
In the rugged North Cascade Mountains of Washington State, no one likely knows this glacier better than Mauri Pelto, who says, "My life has been shaped by this ice." For more than 40 years, Pelto, a glaciologist and a professor at Nichols College in Massachusetts, has returned to this remote wilderness. "We got 6,000 measurements on this glacier," he said. Today, the crunch of footsteps in the snow is now rivaled by the sound of melting ice. "It's always melting off," he said. "The crevasses are changing. We can hear the water flowing under our feet." Pelto founded the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project as a grad student in 1984. He vowed to measure these glaciers every summer for 50 years. This is Year 42. In that time the glaciers have changed more than he has, shrinking by 40%. Some have disappeared. Pelto's work has been featured by NASA, and fed into a worldwide glacier database. Of the 47 glaciers he has studied, returning to them year after year, he says 12 are now gone, "nine of them just in the last five years." Climate scientists say warmer summers and drier winters, driven by our burning of fossil fuels, are accelerating the loss. Seven of the 10 worst years for glacier melt worldwide have happened since 2010, according to Climate Central. Or just ask Mauri Pelto where the ice used to be. "Almost 50 feet above my head just a decade ago," he said. Glaciers are Earth's water towers, storing 70% of the freshwater supply, vital for drinking, farming, and the health of many ecosystems. As they melt, sea levels are rising, and coastal flooding is getting worse. During his annual treks to the North Cascades, Pelto has hiked nearly 6,000 miles, and slept 800 nights in a tent. "We got our picture window," he said of the view. "It's also one of those places that's really special to us as a family." His son Ben, daughter Jill, and now his nine-month-old granddaughter Wren have joined him in the field. Jill Pelto has spent 17 summers by her dad's side, but she doesn't just collect data. As the project's art director, she paints it. The data points that she and her dad measure eventually will go into her art. "Data is a story about something in the real world and that story has meaning and emotion," she said. "And that's what I'm trying to bring into my art." Her watercolor paintings are more than just beautiful landscapes; they reveal the science. Look closely and you see a bar graph of glacier decline in the North Cascades. One piece showing temperature rise and ice loss made the cover of Time magazine. Jill said, "I think sometimes when people see data there's this instant reaction, and so it's not like the data is any different in my art, but something about that combination maybe gets people to kind of put down the wall of like, 'Oh, I can't understand this,' or 'You know, this is not something I'm interested in.'" I said, "The average person is not going to read a scientific report, but they will see a painting. And it does impact you in a different way." "Yes, definitely," said Jill. Her art has given her dad a new way to share the story he's been recording for the past 42 years. And it's also changed their relationship: "We do it so seamlessly at this point," Mauri said. "Feels like you're one team out here?" I asked. "Yeah," he replied. Jill added, "This bigger project just means so much to us and has shaped our lives. So, sharing that year after year is beyond special." And now, Mauri Pelto has just eight summers left to fulfill his 50-year promise. Asked what he thinks it will be like to no longer come out to the glaciers, Mauri replied, "I don't know, I can't remember what it was like to not come out here. This landscape has been shaped by ice, and so to understand the landscape and the ice, you really have to walk across it." For more info: Story produced by Chris Spinder, in partnership with Climate Central. Editor: Chris Jolly. See also:
CBS News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
This week on "Sunday Morning" (August 17)
The Emmy Award-winning "CBS News Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. "Sunday Morning" also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.) Hosted by Jane Pauley COVER STORY: Capturing the melting of glaciers, with data and artFor more than 40 years, glaciologist Mauri Pelto has been measuring the shrinking glaciers in the rugged North Cascade Mountains of Washington State. He's been joined by his daughter, artist-scientist Jill Pelto, whose watercolors provide another view of the drastically-changing landscape, as the effects of human-caused climate change on glaciers becomes even more starkly apparent. Correspondent Ben Tracy reports. [Produced in partnership with Climate Central.] For more info: ALMANAC: August 17"Sunday Morning" looks back at historical events on this date. ARTS: Rashid Johnson on art as a source of potential joyArtist Rashid Johnson has used multiple media and materials to create works that examine race, masculinity, identity, aesthetics, and (he says) his own anxiety. Now, Johnson's career is the focus of an exhibition at the Guggenheim New York, "A Poem for Deep Thinkers." Correspondent Alina Cho reports. For more info: TV: Becoming a TV commercial iconYou know them as Flo, the Progressive Insurance saleswoman; Mayhem, the human embodiment of disasters covered by Allstate; and the unstoppable dancer from the Jardiance diabetes drug ads. Correspondent David Pogue talks with actors Stephanie Courtney, Dean Winters and Deanna Colon about how becoming nationally famous via TV commercials has (or hasn't) changed their lives. (Original air date: Feb. 9, 2025.) For more info: MUSIC: Laufey on creating her own soundWhimsical and romantic, the music of Icelandic singer and cellist Laufey Lín Bing Jónsdóttir, or Laufey, blends pop, jazz, classical and bossa nova – a "mishmash," she calls it, which has led to sold-out shows, bestselling albums, and a Grammy Award. With her third album, "A Matter of Time," being released this week, she sits down with correspondent Tracy Smith to discuss her musical tastes; her reaction to the response of young fans; and the thrill of singing a duet with Barbra Streisand of a song she composed, "Letter To My 13-Year-Old Self." To hear Laufey performing "Silver Lining," from her album "A Matter of Time," click on the video player below: For more info: PASSAGE: In memoriam"Sunday Morning" remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week. NATIONAL: A desk with the greatest viewIn the late 1970s, a group of university students in west Texas, wanting a place to study with a view, hauled a desk to the top of Hancock Hill (elevation: 4,900 feet), in the town of Alpine. Today, the desk is a pilgrimage for hikers seeking a meditative place, who leave behind messages in the desk's notebook. Correspondent Janet Shamlian reports on what has become a unique travel destination For more info: THESE UNITED STATES: America's first cash cropTobacco had been cultivated and smoked by Native Americans for centuries before Christopher Columbus introduced it to Europe. Jane Pauley reports on how growing tobacco became America's first cash crop – and ingrained in the nation's culture for generations. TV: "Severance" star Adam ScottActor Adam Scott (who previously starred in the sitcom "Parks and Recreation") is the Emmy-nominated lead in the critically-acclaimed Apple TV+ series "Severance," about workers at a mysterious corporation whose brains are altered to create distinctly separate personalities in and out of the office. He talks with correspondent Conor Knighton about his 30-year path to this head trip of a series, and what it took for him to pull it off. Knighton also talks with director Ben Stiller about how the surreal show came together. To watch the opening titles of "Severance" click on the video player below: For more info: WORLD: The summitCBS News chief political analyst John Dickerson offers perspective on Friday's high-stakes summit between President Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia. TECH: A robotics activist's remarkable crusadeTwenty-two years ago, Silicon Valley executive Henry Evans had a massive stroke that left him mute and paralyzed from the neck down. But that didn't prevent him from becoming a leading advocate of adaptive robotic tech to help disabled people – or from writing country songs, one letter at a time. Correspondent John Blackstone talks with Evans about his upbeat attitude and unlikely pursuits. For more info: NATURE: Providence Canyon in Georgia GALLERY: LOLLAPALOOZA 2025Scroll through our gallery of some of 2025's leading live acts, including from Chicago's Lollapalooza festival, featuring images by CBS News photojournalist Jake Barlow and photographers Ed Spinelli and Kirstine Walton. FROM THE ARCHIVES: Robots open up the world of art (Video)The De Young, one of San Francisco's fine art museums, now has two robots that open the museum up to those who cannot attend, including the physically handicapped. John Blackstone reports on the state-of-the-art in museum tour guides, and interviews robotics activist Henry Evans, a former Silicon Valley executive who is now almost completely paralyzed, and who worked with the museum to make touring by robot a reality. (Air date: March 1, 2025.) MARATHON: An ode to coffee lovers (YouTube Video)"CBS Sunday Morning" serves up a rich pot of stories about the varieties of coffee brewed across countries and cultures. The Emmy Award-winning "CBS News Sunday Morning" is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Executive producer is Rand Morrison. DVR Alert! Find out when "Sunday Morning" airs in your city "Sunday Morning" also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.) Full episodes of "Sunday Morning" are now available to watch on demand on and Paramount+, including via Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon FireTV/FireTV stick and Xbox. Follow us on Twitter/X; Facebook; Instagram; YouTube; TikTok; Bluesky; and at You can also download the free "Sunday Morning" audio podcast at iTunes and at Now you'll never miss the trumpet!
