George Bird Grinnell, the "Father of Glacier National Park", made a final visit to his namesake Grinnell glacier in 1926 and then wrote in his diary [1]:

>"the glacier is melting very fast and the amount of water coming from it is great. All these glaciers are receding rapidly and after a time will disappear."

[1] = https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/repeat-photos-of-grinnell-g...

It's important to also note, as explained in the article: >"Grinnell was witnessing the glacier react to a relatively natural change in the climate. The Little Ice Age, which was a cold period when the park’s current glaciers were at their largest, ended in the late 1800s as the climate started warming. The melting of the park’s glaciers in the late 1800s, was a mostly natural reaction to the end of the Little Ice Age."

The quote, without context, implied to me that he had an understanding of anthropogenic climate change a century ago. While there were people[1] at that time who did theorize this was happening, I don't think that's what Grinnell was implying in his diary.

It's also the case that the amount of melting then pales in comparison to the amount occurring today - so I'm not attempting to say that what we see today may be the continuing of a natural climate fluctuation.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Gustaf_Ekholm

I was at Glacier Bay National Park just last week (https://photos.prakhar.me/alaska) and it was just depressing to hear from the park rangers on how far the glaciers have receded. Really grateful to have been able to witness them in person but it is sad to see what we've done to this planet.

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