Ice Knowing You

Enviros seek endangered status for Glacier National Park

Greenland's not the only place where the glaciers, they are a-melting. Montana's Glacier National Park has lost over half its icy cover, and eco-activists have petitioned the United Nations to declare it endangered by global warming -- hoping to force U.S. policy makers to act on reducing the nation's greenhouse-gas emissions. Since Glacier is part of the larger Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site straddling the Canada-U.S. border, the conservationists argue that the U.S. -- a signatory of the U.N. World Heritage Convention -- is obligated to cut emissions to preserve the site's environment. Similar petitions have been filed over World Heritage Sites in the Himalayas, Belize, and the Andes, and UNESCO has established a special commission to review these petitions.