Dear editor,
In answer to Mr. Ralph Shaw’s comments in the May 29, 2014 Record regarding the fact that the Comox Glacier is getting smaller, he is right as it has been getting smaller for a long, long time; 15,000 years in fact.
Background – the war years of 1939-1945.
My father, W.F. Murray, was a WW1 machine gunner. Because he was a Vet, he got a job weighing all the gravel for CFB Comox.
At that time we lived on Cumberland Road, at the corner of Cumberland Rd. and Arden Rd, below the gravel pit. One evening he came home from work and told me to go up to the gravel pit and get some ice. Because they were removing gravel 12 to 14 hours a day, they were moving faster than the heat.
The block of ice was the size of a small compact car and was very hard and it was whitish blue. So I went by bike with a milk pail and a hatchet and returned with a bucket of ice. So dear old Dad had Scotch on the rocks as there were no fridges in those days. The gravel on Cumberland Road is Terminal Moraine and the Comox Glacier has been retreating for approximately 15,000 years. See page 5 Glacier and Icebergs by Stephen E. Bruneau.
The whole world is on a natural warming trend. To stop burning fossil fuel and look to alternate energy sources is foolish and expensive.
What is the excuse going to be when the cycle changes and the world turns to a cooling cycle?
A mister R.T. also saw the ice and he is still living in the Valley. The distance of the retreat is approximately 20 miles.
C.V. Murray
Courtenay
