https:\/\/around.uoregon.edu\/content\/clark-honors-college-historian-earns-fame-mountaineer<\/a><\/p>\n

from Around the O<\/em>, Sept. 19, 2018\u2014<\/strong>Mark Carey<\/a> never saw it coming, but his 20 years of research in a region of South America strongly affected by glaciers have elevated him into international mountaineering fame.<\/p>\n

Carey, a historian in the UO\u2019s Clark Honors College and director of the Environmental Studies Program, received the King Albert Mountain Award during ceremonies Sept. 8 in Pontresina, Switzerland. The honor goes to \u201cpersons or institutions that have distinguished themselves in some way in the mountain world.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>Carey was joined at the winner\u2019s podium in the King Albert I Memorial Foundation\u2019s 13th award ceremony by Iranian female mountain explorer Nasim Eshqi, Swiss filmmakers who documented a cross-country skiing trip on the Silk Road, and representatives of Italy\u2019s Val Grande National Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty surprised. I was in shock when they got in touch with me,\u201d Carey said. \u201cI appreciate this award because it values the historical context that I bring into research on glaciers, climate change and natural hazards. And it recognizes the fundamental importance of cross-disciplinary collaborations, which I have increasingly put at the forefront of my research practices with concepts like hydro-social modeling and integrated disaster prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n

The awards, given every two years, are issued in memory of King Albert I of Belgium, who died during a solitary rock climb near Brussels in 1934. Carey, who received a gold medal and a certificate, is one of 56 recipients since the award was established in 1993.<\/p>\n

The certificate recognized Carey for his lifelong devotion to the mountains, which began as a park ranger at Mount Rainier and Glacier National parks, his studies in Latin American and environmental history, his teaching role, and his Glacier Lab for the Study of Ice and Society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carey has done research for 20 years in the Cordillera Blanca, a stretch of the Andes Mountains in Peru that encompasses more than 500 tropical glaciers, and the valley below it where 250,000 people, mostly farmers and ranchers, live. The region has a long history of glacier-related floods and avalanches.<\/p>\n

 \u201cThousands of people have died as a result of these events,\u201d Carey said. \u201cI don\u2019t know of any other place in the world where glacier melting has been so catastrophic as in this one valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

People in the area, northeast of Lima, over many decades have adapted strategies to monitor glacial activity and construct artificial dams to prevent outburst floods from glacial lakes. Yet, he said, dangerous glacial lakes still exist and some remediation projects have fallen apart amid political and economic upheaval.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to understand the impacts of melting glaciers from a societal perspective, especially the politics behind the projects that are chosen to be completed,\u201d Carey said. \u201cAfter many decades of success preventing outburst floods, there are still vulnerabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

A glacial lake that burst in the 1940s and killed 2,000 people now has more water in it than it did then, he noted. The population of Huaraz, which had 12,000 people at the time, is now 120,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a story of both shrinking glaciers and societal change, which demands cross-disciplinary collaboration,\u201d Carey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last decade, I\u2019ve also been looking at water issues related to glacier retreat, suggesting that we should not be focused solely on ice loss or just the climate story but rather be more attentive to downstream water management, rights and the distribution of water from glaciers,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a supply of water that leaves the glacier, and, as it does, it becomes deeply political and economic. Who gets that water and who doesn\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n

That effort, which has led to Carey\u2019s speaking with various government agencies and at academic conferences in Peru, is being done through the Transdisciplinary Andean Research Network, which Carey co-founded and leads with several other researchers in the United States, Canada and Peru.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis interdisciplinary group has teamed up to bring fresh, innovative perspectives to these processes, generating conclusions that come from rigorous interactions and stimulating cross-disciplinary collaboration,\u201d Carey said.<\/p>\n

His glacier lab in the Clark Honors College includes a mix of undergraduate, master\u2019s and doctoral students, as well as occasional postdoctoral researchers. Carey\u2019s mentoring efforts with students led to his winning an all all-campus advising award in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of teaching and mentoring involved to encourage thinking about environmental problems in a broad way that brings in the social science and humanities to complement work in the natural sciences,\u201d said Carey, who also is working with UO earth scientist Dave Sutherland on iceberg research in the North Atlantic.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also working on a book, geared for the general public, that will portray a 150-year period in which icebergs have captured people\u2019s imagination. It will encompass, he said, how icebergs have influenced such things as artwork, tourism, shipping and the oil industry. He will cover that effort, which focuses on icebergs in the North Atlantic, in a Quack Chats pub talk, “What is an Iceberg? Redefining Ice from Cultural and Historical Perspectives.” The free talk will begin at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 26, at the Ax Billy Grill, located on the third floor of the Downtown Athletic Club.<\/p>\n

\u2014By Jim Barlow, University Communications<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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