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“We took her up on the ice quite a ways in and talked to her about the retreat of the glacier.”

Pomeroy told her about how the glacier had retreated two kilometres since the late 1800s and how it had lost many tens of metres of thickness in the past few decades.

“Our recent measurements on it are showing a substantial climate warming in the region,” he said.

Photo by Greta Thunberg Twitter account.

Pomeroy said it’s easy to see the impact by looking at the glacier, but they were also able to show Thunberg why by digging into the ice.

“This year alone we lost six metres of ice downward off the top, six metres of melt, which is the highest we have ever measured,” he said.

That melt, he said, occurred even though it wasn’t a particularly warm summer.

“The reason was due to ash and soot that had been deposited on the glacier in previous years, and now we have algae growing on the glaciers, binding the ash and soot to the ice and darkening the glacier,” said Pomeroy. “It’s absorbing much more solar radiation and melting away as a result.”

He said Thunberg was very interested in seeing the algae and learning more about the glacier’s retreat.

“Clearly, as is very apparent in her public persona, she is a very serious person, but clearly a very smart person,” he said.

“She’s a strong figure with strong views. From a science end, I like the message, ‘Listen to scientists and focus on the science.’ ”

Thunberg has turned her climate fight into a global movement that has seen her speak plainly to world leaders, chastising them to do something before it’s too late to reverse catastrophic weather changes. She also inspired Fridays For Future, weekly protests to highlight the need for urgent action aimed at halting climate change.

She will visit Vancouver to take part in what organizers bill as a postelection climate rally.

Thunberg attended a similar climate rally in Edmonton last Friday that attracted thousands of people to the Alberta legislature.

She also met with two northern Alberta First Nations to learn more about the oilsands.

— By Colette Derworiz in Edmonton.