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originally uploaded by russ.

I “got high” to shoot that pix on Mount Hood. Upwards of 7,000 feet.

A most depressing cover article in today’s Oregonian describes the glacial loss on Mount Hood in ominous terms.

Sandy Glacier, on Mount Hood’s west slopes facing Portland and a headwaters of the Sandy River, covers about 60 percent less ground than it did a century ago. Other glaciers have comparable attrition rates.

The pace of melting has been drastically quickening over the last few decades. Yes, I know the mountain is white now, but just give it a few months.

Of course global warming has mostly been responsible for this quickening pace, but I have to wonder if threatening local and regional phenomena will cause melting to go even faster.

Now that Measure 37 has been upheld, I sense lots of farms turned into subdivisions- employment centers, shopping centers and strip malls being built to serve the people in these new subdivisions. And, of course, the great majority of shoppers will get to these facilities by car.

Since the entirety of the Portland metro is situated west of Mount Hood, and air generally blows west to east at this latitude, that means that in several years when more subdivisions rise on what was farmland, emissions from vehicles will hit west-facing Sandy Glacier right in the face.

Private-property rights folks such as Lars Larson may have gotten their way with Measure 37. But all I know is if, mere decades from now, Mount Hood becomes a big pile of brown rocks, Measure 37 and its selfish advocates won’t be able to escape at least a bit of blame.

Maybe more.