Glaciers and climate change in Alaska
Presently, ~10% of the land area of the world is covered by glaciers. During the last Ice Age (~10,000-110,000 years ago), ~32% was covered by glaciers. During the last Ice Age, global temperatures were between 4 and 8 degrees Celcius cooler than today (7 - 12 degrees F). Temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans is closely related to the amount of glaciers. Because of this simple relationship between temperature and the amount of ice, we should expect melting glaciers if temperatures continue to increase. Melting glaciers add water to the world oceans, thus raising sea level which have many implications for human civilizations.
Understanding Alaska glaciers is very important. Glaciers in Alaska make up only ~13% of the total mountain glacier area in the world but they provide the provide the largest contribution to recent sea level rise of any other region! Why? Increased summer temperature is thought to be the main culprit behind Alaska's large contribution but many Alaskan glaciers have high rates of mass turnover (i.e. they can potentially move quickly or "surge") delivering large amounts of melt to the oceans.