Mt Cook is part of a national park that is a World Heritage Site and has mostly unspoiled alpine scenery.  Despite being a protected natural area, some environmental problems still threaten Mt. Cook.  Concerns such as melting glaciers, deforestation, the loss of wildlife habitat, and climate change to name a few.  The problems are largely external and out of the hands of those who protect this natural beauty. 

A major concern is climate change.  Climate is highly variable and can change abruptly.  Human civilization has risen during a period of warming following the retreat of the continental ice sheets some 15,000 years ago.  Unfortunately the regular rise in climate has taken an exponential increase due to the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other unnatural occurrences perpetrated by mankind.  This increase in temperature wreaks havoc on glaciers.  Mt. Cook has several major glaciers including Tasman, Hooker, and Mueller which are now at a “climatic tipping point” (Henzel 2007).  The Tasman glacier is the largest of all the glaciers in the Southern Alps and is approaching a collapse of the moraine walls.  This would leave access to some of the most famous peaks near impossible.  According to Braun-Elwert, the Tasman Glacier was a solid sheet of ice in the 1970’s and now there is a 5 km lake at the base and in 10years times it is expected to be 10 km long (Henzel 2007).  The melting of the glaciers could also result in massive landslides and make access to the Alps too difficult and even dangerous.  This occurrence could be devastating to the villages that rely on tourist money.                        

(Glacier Country 2007)