Melting Wash. ice caps show climate change

SEATTLE, June 10 (UPI) -- Officials from Washington state's North Cascades National Park warn the melting of area ice caps is indicative of a change in the world's climate.

Park officials said the melting of the region's ice caps represents a strong indication global warming has begun its adverse effects outside of more frigid regions of the world, the Chicago Tribune said Sunday.

Supported by conservationists, park officials warned such changes would not only threaten regional parks' aesthetics, but their ecosystems as well.

"Olympic, Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Glacier (National Parks) -- you can look at a large geographic region using the parks as the sampling points of the impacts of global climate change," park official Chip Jenkins said.

Supporters of the park did applaud President George Bush's comments at last week's Group of Eight summit.

The Tribune said the Bush administration labeled such instances of climate change a serious concern for the nation and the world.