Get Your Ass to These 5 Pristine National Parks While You Still Can

The National Parks System is one of America's longest-standing natural protection initiatives, founded on a promise to preserve nation's cultural and environmental heritage. Pick any one to go to and you'll find some straight up gorgeous scenery. More than100 years after the system was founded, park attendance is at an all-time high. It's good to get away and get all nature-y.

But as park attendance grows, so do the environmental and policy threats facing the National Park System.

"You can think of our National Parks as the 'canaries in the coalmine," Ani Kame'enui, Director of Legislation and Policy at the National Parks Conservation Association told VICE Impact. "One might argue that our wilderness areas and our National Parks are some of the most protected and most pristine areas. And if these areas, that have previously been granted some of our nation's best protections that are most well-loved by Americans, are seeing the impact from environmental degradation and climate change… it's a pretty good indicator of where our air and our water and our public lands are generally."

As park temperature and protected sea levels rise, it might be a good time to pencil in a visit to the National Parks in their authentic, ridiculously beautiful-looking state.

In case you need some pointers on where to head first, here are five breathtaking National Park sites to visit this summer -- and if you go, don't be a joker and be sure to practice Leave No Trace.

The possibly-soon-be "park-formally-known-as-Glacier" is known for its sparkling ice formations and breathtaking arterial road. and is also one of the National Park System's top-ten most visited sites. Glacier has long been a favorite spot for the most adventurous and element-tolerant outdoor adventures, but a recent escalation in glacier melting rates have left ice adventure enthusiasts worrying about coming outdoor seasons.

New research released last month by the US Geological Survey and Portland State University shows that glaciers at the park have been reduced by as much as 85 percent over the last 50 years, with the average glacier shrinking by 39 percent. Only 26 ice formations in the park are large enough to still be considered glaciers by common scientific benchmarks, which is about half the number present in 1968.

Scientist expect the park to be glacier-free by 2030, so get there before they turn into icicles.

Mysterious coves and a gorgeous wooded landscape, Great Smoky Mountains National Parks carpets 521 thousand acres of Tennessee and North Carolina. It's everything you'd want a legit National Park to be. but high levels of smoggy air pollution have left the park's sweeping vistas periodically obscured for decades.

Smoky Mountain air quality has improved marginally in recent years, but the smog issues persist. On top of that, high level of nitrogen and sulfur continue to pollute air and soil deposits alike. At times, ozone levels in the park have even been reported to exceed human health standards and reduce tree productivity and growth, according to the National Parks Service.

Like the rest of the nation's lands, GSM National Park is extremely vulnerable to increased carbon emissions. Research conducted by Yale University shows that a doubling of carbon emissions could lead to an almost 17 percent decrease in mammal species within the park, as well as serious shift in vegetation diversity. With environmental protection legislation and funding being rolled back at an unprecedented rate, concerns over carbon pollution are reaching an all-time high.

The death of the Clean Power Act alone could result in an estimated increase of over 202 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually by 2025. Pair this with a 13 percent cut to National Park Service's discretionary funds, and things are looking pretty rough overall.

"If kids are having asthma attacks in the Great Smoky Mountains, you can guarantee that they're having asthma attacks in urban Chicago or in other urban areas," Kame'enui told VICE Impact. "Our general public should care not only because it's affecting people's visits to National Parks… but they should care because [the National Parks] are a terrific indicator of what we're seeing affected in parts of the country that aren't our National Parks."

Smoky Mountains -- more like smoggy mountains.

95 percent of Biscayne National Park sits under the surface of the Atlantic Ocean and includes a portion of the Florida Reef, lengthy mangrove forests, and a chain of barrier islands. But the reef is seriously at risk.

Biscayne, which is the nation's largest aquatic park, faces serious pollution risks because of the energy-intensive Turkey Point Power Plant located near the park's waters. Turkey Point might sound innocent enough, but they've gone and continued dumping sulfur pollutants into the park's Biscayne Aquifer, and Turkey Point's two-piece nuclear reactor project is responsible for dumping 600,000 pounds of contaminants into Biscayne National Park daily. In case you didn't think that was bad enough, Florida Power and Light, who controls the Turkey Point project, is currently pursuing approval to build two additional reactors near the park.

Rates of acidification in Biscayne National Park are continuing to rise, and the portion of the Florida Reef protected by the park is expected to begin dissolving in coming decades, according to research from the University of Miami. If you ever want to see a reef, now's the time to get there.

Big thicket is home to 40 miles of hiking trails and excellent bird watching oh, also it has 37 oil wells used for some good old fashioned Texas oil drilling.

Park Service 9B rules are intended to protect the parks from the negative effects of the drilling, but in late March, President Trump signed his "Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth" executive order calling for a review of rules intended to regulate drilling in national parks. If 9B is repealed it's essentially a go-ahead to drill baby drill without, regulation.

But this all might not be Trump's fault. In 2005 the Sierra Club sued the Park Service for failing to sufficiently apply 9B regulations at the preserve as oil companies drilled under the park from outside of the park's borders. Please see this scene from There Will Be Blood to try and get some context for that.

Drilling rates could be on the up and up in the near future, so take a trip to see Big Thicket's more than 1,300 species of trees, vines, and more (including four species of blood-hungry carnivorous plants!) while this park is still in one solid piece.

Already incredibly arid, Joshua Tree National Park has been feeling the heat of global climate change since way before that U2 album named after it came out. But real talk: The park's iconic tree species is dwindling as a result. It's so in trouble that environmental groups have petitioned for the tree to jump right behind polar bears as the second species listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.

Concerns over total habitat loss are often focused on arctic climates (who hasn't seen some environmentalist poster of a sad polar bear on a melting glacier?), desert dwellers are also at high risk. Arid desert habitats already provide tough living conditions and even slight changes in temperature and precipitation rates could drastically alter the chances of survival for vulnerable desert species.

The worry is that up to 90 percent of joshua trees could disappear from the park by the end of the century if warming rates continue, leaving California's favorite desert park without its namesake.

Advocacy groups including the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, National Parks Conservation Association, and Park Rangers for Our Lands are working to protect the National Parks System through education, fundraising, and policy efforts. The National Parks Service also offers a variety of in-park volunteer opportunities. Attend a volunteer event, or search for opportunities either through the .gov volunteer search engine, or by looking within a specific park.