Environmental impacts from millions of tonnes of earth and water sluicing down a valley and spilling into the ocean are just beginning to be understood, say scientists studying a massive landslide in the Bute Inlet watershed. Climate change set the stage for the slide that occurred on the morning of Nov. 28, according to Brent Ward, a geologist at Simon Fraser University. A retreating glacier northeast of the head of Bute Inlet left a mountain slope above Elliot Creek unstable, said Ward, who is also co-director for SFU’s Centre for Natural Hazards Research. A section of the mountain — normally secured by the glacier and located above an older slide — came loose, plunging six to seven million cubic metres of rock and earth into a glacial lake at the head of the creek, Ward said.