Glaciers

[asperity]

The disappearing glaciers? perhaps not

 

1. Himalayan glaciers are growing, not shrinking

 

Things are not as they seemed to be in the IPCC report. Not only are the Himalayan glaciers not shrinking, they?re growing. Discovery reports:

 

Perched on the soaring Karakoram mountains in the Western Himalayas, a group of some 230 glaciers are bucking the global warming trend. They?re growing. Throughout much of the Tibetan Plateau, high-altitude glaciers are dwindling in the face of rising temperatures. The situation is potentially dire for the hundreds of millions of people living in China, India and throughout southeast Asia who depend on the glaciers for their water supply.

 

But in the rugged western corner of the plateau, the story is different, according to a new study. Among legendary peaks of Mt. Everest like K2 and Nanga Parbat, glaciers with a penthouse view of the world are growing, and have been for almost three decades.

 

?These are the biggest mid-latitude glaciers in the world,? John Shroder of the University of Nebraska-Omaha said. ?And all of them are either holding still, or advancing.?

 

Source: Discovery

 

2. Alaska?s Hubbard Glacier. Growing. A lot.

 

Alaska?s Hubbard Glacier is advancing moving toward Gilbert Point near Yakutat at an average of seven feet per day.

 

The Army Corp of Engineers? Hubbard Glacier website for has some great photos of the advancing behemoth.

 

Source: CDApress.com

 

3. Norwegian glaciers. Growing again.

 

IceAgeNow.com reports on the growth of Norwegian glaciers:

 

?After years of decline, glaciers in Norway are again growing, reports the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate. The actual magnitude of the growth, which appears to have begun over the last two years, has not yet been quantified, says NVE Senior Engineer Hallgeir Elveh?y.?The developments were originally reported by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).

 

Source: IceAgeNow.com

 

4. Glaciers growing on Canada?s tallest mountain

 

Canada.com tells the tale of glaciers growing on Canada?s tallest mountain:

 

?Canada?s tallest mountain, the Yukon?s towering Mount Logan, may have experienced a growth spurt.



 

?The University of Alaska aerial survey, conducted last summer with a laser altimeter by Fairbanks-based geoscientist Sandy Zirnheld, pegged Canada?s geographic zenith at 5,966 metres. That?s seven metres (23 feet) higher than the official height of 5,959 metres, determined in 1992 after a celebrated climb to the top by a team of Canadian researchers led by Mike Schmidt of the Geological Survey of Canada.



 

?Snow and ice accumulation is the most likely explanation,? Chris Larsen, the scientist leading the University of Alaska?s research on the continent?s northwest mountain ranges, said.?


 

Source: Canada.com

 

5. North to Alaska and more growing glaciers

 

Alaska?s glaciers have been in retreat for nearly 200 years. But now they?re advancing again.

 

MichNews.com reports the cold, hard facts:

 

?Unusually large amounts of Alaskan snow last winter were followed by unusually chilly temperatures there this summer. ?In general, the weather this summer was the worst I have seen in at least 20 years,? says Bruce Molnia of the U.S. Geological Survey, and author of The Glaciers of Alaska. ?It?s been a long time on most glaciers where they?ve actually had positive mass balance (added thickness).?

 

?Overall, Molnia figures Alaska had lost 10?12,000 square kilometers of ice since 1800, the depths of the Little Ice Age. That?s enough ice to cover the state of Connecticut. Climate alarmists claim all the glaciers might disappear soon, but they haven?t looked at the long-term evidence of the 1,500-year Dansgaard-Oeschger climate cycles. During the Little Ice Age?1400 to 1850?Muir Glacier filled the whole of Glacier Bay. Since then, the glacier has retreated 57 miles.

 

Source: MichNews.com

 

6. Glaciers are growing in California. California?

 

You might be surprised to learn that the Golden State has glaciers. And the Associated Press says they?re growing:

 

?Global warming is shrinking glaciers all over the world, but the seven tongues of ice creeping down Mount Shasta?s flanks are a rare exception: They are the only known glaciers in the continental U.S. that are growing.?

 

Source: FoxNews.com

 

7. A glacier is growing on Washington?s Mt. St. Helens.

 

Mount Saint Helens has glaciers? But it?s an active volcano. But, but, but?

 

KATU-TV reports the details:

 

?On May 18, 1980, the once bucolic ice-cream cone shape that defined Mount St. Helens in Washington state disappeared in monstrous blast of ash, rock, gas, and heat.

 

?Inside the volcano, which was once a soft dome of snow but is now a gaping, steaming menace with an unpredictable streak, an unexpected phenomenon is taking place: a glacier is growing.

 

?In these days of global warming concerns and scientists showing alarming then-and-now images of glaciers disappearing from mountainsides, it may be the only growing glacier in America ? or maybe the world.

 

Source: KATU.com

 

8. Glaciers are growing in France and Switzerland, too

 

Another continent has reported in. According to an article in the Journal of Geophysical Research, glaciers are growing in France and Switzerland, too:

 

The research was conducted by six scientists from leading agencies and departments in France and Switzerland that deal with hydrology and glaciology. The research was funded by Observatoire des Sciences de l?Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), the European Programs ALPCLIM and CARBOSOL, and by the city of Chamonix Mont-Blanc.Vincent et al. collected a variety of datasets that could help them understand how the high-elevation glaciers of Mont Blanc were impacted by variations and trends in climate. Among other findings, they found that the mass balance of the glaciers is strongly controlled by precipitation, not temperature.

 

Vincent et al. state ?The most striking features of these figures are the small thickness changes observed over the 20th century. For both areas, thickness variations do not exceed ?15 m. The average changes are +2.6 m at D?me du Go?ter (please note that this glacier is growing) and -0.3 m (-12 inches) at Mont Blanc.

 

?Considering the uncertainty interval, i.e., ?5 m, it can be concluded that no significant thickness change is detectable over most of these areas?. ?All these results suggest that the SMBD?me du Go?ter and Mont Blanc did not experience any significant changes over the 20th century.?

 

Source: World Climate Report

 

9. New Zealand?s largest glaciers are growing


 

Growing may not be a strong enough word. They?re surging. IceAgeNow.com reports the story:

 

Guides say the Franz Josef and the Fox glaciers continued advancing down their valleys in the past year and may soon be close to positions reached 40 years ago.

 

That (supposedly) contrasts sharply with the plight of many glaciers elsewhere on the planet, which are (supposedly) shrinking three times faster than they were in the 1980s, according to the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS).

 

?

 

Franz Josef Glacier Guides base manager Tom Arnold estimated the Franz Josef and the Fox had advanced hundreds of meters in the past year.

 

Source: IceAgeNow.com

 

10. Russia?s glaciers are growing, too

 

The Russians don?t believe the IPCC forecasts, but they do believe their own eyes.

 

In 2002, a 22-million ton piece of ice broke off the gigantic Maili Glacier and crashed down a steep gorge into the village of Kami. It killed more than 150 people and injured hundreds more.The 500-foot wall of ice had been growing for six years. The Maili Glacier is just one of several glaciers in the North Caucasus Mountains that have been expanding at an alarming rate.

 

Other towns in the region have been partially buried by these advancing walls of ice. One local scientist in southern Russia said, ?We may be seeing the beginning of a new great ice age!!!?

 

Source: IceAgeNow.com

 

11. Argentina?s Perito Moreno glacier is, you guessed it, growing

 

Is there a continent where glaciers aren?t growing? If so, South America isn?t one of them. Consider Argentina?s Perito Moreno glacier:

 

Nourished by Andean snowmelt, the glacier constantly grows even as it spawns icebergs the size of apartment buildings into a frigid lake, maintaining a nearly perfect equilibrium since measurements began more than a century ago.

 

?We?re not sure why this happens,? said Andres Rivera, a glacialist with the Center for Scientific Studies in Valdivia, Chile. ?But not all glaciers respond equally to climate change.?

 

Source: IceAgeNow.com

 

12. Iceland?s Breidamerkurjokull glacier. Yup, it?s growing, too.

 

The Daily Mail UK ran a story on July 31, 2009 about the horrors of global warming. It was accompanied, for some inexplicable reason, by contradictory photos that showed the remarkable growth of Iceland?s Breidamerkurjokull glacier.

 

Their headline screamed, ?How global warming is changing the face of the northern hemisphere.? The photos and caption told a story that was, you?ll pardon the expression, the polar opposite of what the article described.

[LymmParent]

Asp, you can't just make pithy little comments like that - you need some more information!!

[asperity]

Sorry, I'll try and pad it out a bit in future.

[Paul Kennedy]

The thought police will be around shortly Aspers.

 

I've given the matter of climate change/global warming/tax raising opportunity ...call it what you will, considerable thought, and my view is that it makes economic sense to reduce energy consumption and use energy more efficiently and that in so doing leave some finite resources for future generations. What I don't want is so called experts and politicians prattling on about glaciers/ icebergs / ice caps shrinking, growing, heading north, heading south etc etc.

 

History tells us that the Earth's climate changes, and I understand even its polarity has.

[Peter T]

Surely man cannot be wrong. Nature must be wrong.

It's all about money-making opportunities and vote catching garbage.

[harry hayes]

The glaciers will still be there, long after they have left Manchester united (I know - pathetic isn't it?)

 

Methinks we are the victims of an almost un-necessary crusade, which has caused much more damage to finances than the family alluded to above. But one, I would gladly see melt away, the other will remain.

 

Happy days

[LymmParent]

The thought police will be around shortly Aspers.

 

Come on Paul - we all know he's innocent there!!

[asperity]

Miaowwww LP

[LymmParent]

Oooh, you ungrateful beast, Asp! There I am defending you and you're not a bit nice to me....

[asperity]

I've given the matter of climate change/global warming/tax raising opportunity ...call it what you will, considerable thought, and my view is that it makes economic sense to reduce energy consumption and use energy more efficiently and that in so doing leave some finite resources for future generations.

 

I agree with you on that score Paul, but you have to wonder why the government is so hell bent on increasing energy consumption and emissions by building wind farms. An explanation of why wind farms are inefficient here:

 

http://tinyurl.com/297xlw

[Paul Kennedy]

I've given the matter of climate change/global warming/tax raising opportunity ...call it what you will, considerable thought, and my view is that it makes economic sense to reduce energy consumption and use energy more efficiently and that in so doing leave some finite resources for future generations.

 

I agree with you on that score Paul, but you have to wonder why the government is so hell bent on increasing energy consumption and emissions by building wind farms. An explanation of why wind farms are inefficient here:

 

http://tinyurl.com/297xlw

 

Makes you wonder if some of their advisers haven't got an "interest" in wind farm businesses, or they are trying to stop nuclear power in order to protect their mates...and tax revenues, in the oil industry. Even doing our best to reduce energy consumption which as I've said before is good economic policy, we are still left with a big number, a very big number, which requires a big form of energy production....in the form of a power station, and probably nuclear or cleaned up fossil fuel burners.

 

PS I'm not against wind turbines or other forms of "green" energy as a form of local small scale energy production. Indeed for domestic heating I think a lot more should be done with heat pumps drawing heat from the ground, you don't have to go too far down to get a constant supply of warmth.

 

Trouble is I think our energy production and future plans are dominated by obsessives, rather than those who can look at things objectively.

[asperity]

The problem is that the power companies have to be seen to be complying with the renewable energy obligation or pay massive fines. So obviously they buy into the windmill scam and get subsidies for doing so. Meanwhile it's the consumer and taxpayer who has to pay the higher costs. More fool us for listening to these climate change fraudsters

[Sha]

Paul says....

"Makes you wonder if some of their advisers haven't got an "interest" in wind farm businesses......."

 

I think it's more likely that there are those who wish to profit via the Nuclear Power industry.

Knowing of the massive public resistance to nuclear power is frightening the public into acceptance of it through fears of global warming what it's really all about?

 

Being an island, wouldn't water power be a more environmentally friendly source of power for Britain?

[Mary]

So a Polar Ice shift will be the next scare for folks - just wait and see.

[Paul Kennedy]

Being an island, wouldn't water power be a more environmentally friendly source of power for Britain?

 

You are right of course and personally I would love that to be our source of energy, but it is a question of numbers, as I said before energy demand is a big number, a very big number, and individual units of green energy supply, supply relatively small numbers, whereas a relatively small area of land with a fosil fuel or nuclear power station on it can supply a large number, DRAX for example supplies 7% of UK demand when running at full capacity.

[Paul Kennedy]

Knowing of the massive public resistance to nuclear power

 

Not sure that there is massive public resistance, what I think there is is a relatively small number of anti nuclear power campaigners who have a high profile campaign, which has a political element to it to give it that added impetus.

[Sha]

Being an island, wouldn't water power be a more environmentally friendly source of power for Britain?

 

You are right of course and personally I would love that to be our source of energy, but it is a question of numbers, as I said before energy demand is a big number, a very big number, and individual units of green energy supply, supply relatively small numbers, whereas a relatively small area of land with a fosil fuel or nuclear power station on it can supply a large number, DRAX for example supplies 7% of UK demand when running at full capacity.

 

Canada, Brazil, Norway, Switzerland, Venezuela generate the majority of their electric energy from hydroelectric power.

Norway generating as much as 98-99%.

Whilst Paraquay not only produces 100% of it's own electric power via hydroelectric dams but also exports 90% of it's production to Brazil and the Argentine.

 

Obviously cost effective for them, so I'm sure Britain could increase production....if there was a will !

[Sha]

Not sure that there is massive public resistance,

 

What difference would it make if there was or not?

Public opinion means nothing to the 'powers that be' and the Fat Cat profiteers who just override it anyway.

[Paul Kennedy]

I understand that most of their hydroelectric power is generated by dams, not sure we have suitable water courses and more importantly if they would get planning permission.

 

And interestingly Switzerland has nuclear power.......as does Canada & Brazil.

[Sha]

.......more importantly if they would get planning permission.

 

Think you're right there Paul!

They'd soon be knocking the dust off the greenbelt, heritage and wildlife conservation protection acts!

[Bill]

Hydroelectric power relies on the potential energy of water and I don?t think we have enough mountains or water sources to get anywhere near those figures. The existing hydro schemes contribute only a fraction of our needs and even thought they?re not quite so variable as wind power, they can?t be relied upon during long dry periods.

 

Tidal power is the only guaranteed natural resource we have but it?s not quite as easy to implement as planting a windmill. What we could do is to use the all the energy produced by windmills to power hydroelectric pumped storage systems and that way we get energy when we need it rather than just when the wind decides to blow. It?s not the most efficient way but it'd normalise the demand on the power stations.

 

Bill

[Peter T]

 

And interestingly Switzerland has nuclear power.......as does Canada & Brazil.

 

I hope the Yanks don't find out, they'll be getting invaded.

 

What happened to the one at Transffynnydd?