There is a new long article at BBC Online about variations in warming, melting, and thickening across Antartica and Arctica.
There is also info on glaciers, I was impressed by this graph:
The graph was accompanied by the following text:
“The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep), collates records from across the globe and issues regular bulletins of area and volume changes.
Two years ago, they concluded that 30 major glaciers – assessed as being a representative global sample – had thinned by an average 6m between 1980 and 2001.
“It will have a major impact,” says Professor Hambrey, “mainly through reductions in the fresh water supply.
Will iconic mountains like the Matterhorn become ice-free?
“Cities like La Paz in Bolivia and Lima in Peru rely heavily on glacial meltwater from the high Andes brought down into dry arid areas.
“Switzerland, by contrast, uses meltwater for hydroelectric power generation. If the glaciers disappear, their generating capacity will be very much reduced.”
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Just back from the field – 30 glaciers as a representative sample? If memory serves me, there are over 600 plus glaciers world-wide. And from a geostatistical perspective, I wonder what their sample support is.
I suspect that close scrutiny of the study might result in an unintended collision with a large body of ice.
And if the BBC and its eco-nuttery think that glacial calving, (when glaciers release ice-bergs at ever increasing rates) means that they are reducing in size, then alas, the science is suspect.
Most regions of the world are experiencing glacer loss:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2004/0715glacierquakes.html
” Southern Alaskan glaciers are very sensitive to climate change, Sauber added. Many glaciers have shrunk or disappeared over the last 100 years. The trend, which appears to be accelerating, seems to be caused by higher temperatures and changes in precipitation.”
“The rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers will first increase the volume of water in rivers, causing widespread flooding,” said Jennifer Morgan, director of the WWF’s Global Climate Change Programme.
“But in a few decades this situation will change and the water level in rivers will decline, meaning massive eco and environmental problems for people in western China, Nepal and northern India.”
and still more
http://unisci.com/stories/20011/0117013.htm
“The researchers stress that the recent quickening of glacial melt in the Andes corresponds with the greater intensity and frequency of El Niño events observed over the same period.
Andean glaciers are particularly sensitive to climatic fluctuations owing to the position of most of them in the tropics and to the specific mechanisms by which they function.”
Some more “eco-nuttery”
Ice and Climate News – read the bottom
http://clic.npolar.no/newsletters/archive/ice_climate_2005_08_no_06.pdf
The full study
http://www.geo.unizh.ch/wgms/mbb/mbb8/sum0203.html
30 were chosed and a representive sample of world wide glaciers.
Glaciers are melting – so what?
Should I care about glaciers?
Are now glaciers to be preserved?
All that snow and ice, very cold stuff, makes nice postcards but dreadful to live in – you can keep it (I’ll bet the peasants are rejoicing in Russia, warmer weather means more food less hunger)
Well it might mean something is happening like the place is warming up?
And if your water supply comes from that system it could be a tad inconvenient. And if your village gets swept away in a mud slide it would really bring you down.
But I don’t think the nursery will notice though …
Ender
“But in a few decades this situation will change and the water level in rivers will decline, meaning massive eco and environmental problems for people in western China, Nepal and northern India.”
Based on what science and what model ?
Loius – based on the science of water flowing downhill.
Dont throw away those woolly clothes just yet;
RECENT GLACIER ADVANCES IN NORWAY AND NEW ZEALAND: A COMPARISON OF THEIR GLACIOLOGICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL CAUSES
Authors: CHINN, T.1; WINKLER, S.2; SALINGER, M.J.3; HAAKENSEN, N.4
Source: Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography, Volume 87, Number 1, March 2005, pp. 141-157(17)
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
Abstract:
.
Norway and New Zealand both experienced recent glacial advances, commencing in the early 1980s and ceasing around 2000, which were more extensive than any other since the end of the Little Ice Age.
Common to both countries, the positive glacier balances are associated with an increase in the strength of westerly atmospheric circulation which brought increased precipitation.
In Norway, the changes are also associated with lower ablation season temperatures.
In New Zealand, where the positive balances were distributed uniformly throughout the Southern Alps, the period of increased mass balance was coincident with a change in the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation and an associated increase in El Ni
But why would you beleive in a statistically dodgy thing like the IPO ? and not global warming …
Buy yep is true that a few are not declining – pity the vast majority are the other way … and accelerating … see previous thread some weeks ago this blog
And did you say ceasing at 2000 ?…. hmmmm …
Ender,
There are over 600 glaciers on the planet – so 30 do not represent a representative sample in any sense of the meaning, since each and every glacier is a unique localised phenomenon.
Another case of the misuse of statistics by those who don’t understand the limitations of statistics.
So if 30 sites randomly sampled out of 600 possible sites show diamonds Louis would move on … mmmm… yup …
20 out of 600 is a valid sample. Another case of geologists who never were trained in statistics. Kriging indeed…
Anyway the evidence for a worldwide meltdown is overwhelming. According to the World Glacier Monitoring Service in Zurich, Switzerland, of the 88 glaciers surveyed in 2002 and 2003, only four were growing and at least 79 were receding.
Oerlemans’s study of 169 glaciers reveals glacial retreat has accelerated in recent years. In Patagonia, the pace of retreat has doubled in the past three decades.
It really is utterly incredible isn’t it … so we’re sailing through the Arctic soon – glaciers are melting world-wide, the troposhere is now warming by satellites … and I have John telling me the world isn’t warming – it’s actually cooling 1998-2003.
The worldwide temperature network according to Hughes and John is a major league con… which is consistent with the world cooling ?*(^(*&@^@!!?? huh … but isn’t it … is it. ARe we seriously saying the world is cooling. If so please someone step up to the plate.
But these people will believe in little ice bubbles in ice cores – why would you selectively believe that science. I mean we threw out peer review as a method of assessment in previous threads did we not ?
You guys had better come up a serious story soon…. of we’ll have to suspect that you’re pulling our legs …
Cripes my tea leaves are predicting a bad day too.
In the last month in the Antarctic as summer approaches ice has advanced across the Weddell sea to an extent almost as far as it did in December 1914 when Shakleton’s ship the Endurance was trapped
in it.Did Global Warming cause that ?