Comments on: GCCI #6: A Ridiculously Narrow Time Window – Glaciers

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:45:28 +0000

Not that it’s conclusive either way, but let’s not overlook the trend that glaciers are retreating virtually everywhere in the northern hemisphere at unprecedented rates… Typical waxing and waning of glaciers is more localized and slower…

If you care to check it out…: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/03/worldwide-glacier-retreat/

By: Hey Skipper

Hey Skipper — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:13:21 +0000

I visited Columbia Glacier in British Columbia a couple years ago. In the museum they had a series of pictures starting (IIRC) in 1850: the glacier has been continuously retreating over the entire period.

Exit Glacier, about 50 miles south of Anchorage, has signs marking the glacier’s terminus by decade since the mid-1800s. Same story — continuous retreat.

Either Warmenist report writers are idiots, or they think the rest of us are. (Actually, I suppose both could be simultaneously true.)

By: Harry Eagar

Harry Eagar — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:20:00 +0000

Which would be meaningless.

By: MikeN

MikeN — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:39:56 +0000

Check out the Copenhagen report. They have a 5 year chart of glacier decline, with 2003 set at 0.

By: Harry Eagar

Harry Eagar — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:05:24 +0000

A handy and unimpeachable survey of waxing and waning glaciers (at least in the eastern Alps) is Emanuel Le Roy Ladurie’s ‘Times of Feast, Times of Famine,’ which uses incontrovertible evidence (like shepherds’ chapels covered by ice) of the expansion and contraction of glaciers since 1000.

One thing clear from that is that over the past millenium (at least), glacial trends measured in segments shorter than about 300 years are meaningless.

(Le Roy Ledurie was not a climatologist. He was France’s leading historian. His book was published 30 years ago, well before Hansen began his misguided campaign. If more people had been aware of Le Roy Ladurie back then, Hansen would have been laughed out of town.)

By: Keith H

Keith H — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:40:04 +0000

Here is another of my favorite glacier graphics:
http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2001/07/fieldwork2.html

Which shows how Glacier Bay, AK has seen glacial retreat since the late 1700′s.

By: kuhnkat

kuhnkat — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:35:49 +0000

Highlander,

“As always, one ~must~ remember: The effect can ~never~ overcome the cause.”

What?? No “FEEDBACKS!?!?!?!”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

By: Highlander

Highlander — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:21:58 +0000

As always, one ~must~ remember: The effect can ~never~ overcome the cause.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:16:36 +0000

Bigger problem with the initial graph is that even in the shortened time frame it doesn’t support the AGW crowd’s claims. The decline appears to begin in 1960, 30 years before AGW is supposed to have really kicked in. The slope increases dramatically in ’91, but as it’s almost a straight line down, it doesn’t appear to have any relation to the temperature record at all, no spike in ’98, no leveling out in 2000… That graph could be used much easier as a evidence against AGW and its effect on the glaciers.