Where have all the Glaciers gone?

[metroschultz]

So..........
I'm at work earlier,
and............
the conversation turns to Global Warming.
Now you must remember that I work in a very diverse shop, and some of the boys are die hard republicans standing to the right of Rush Limbaugh. Which , unfortunately, is where they get a lot of their information.
From one of these boys I was asked;
"You don't believe in that Global Warming crap, do you?"
I respond "Yes"
then all He!! breaks loose.
"Oh its just a bunch of liberal nonsense"
"You've been brainwashed by treehuggers"
Etc, etc, etc..........

After all is said and done, my response was;
"We have less glacial mass today than we did 20 years ago"
I get more flack about the ebb and flow of glaciers, and I'm told I have no idea what I'm talking about. Blah Blah Blah.
I counter with;
"I'll bring you scientific measurements of glacial mass from 1989 or somewhere in that time frame compared to mass from this year. To show you what is actually happening. You bring me measurements the opposite way"
Now my effort is on finding the information.
I know I have read that glaciers are approximately 20% less now than 20 years ago and the polar bears are dying because of loss of ice mass for hunting and breeding, but I am not sure I can find any of this information.

I am asking for your help in this.

If you believe as I do, I would greatly appreciate some links to scientific websites or college sites or Govt sites that show where the glaciers are at this time versus where they were in the late 80s.
Maybe I am wrong. Who knows, 48 years is a long time to gather information, maybe some leaked out when I wasn't paying attention.

If you believe otherwise, send me useful information that shows my fault.
Meanwhile, I will be scanning the web for info and knowledge.
Lets see what we can stir up today.

[vtec-e]

Any use?:http://proceedings.esri.com/library/...s/pap_1172.pdf
Worries About Water as Chinese Glacier Retreats : NPR
ScienceDirect - Global and Planetary Change : Rapid tidewater glacier retreat: a comparison between Columbia Glacier, Alaska and Patagonian calving glaciers
Receding Glacier in Iceland : Image of the Day
100 YEARS OF GLACIER RETREAT IN CENTRAL ASIA
http://www.uibk.ac.at/geographie/tro...jc24(2004).pdf
Slightly off topic but useful nonetheless:Global Warming Frequently Asked Questions
Decline of World's Glaciers Expected to Have Global Impacts Over This Century : News
http://www.igsoc.org/annals/49/t49A037.pdf

That should silence the critics!

ollie

[Peter7307]

Ollie , Yes I agree it should but it most likely won't.

I have work ummm , aaahhhh , "colleagues" who simply won't see proof of anything even if it is put in front of them mainly because they don't want to.

Good luck Metroschultz . I think you may well need it.

Cheers , Pete.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

You might want to mention the fact that it is more accurate to call it Global Climate Change -- and some have dubbed it Global Climate Weirdness. Any unbiased observer would call the "summer" that we have been having here in New England pretty weird...extremely cool and very damp. I think we have had about 3 or 4 sunny days in the last 2 months. Yesterday, parts of eastern central Massachusetts got 4 to 8 inches of rain in about two hours...pretty frickin' weird.

I've been searching for current info on the relative strength of the Gulf Stream current, and all I'm getting is that it is definitely weakening. It actually stopped for about 10 days in November 2004, and the number and strength of the thermohaline columns that drive the current at the northern end.

[bgd73]

it is easy to get information. One could even find realtime glaciers on video breaking 100 year old chunks off. I kept one from the hills of south america. it is indeed worldwide.
for those that do not think it is real, they are confined in thier own mind like a kid in a playpen. the annoying part, aside from idiots, is that we created it. Cars is number 1 to me. especially the EGR jackasses. light a fire once and let it burn..that is how god does it. Who is your smart daddy?

if to even have a half a mind to local weather and 20 years of good memory..the warming part creates many years of abnormal weathers first, that is step one in this permanent change (permanent in comparisons to our puny length of life). 20 years is all records broken in my locale. I see the tornados and fires in other locales. don't even let the halfminded bother you.

[Piwoslaw]

I'm with Neil. The last two months here have been very rainy (much wetter than the previous few years, but no records so far). Before the heatwave started two weeks ago the weatherman in the news said something like "Another cold and rainy week coming up, and what's all this about global warming?". Maybe he was trying to be funny, but many people will take that at face value. They think that global warming = Sahara desert, when that's not true. No place is going to suddenly become tens of degrees hotter. In fact, many places will become cooler, like Europe, which won't be getting the rush of warm, moist air from the Atlantic. In most places the average temperature won't change by much, but the temperature variations may be greater. The average rainfall may not change, but there will be more dry spells followed by sudden and very powerful storms.

BTW, anyone watched "Six Degrees Could Change the World" on the NatGeo Channel?

[doviatt]

Great thread! Subscribed. I got some link reading to do.

[cfg83]

metroschultz -

Your thread title made me think of this :

LYRICS - Where Have All the Flowers Gone

You should integrate your glacier facts into a new set of lyrics (aka filk, or maybe gilk, in the case of glaciers).

CarloSW2

[roflwaffle]

If anyone says that temps in the past have been about as high as they have now, don't disagree, just point out that the recent increase in temperature has been hundreds, maybe thousands of time faster than it has in the past.

[Bicycle Bob]

I just did a Goodle search on "glacier loss" and got lots of sources that I hadn't seen before. However, you are probably not dealing with rational minds. Here's a book about inflexible thinking: Right-Wing Authoritarian test and book: Index of /jeanaltemeyer/drbob