They're Really Melting

Three glaciers that are fast receding from their icy peaks.

AUGUST 3, 2010

BEFORE: Kyetrak Glacier on the northern slope of Tibet's Cho Oyu mountain, photographed here in 1921.

Major E.O. Wheeler, courtesy of Royal Geographical Society

 

These images are part of a project, Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya, that showcases the work of photographer and mountaineer David Breashears.

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DRWATSONCCU

10:15 AM ET

August 4, 2010

Melting Glaciers?

Were these pictures all taken at the same time of the year? Are there any glaciers elsewhere which are growing?

 

DOUBLEPLUSGOOD

11:05 AM ET

August 13, 2010

Glaciers are supposed to be permanent

Glaciers don't melt and reform every year like snowcaps on small mountains.

Glaciers are pretty much extremely slow-flowing frozen rivers. They exist in places that are cold all year round. That most of the glaciers in the world are melting means that temperatures are no longer low enough in these places to maintain a glacier.

 

R.J. CONNORS

12:15 PM ET

August 13, 2010

Retreating glaciers

We can expect glaciers to continue to retreat globally. Glacier National Park in Montana, U.S., had 150 glaciers when it was created. It now has about two dozen remaining, and is expected to be ice free by 2040. What we are facing is the accelerating warming of the planet due to our anthropogenic changes to the atmosphere, initially through CO2, but soon through the addition of enormous quantities of methane from the thawing permafrost and warming oceans. To learn the frightening truth, read "The Coming Extinction of Humanity: Six Converging Crises That Threaten Our Existence"

 

TEASER38

5:18 PM ET

August 5, 2010

Wrong question..

The real question is: why are they melting? And is there anything we can do to stop it? (I doubt it.)

 

JTCHI

9:50 AM ET

August 7, 2010

melting

I explain it like this. If you are in a garage and start your car. sooner or later you will pass out, if you left it on long enough and there was plant or other animal life in that garage it to would suffer. Now imagine the earth as a great big garage the atmosphere as the walls, sooner or later all the pollution that we have put into that "garage" will take effect. Global warming is real, and we caused it.

 

PLEN

4:19 PM ET

August 9, 2010

@ JTCHI

If only it were that simple. To use your analogy - that garage actually has some very large windows that allow in sun rays. Given that the sun goes through solar flares -meaning sometimes the UV rays are stronger in a given time period than other periods you have an external effect. The Garage also has sprinklers (analogy for rain) that every so often cleans up the air (bring that pollution to the earth).

By the way, to the best of my knowledge it has been proven that the melting glaciers in the Himalayas and Mt Kilimanjaro is not caused by global warming.

Suddenly everything becomes a little more complex. But that damn car is still running and pumping out toxic fumes - it must be turned off..

 

JOHNHUNT

2:00 PM ET

August 10, 2010

Not So Fast

Actually, as I carefully examine the pictures, I am struck with how little change there has been. Sure you can see that there's less glacier in current photos. But the ice/snow comes down the mountains most of the way that it went before.

Compare pictures 3 & 4. The obvious difference is the ice flow closest to the photographer. But since closer things are larger than distant, it over-exaggerates the difference.

Look at the 1921 picture (#3) and notice at the left lower corner that you can see dirt peaking through the ice flow indicating that it is near the end of the flow. So really, it has lost only, may 1/5 or 1/6 of the length of the flow. After 9 decades that's not a lot. And after 9 decades of speeding up solar cycle length, much of that difference may not be due to increased CO2 in the atmosphere.

These pictures are not a smoking gun.

 

WORLDBIZNEWS

4:13 AM ET

August 11, 2010

It's precisely the reason why

It's precisely the reason why we need to double our effort to support the going green campaign all over the world. We need to take this seriously, the impact of global warming is what we are experiencing right now. Most of us still hope that we can change things for the benefit of the future generation.Tim from worldbiznews

 

KENNETH SORENSEN

8:05 AM ET

August 14, 2010

The time since 1920 has benn fabulous

Yes you can male me believe that it was the warmest for centuries; it also saw the greatest economic expansion in human history. Likewise during the Viking Age, where it was actualkly warmer than now; this too was a time of expansion.

Speaking from Denmark I can convey to you my strong belief, that haf the weather been cold and miserable. the Vikings would in all likelyhood just have stayed home.

But as we all know, warn and nice weather spurs everything on. In this context we must remember also the greater agricultural produce due to the warm weather, which would have resulted in more funds in the coffers of whatever bloke (chieftain) who somehow took the initiative to builf the ships , employ the men, and set sail.

 

ADAMGARDNER00

6:51 PM ET

August 16, 2010

Yes, everything is fast

Yes, everything is fast changing and seriously affect us. If we won't take an action now, we might end up losing a place where we and our family can live. We need to start doing something now than having regrets in the future. Everything will surely end well if that's the case.Adam Gardner

 

DARLIN

5:05 AM ET

August 30, 2010

This is really terrible, the

This is really terrible, the Earth's climate is becoming worrying!

Speaking from Denmark I can convey to you my strong belief, that haf the weather been cold and miserable. the Vikings would in all likelyhood just have stayed home.