Yosemite glacier on thin ice

As melting water gushed off the ice in a tinseled maze of rivulets and tumbled through a gaping chasm, the hikers watched, wondered and worried.

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3.3/5 after 19 votes

• MikeB - Oct 26, 2008
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  "We have entered new terrain with what's going on in the atmosphere," he said. "We haven't seen anything like this in tens of millions of years." They were born during a more recent cooling episode known as the Little Ice Age, which began around 1350. "It was a well-documented event," Stock said. "The Vikings were literally run off of Greenland by advancing ice."
  
  OK which is it? Millions of years ago, or was it recently formed during the little ice age? What did it look like during the medieval warm period?
  
  "You don't have to be Al Gore to realize something is changing and we need to do something," said Jerel Steckling, a safety officer at the Hilmar Cheese Co.
  
  OK... A cheese guy?
  
  "While this is not the first time glaciers have receded across the Sierra Nevada - they last did so about 20,000 years ago."
  
  OK.... what caused it 20,000 years ago? No one was driving SUVs then.
  
  "Today, the remaining 100 or so are withering, including Lyell, the second-largest, which could be gone inside a century."
  
  Or... in a century it may be much larger than it is now.
  
  
  
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• MikeB - Oct 26, 2008
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  "I'm going to tell them that they can believe in global warming," Klieforth said. They can "take it to the bank."
  
  And the bank will lend it to someone who can't pay it back.
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• jeffsaunders - Oct 27, 2008
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  Banks - Don't talk to me about banks.
  
  

  "As far back as we can see in time, we don't see anything like what's happening today," Stock said.

  
  
  

  As he sat on a rock, looking up at the receding glacier, his mind wandered back to prehistoric climatic changes that have swept across the Sierra, sometimes suddenly, including two massive droughts that lasted for generations.

  
  
  

  All glaciers melt naturally. But to remain stable or grow, they must replace meltwater with snowfall. And that's not happening at Lyell or elsewhere. Today, scientists are finding that not only is more precipitation across the region arriving as rain, but also less snow overall is falling. The current drought - now heading into a possible third year - could be catastrophic for California, state officials say.

  
  
  This tells us it has all happened before and that it is not the end of the world. However, Why should we be polluting the atmosphere? Why should we pollute just because we can?
  
  Sure a drought of three years or ten years is nothing compared to a drought of 25 years or 50 years. Sure the current drought may be nearing an end or it may just be getting started. Sure the current global warming may get worse or it may turn to global cooling.
  
  Still - I wonder if we should do what we can to stop pollution and destruction of the planet.
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• aufever - Oct 27, 2008
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  The root of the problem may be the fact that Precipitation in this region has declined severely due to drought. But the Religion Of Global Warming has to find another cause. In the last 10 years, the average precipitation has gone down by a factor of at least 10%, but they don't interject that into there papers. glaciers grow with added precipitation while they decline with abnormal precipitation, i.e. Alaska, the Glaciers are growing because Precipitation has been above normal. But what the Hell Is Normal? Not ONE Climatologist can define what our climate should be.
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• Velanarris - Oct 27, 2008
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  Sure a drought of three years or ten years is nothing compared to a drought of 25 years or 50 years. Sure the current drought may be nearing an end or it may just be getting started. Sure the current global warming may get worse or it may turn to global cooling.
  

  What drought?
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• GrayMouser - Oct 31, 2008
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  The root of the problem may be the fact that Precipitation in this region has declined severely due to drought.

  
  
  Isn't this circular? Without a drop in precipitation you'd have a hard time having a drought.
  
  

  This tells us it has all happened before and that it is not the end of the world. However, Why should we be polluting the atmosphere? Why should we pollute just because we can?

  
  
  Because we're all going to die anyway. Time to party!
  
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