Global What?

[Bill O]

Global...what's that word I'm looking for?

[Snow Miser]

Warming??? If that's it, it's surely not happening here or in Europe right now!

[mtruman]

Interesting contrast to the headline in yesterday's Providence paper: "Melting glaciers increase flood danger" which was discussing the retreat of glaciers on Mt Ranier and the effect on the Puget Sound lowlands. Call it global warming or something else but the glaciers in the western US and a lot of the rest of the world are certainly disappearing. Perhaps doesn't seem like it on another single digit morning in the northeast though...

[Brad]

Global...what's that word I'm looking for?

Frosting. That was the word.

Interesting contrast to the headline in yesterday's Providence paper: "Melting glaciers increase flood danger" which was discussing the retreat of glaciers on Mt Ranier and the effect on the Puget Sound lowlands. Call it global warming or something else but the glaciers in the western US and a lot of the rest of the world are certainly disappearing. Perhaps doesn't seem like it on another single digit morning in the northeast though...

Interesting that the polar ice and many glaciers are expanding in size and some folks are working off old data. There was a recent study that looked at 180 years of CO2 data and reported there has been little to no change. One of the key IPCC scientists is now publicly saying the oceans go through a set of temperature cycles and that was the major cause for warming for a while - and now that is driving a 20-30 year cooling cycle.

It is interesting to see these discussions about a topic that has supposedly been "settled".

[Snow Miser]

Aren't we suppose to be heading slowly into another ice age with many of these 20 - 30 cycles in between?

[Anna LeBlanc]

Aren't we suppose to be heading slowly into another ice age with many of these 20 - 30 cycles in between?

If we are Bob you would be in your element for sure.



______________

Anna

[Bill O]

If you didn't figure it out yet, that is Great Britain entirely covered in snow.

I bet the problems created by advancing glaciers far outweighs those that are retreating. The idea that glaciers could be in a perfect steady state seems fairly outrageous, and thus, they are always either advancing or retreating. Given recent snowfalls and maybe some cooler summers I bet we will see advancing glaciers in the Pacific Northwest.

In the past 30 years alone a fairly large glacier has formed in the caldera of Mount Saint Helens. Not just a permanent snowfield like in Glacier NP, but a real active glacier with crevasses.

Is anybody familiar with the recent glacial history in Colorado (past 200 years)? It seems like CO glaciers were on their last legs during the gold rush and are pretty much non-existent right now. Who's to blame for that?

[Patrad Fischroy]

Or maybe not??

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...sc=DD_20100111

Anecdotal evidence does not necessarily make for good science. Then again, perhaps this article just fits my bias better

[Bill O]

All this talk about global warming got me surfing the internet. Then I stumbled onto something called "rock glaciers".

I've seen this rock glacier on Engineer Mountain near Durango:

http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/r...-mountain.html

If you're board, google "rock glacier". They are very rare, and Colorado seems to have a disproportionate supply.