Melting Glacier 'False Alarm'

The Telegraph ^ | 8-17-2002 | Julian Isherwood

[blam]

Melting glacier 'false alarm'

By Julian Isherwood, Scandinavia Correspondent
(Filed: 17/08/2002)

Pictures released by Greenpeace claiming to show how man-made global warming has caused Arctic glaciers to retreat are at best misleading and only illustrate a natural phenomenon, says a leading glaciologist.

A greenpeace activist compares the photo above with the Norwegian glacier at present The picture series, which compared the size of a glacier on Svalbard in 1918 with its size in 2002, was published across the world alongside a Greenpeace warning that global warming caused by man-made greenhouse gases was causing Arctic glaciers to melt.

"The blame can be put squarely on human activity," Greenpeace said. "Our addiction to fossil fuels releases millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and this is what is causing temperatures to rise and our future to melt before our eyes."

But Prof Ole Humlum, a leading glaciologist in Svalbard, 500 miles north of Norway, said yesterday: "That glacier had already disappeared in the early 1920s as a result of a perfectly natural rise in temperature that had nothing to do with man-made global warming."

Prof Humlum is employed by several universities to research glacial developments in Svalbard and the Arctic in general. He said the picture series was at best misleading. "They should have asked the specialists on Svalbard first."

[xrp]

Wow...I am soooooooooooooooo surprised! A watermelon group (green on the outside, red on the inside) misleading the public for agenda? Naaaah....never...

[denydenydeny]

Bookmark.

[another cricket]

"I was shocked, shocked I tell you! To find out that gambling was going on in this establishment!"

"Your winnings, Sir.

a.cricket

[Madcelt]

Prof Humlum is employed by several universities to research glacial developments in Svalbard and the Arctic in general. He said the picture series was at best misleading. "They should have asked the specialists on Svalbard first."

Bwaaa haaaaa

Expert: Ex---has been, pert(pronouned spert)--drip under pressure. Greenpeas experts

[Kermit]

Here's an example of a political campaign mascarading as science. Goes on all the time.

[Looking for Diogenes]

Yes I agree, but this is a very different from the ozone depletion issue. Here the regular scientists deny the connection espoused by the environmental activists. The vast majority of atmospheric scientists endorse the basic theory of ozone depletion.

[jimkress]

vast majority of atmospheric scientists

What is a 'vast majority'? 2, 5, 25, 1001? Is it like the 'vast right wing conspiracy'?

Statements of the ilk 'a vast majority' are meaningless and in a scientific context are absurd. In the Middle Ages a 'vast number of scientists' believed the sun rotated around the Earth. That shows you the significance of the opinions of a 'vast majority' of anything.

It's FACTS that count, not OPINIONS.

[Looking for Diogenes]

It's FACTS that count, not OPINIONS.

Quite right. And there a plenty of facts that prove the basic ozone depletion theory.

I've never bought the Ozone Hole anyway.

That, on the other hand, is an opinion not based on facts.

[Looking for Diogenes]

What is a 'vast majority'?

I am aware of only one scientist who is trained and active in atmospheric science that questions the ozone depletion theory, Dr. Fred Singer. There are likely a few more but even then that would be less than 5%.

BTW, this has nothing to do with glaciology. Kermit and I are carrying a conversation over from an ozone-hole thread.

[LostTribe]

The enviro-liars have no shame.

[AF68]

Just throw this phony argument on the pile with the rest of the "Chicken Little" pronouncements by the eco-wackos. In recent weeks, there also have been unchallenged press and media reports that global warming is responsible for the western forest fires and, now, the European floods. Not to mention that George Bush is being blamed for the U.S. drought because he didn't sign on to the Kyoto Treaty. It would be funny if the nutballs and their socialist allies weren't dead serious about their climate change delusions.

[Kermit]

And alar is different from global warming. And Love Canal is different from alar. And CDC studies of "gun violence" are different from Love Canal. And DDT is different from "gun violence".

The point is where they are the same. Political activists are donning white lab coats and presenting their political campaigns in the form of Science. It's become a common technique.

[Looking for Diogenes]

Political activists are donning white lab coats and presenting their political campaigns in the form of Science.

As far as I can tell, the only thing that is alike between the ozone depletion theory and the others you mentioned is how the media and environmental activists have responded. The 'ozone hole' makes good copy, so the media is all over it, even if they don't have the foggiest idea what it is. The activists are always looking for a doom and gloom story to attack industry with. A difference is that industry does not dispute the core contention.

This is the same field of science that purports that automobile exhaust contribute to smog. How come you don't attack that theory as just activists in white lab coats?

[Kermit]

H*ll, you don't have industry or Bush dispute the Global Warming nonsense. Enron was paying off the Clintonistas and pushing the Bushies to SUPPORT the Kyoto accords. Industry is NOT anti-environmentalist and is NOT against the government forcing certaining idiotic regulations down our throats, because often, industry (or certain businesses) make money off complying with those regulations.

For example, oil companies have supported the enviro-wackos for decades, including enviro-wacko plans to shut down drilling and to cut off oil supplies. Why would they do that? Because there is a worldwide surplus of oil and the oilistas make more money by restricting the supply. They've done this for decades. It's only liberal propaganda that business is pro-free market and against government regulations. Untrue.

And I think you've come around to my point about wackos using science as cover for their power grabs.

[mewzilla]

In the immortal words of Emily Lutella: Nevermind.

[NorCoGOP]

I'm waiting for the day (and believe me, it's coming) where the enviro wackos will point to the glacially scarred rocks in Central Park in NYC, and use that as additional "evidence" that us evil humans are destroying the planet.

Never mind reality or truth - only agendas are important....

[blam]

DISCOVER Vol. 23 No. 9 (September 2002)
Table of Contents

The New Ice Age

Worried about global warming? Talk to a few scientists at Woods Hole. Oceanographers there are seeing big trouble with the Gulf Stream, which warms both North America and Europe. (They say it could stop flowing as soon a two years from now and throw the world into another Little Ice Age, 1300-1855AD.)
By Brad Lemley

William Curry is a serious, sober climate scientist, not an art critic. But he has spent a lot of time perusing Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze's famous painting "George Washington Crossing the Delaware," which depicts a boatload of colonial American soldiers making their way to attack English and Hessian troops the day after Christmas in 1776. "Most people think these other guys in the boat are rowing, but they are actually pushing the ice away," says Curry, tapping his finger on a reproduction of the painting. Sure enough, the lead oarsman is bashing the frozen river with his boot. "I grew up in Philadelphia. The place in this painting is 30 minutes away by car. I can tell you, this kind of thing just doesn't happen anymore."

Full text of this article can be found in the current issue of Discover Magazine