Posted on 10/17/2002 6:23:26 PM PDT by Davea
Kilimanjaro's Glaciers Almost All Melted - Study
Thu Oct 17, 5:23 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kilimanjaro's already skimpy glaciers are melting so quickly that they will be gone by 2020, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.
The researchers, who are racing to glean information from the unique glaciers on Africa's highest peak before they are completely gone, also said they had found evidence of three catastrophic droughts 8,300, 5,200 and 4,000 years ago.
They also determined that the glaciers began to form on top of the mountain, which rises from the savannas of Tanzania, 11,700 years ago.
"We found that the summit of the ice fields has lowered by at least 17 meters (nearly 56 feet) since 1962," Ohio State University professor Lonnie Thompson, who led the study, said in a statement.
"That's an average loss of about a half-meter (a foot and a half) in height each year."
Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said the glaciers measured 4.8 square miles in 1912 but had shrunk to 1 square mile by 2000.
Douglas Hardy of the University of Massachusetts said other glaciers around the world are melting due to global warming (news - web sites) but that may not be the case with Kilimanjaro.
"It's difficult to ascribe the decrease solely to humans," Hardy, who also worked on the study, said in a statement.
"Further research is needed to determine to what extent global warming and/or natural climate variability are responsible for the demise of Kilimanjaro's glaciers."
I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me
towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way,
Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancinet melodies
He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"
CHORUS:
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company I know that I must do what's right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serangetti
I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become
CHORUS
Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa, I passed some rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa, I passed some rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had
Beautiful bit of subtle propaganda there.
Ask Dougie for the proof that any global warming can be ascribed to humans.
Meanwhile, in Greenland, ditched WWII aircraft have been recovered from 'land' after being covered with over 200' of ice in something like 50 years ...
- 'splain to us all why a few temperature stations around show a slight increase in temps WHILE MOST do not (Hint: it's called the 'urban heat-island' effect) and neither do the radiosonde measurements NOR does the microwave measurement technique (used to measure 'global' temperature) support frantic crys of 'global warming' ...
In the meantime, check out: www.co2science.org where the 'temps' for these stations around the US and the world may be reviewed ...
From: http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0598globalwarm.htm
The fact is, the planet's temperature is constantly rising and falling.
To put the current warming trend in perspective, it's important to understand the Earth's geological behavior.
Over the last 700,000 years, the climate has operated on a relatively predictable schedule of 100,000-year glaciation cycles.
Each glaciation cycle is typically characterized by 90,000 years of cooling, an ice age, followed by an abrupt warming period, called an interglacial, which lasts 10,000- 12,000 years.
The last ice age reached its coolest point 18,000 to 20,000 years ago when the average temperature was 9-12.6°F cooler than present.
Earth is currently in a warm interglacial called the Holocene that began 10,700 years ago.
Although precise temperature readings over the entire period of geologic history are not available, enough is known to establish climatic trends. During the Holocene, there have been about seven major warming and cooling trends, some lasting as long as 3000 years, others as short as 650. Most interesting of all, however, is that the temperature variation in many of these periods averaged as much as 1.8°F, .3°F more than the temperature increase of the last 150 years. Furthermore, of the six major temperature variations occurring prior to the current era, three produced temperatures warmer than the present average temperature of 59°F while three produced cooler temperatures.
For example, when the Holocene began as the Earth was coming out of the last Ice Age around 8700 B.C., the average global temperature was about 6°F cooler than it is today. By 7500 B.C., the climate had warmed to 60° F, 1°F warmer than the current average temperature. However, the temperature fell again by nearly 2°F over the next 1,000 years, settling at an average of 1°F cooler than the current climate.
Between 6500 and 3500 B.C., the temperature increased from 58°F to 62° F. This is the warmest the Earth has been during the Holocene, which is why scientists refer to the period as the Holocene Maximum. Since the temperature of the Holocene Maximum is close to what global warming models project for the Earth by 2100, how Mankind faired during the era is instructive. The most striking fact is that it was during this period that the Agricultural Revolution began in the Middle East, laying the foundation for civilization.
Yet, Greenhouse theory proponents claim the planet will experience severe environmental distress if the climate is that warm again.
Report to the Greening Earth Society, "The Surface Record: ‘Global Mean Temperature’ and how it is determined at surface level"More/complete report: http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/Articles/2000/surface1.htmBy John L. Daly
Greening Earth Society Science Advisor
May 2000Measuring Surface Temperature
The ‘surface record’ comprises the combined average of thousands of thermometers in every country, worldwide, recording temperatures in standard, white, louvered boxes called Stevenson Screens. The boxes usually are mounted one meter above the ground. They mostly are placed where there are suitable people to read and maintain them, e.g. post offices in town and city centers, airports, pilot stations, lighthouses, radio/TV stations, farms, and cattle stations. By far the majority is located in towns and cities.
Marine temperatures are determined from ship data. Temperature measurements of the marine atmosphere usually are performed from Stevenson Screens mounted near the ship's bridge, while sea surface temperature measurement utilizes intake pipes in the ship's hull.
Two leading institutions statistically collate the resulting data. They are the U.S. National Aeronautic and Space Administration’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in Britain [11]. The process they follow is:
1) Select the stations to be used in the global database
2) Apply corrections for urbanization to data originating from urban areas.
3) Divide the globe into 5°x5° latitude/longitude boxes
4) Determine the temperature "anomalies" for each box based on available data.
5) Combine the trends from all the boxes to arrive at an overall "global mean temperature." Boxes that have no data are left blank. They are not estimated from neighboring boxes.
...
Is the Surface Record Wrong?
Because the second option that the satellites are wrong has been ruled out, and because the third option, that both the records are "good" is merely a compromise to appease conflicted interests, one is left with Option #1: the surface record must be wrong. In posing this solution, we must first be clear about where errors might creep into the surface record.
There are five potential sources of error:
1) Errors caused by environmental change in the general location of the measuring instrument.
2) Errors arising at the point of measurement, such as equipment or procedural faults.
3) Errors arising from statistical processing by GISS and CRU, such as poor station information
4) Errors arising from station closures altering the homogeneity and balance of the network
5) Errors caused by uneven geographical spread
Regards, Davey
I am not one of those people.
But, I hold you personally responsible for every miserable note and suck-ass lyric from that ghastly disaster of a song from Toto.
Also, in the Southern Rift Valley Chain, are Ngorongoro, Oldonyo Lengi, Meru, Gelai, Ketumbaine, Esmingor, and 9 or 10 others. There are 20 in all(in the Southern Rift Valley), most are inactive, but a few spew ash and smoke from time to time.
Most of the recent eruptions have been to the northwest, but nothing says it has to stay that way. Glacier melts on Kibo(Kilimanjaro) could be a precursor to it becoming more active.
Glacier melts on Kibo(Kilimanjaro) could be a precursor to it becoming more active.
As active volcano in Africa could cause tens of dollars worth of damage.
Let's hope that's the worst it does if it does anything, but given that it is a Stratovolcano, which can either flow lava, erupt violently, or explode into a pyroclastic cloud and rain down living hell for thousands of miles. Thus given it's location, it could cause little or no damage to Africa, or billions and billions of dollars worth of damage and loss of life across the Africa, the Middle East, and India, as well as make a global impact on world climate for years to come.
Lets just hope it remains dormant, or at most, flows some lava. Few things have as much potential to cause as much chaos as a pyroclastic Stratovolcano with a crater 1.5 miles wide. There is geologic evidence, however that it has done both in the very distant past.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.