Posted on 02/14/2006 9:24:36 AM PST by cogitator
If the population is depending on the melting ice for water supply, then if the ice were to STOP melting they would be in as much trouble as if it disappeared, no?
Either Gillman's or Uhuru I would think.
Snow is not the same thing as glaciers.
Succintly, my opinion (hopefully based on a thorough consideration of all of the relevant informational sources) is that the human influence on global climate is increasing. This is not solely due to greenhouse gases, but that is one of the main "culprits" with respect to the current warming trend. As I noted higher up in the thread, the loss of glaciers on Kilimanjaro is a good example of a regional climate change that is strongly related to human activities -- in this case, deforestation and land-use change, with the global warming trend on top of that.
If you want more details, ask me what details you want.
Thanks. Of course, dating the air in the ice bubbles with C-14 dating (C in the CO2) can also indicate the age of the ice at the glacial base.
Is that on both of the peaks?
The last expedition got lost trying to build a bridge between the two peaks. :)
(Somehow I knew we'd get the Monty Python references in on this thread)
Another desert in the making.
Best news I've ever heard. I don't care if I never see snow or temps below 70 EVER AGAIN!
Meanwhile, New England just got record snow falls! OMG! IT'S GLOBAL COOLING!!! AHHHH!
having an airport located at the base of the mountain, having thousands of
"eco-tourists" pee, poop and breath on it, and also fly hot air balloons
over it...
...and they wonder why there's a local warming event going on?
"Environmentalists"...always a contributor to environmental
degradation as long as they draw breath.
No wait, that's no good either. Every time a donkey farts methane is released into the earth's atmosphere. Apparently there's no way that any of us can get anywhere except by bicycle. Yeah I know, the rainforest is being destroyed by planting rubber plantations to make rubber for bike tires, but I can't be held responsible for what Michelin does can I?
"Of course, dating the air in the ice bubbles with C-14 dating (C in the CO2) can also indicate the age of the ice at the glacial base."
I can't find data supporting C-14 dating at Mt. Kilimanjaro. Please provide links, unless you are just making it up...
I assumed that 14C measurements could be made on CO2 trapped in ice core bubbles. However, I discovered that mountain ice cores are C-14 dated using plant and organic material found in the ice core. And they also count varves (annual layers). So there are a number of ways that the full age of a glacier can be estimated.
According to Thompson et al., 2002, "Kilimanjaro Ice Core Records: Evidence of Holocene Climate Change in Tropical Africa" (Science 18 October 2002: Vol. 298. no. 5593, pp. 589 - 593), the deepest section of the Northern Ice Field on Kilimanjaro is dated at 9,360 years before 1950 AD with radiocarbon dating on "small quantities of organic samples".
John Daly continues on the same page:
http://www.john-daly.com/press/kili-msu.gif
"The above graph is a satellite measured temperature trace from January 1979 to January 2001, for 3.75S 36.25E, the same location as Kilimanjaro itself. More importantly, the satellites record temperatures in the free atmosphere between 1,000 and 8,000 metres altitude, Kilimanjaro being at 5,900 metres, right within the measured altitude range. Not only has there been no overall warming, but the coldest month in the entire series is actually the latest one.
Clearly, if one third of the glaciers have melted off during the last dozen years as Thompson says, it has certainly not been caused by atmospheric warming. That leaves only the sun, the obvious candidate anyway, and only ideological commitment to the UN-IPCC policies could blame man for what is obviously a natural process."
---I for one am just releived that glaciers from the last ice age are finally receding. When glaciers in the tropics start growing then I'll worry.
That analysis of MSU lower tropospheric temperatures has subsequently been shown to have substantial errors (much of this occurred after Mr. Daly's decease). All analyses of lower troposphere temperatures now show warming. There is less warming in the tropics compared to the middle and high latitudes, however. Nonetheless, the main cause of the decline of the Kilimanjaro glaciers is due to a decrease in the moisture supply, primarily caused by lower-slope deforestation.
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