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California and growing
Alaska Science Forum ^ | December 25, 2003 | Alaska Science Forum

Posted on 03/30/2008 5:18:32 PM PDT by Exton1

Alaska Science Forum

December 25, 2003


Growing California Glaciers and Carbon Calculations

Article #1678

by Ned Rozell


This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community. Ned Rozell is a science writer at the institute.


Believe it or not, California has glaciers and they’re growing. These were two facts I learned at the recent meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, when about 10,000 scientists gathered to present their work and catch up on the research of others.

During the last 50 years, glaciers on the summit of Mt. Shasta in northern California have bulked up, according to Ian Howat of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Howat and a team of earth scientists from UCSC traveled to the summit of Mt. Shasta a few years ago to predict the expiration date of small glaciers on Mt. Shasta. Instead, they found the glaciers had grown since 1951, and the largest, Whitney Glacier, had advanced about one kilometer during that time.

Since most (but not all) Alaska glaciers are melting at a rapid rate, one might expect California glaciers to have disappeared long ago, but Howat explained that the state holds many small cirque glaciers in its high mountains. The seven glaciers extending like pudgy fingers from the summit of Mt. Shasta have grown in the last 50 years because of weather patterns that have resulted in lots of snow up high, enough to offset melting losses below.

“In some areas, global warming can result in the increase of snow at high elevations,” Howat said.

To get a perspective on the size of Mt. Shasta’s glaciers, an Alaska scientist at the meeting figured all the ice on Mt. Shasta equals about what Alaska’s Columbia Glacier calves into the ocean every two or three days.

In a press conference held during the San Francisco meeting, scientists argued that mankind had elevated the levels of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere, one suspected cause of global warming, long before the industrial revolution of the 1700s and1800s. William Ruddiman, an emeritus professor at the University of Virginia said that people had deforested much of Eurasia by the time of Christ’s birth, and widespread cutting down of forests caused elevated levels of carbon dioxide. Ice cores show drops in CO2 levels during times of great human die-offs, such as the Roman plague and the Black Death.

Carbon was also the topic of a presentation by Paul Higgins of Stanford University, who studies how ecological systems respond to climate change. Higgins calculated that if all Americans under the age of 64 walked or biked to work instead of driving, the U.S. could save more oil each year than the total amount of oil expected to be in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Furthermore, the walking and biking could take care of America’s obesity problem, Higgins said.

In a more reality-based study, Lawrence Plug tallied up the mileage traveled by the 10,000 scientists who attended the San Francisco meeting and added in the carbon dioxide released by their airplane travel. Plug, who studies permafrost at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, estimated that each attendee had traveled an average of 4,900 miles round-trip to reach the conference, and had released 1,745 pounds of carbon into the atmosphere by attending. He concluded that holding the conference in Denver, a more central location, would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 7.7 percent.

In other oil and carbon-based news, my own informal poll showed that hybrid gas/electric vehicles are catching on in San Francisco. I counted more than two dozen hybrid cars on the roads, most of them Toyota Prius sedans, Honda Civics and Honda Insights. While roaming the streets of San Francisco last year, I counted half as many.




TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: environmentalemoms; globalwarming; greenpeace; nazis
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1 posted on 03/30/2008 5:18:32 PM PDT by Exton1
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To: Exton1
Believe it or not, California has glaciers and they’re growing.

How can this be with GW?

2 posted on 03/30/2008 5:21:22 PM PDT by Exton1
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To: Exton1

Haven’t you heard? Globull warming is CAUSING this FREAK of nature! </sarc>


3 posted on 03/30/2008 5:27:32 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: Exton1
Carbon was also the topic of a presentation by Paul Higgins of Stanford University, who studies how ecological systems respond to climate change. Higgins calculated that if all Americans under the age of 64 walked or biked to work instead of driving, the U.S. could save more oil each year than the total amount of oil expected to be in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Furthermore, the walking and biking could take care of America’s obesity problem, Higgins said.

But if there were no obese people, fewer would die each year. There would be more people consuming products and services, which in turn would create more "carbon footprints". We need to encourge people to eat more junk food, excercise less, and start smoking to save the environment!

4 posted on 03/30/2008 5:39:12 PM PDT by Hugin (Mecca delenda est!)
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To: Exton1
in San Francisco, when about 10,000 scientists gathered to present their work and catch up on the research of others... In other oil and carbon-based news, my own informal poll showed that hybrid gas/electric vehicles are catching on in San Francisco. I counted more than two dozen hybrid cars on the roads, most of them Toyota Prius sedans, Honda Civics and Honda Insights.

Most of the dumb**** fly in burning carbon credits up the wazoo.

5 posted on 03/30/2008 5:44:29 PM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: Exton1
Believe it or not, California has glaciers and they’re growing.

...You mean Rob Reiner is getting fatter?
6 posted on 03/30/2008 6:01:10 PM PDT by RepublitarianRoger2
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To: Exton1
Ice cores show drops in CO2 levels during times of great human die-offs, such as the Roman plague and the Black Death.

Cooler atmospheric temperatures cause increased retention of carbon dioxide in the ocean, just as rising temperatures release it.

7 posted on 03/30/2008 6:08:35 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (Islam offers three choices: fight, surrender, or die. Y'shua offers two: death or eternal life.)
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To: Exton1

This is an honest question. Have Alaska’s glaciers shrunk this year?


8 posted on 03/30/2008 6:12:05 PM PDT by stevem
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To: Exton1

Idiots! Humans exhaling carbon dioxide constantly. What is their goal? Justifing more genocide to reduce CO2 emissions.


9 posted on 03/30/2008 6:16:14 PM PDT by Waco
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To: Waco

but we need c02 for plants...it is not poisonous, just plant more plants...


10 posted on 03/30/2008 6:17:18 PM PDT by television is just wrong
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To: Exton1
http://www.seanbonner.com/blog/archives/001857.php
 
 
" You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature."

11 posted on 03/30/2008 6:17:27 PM PDT by Radix (How come they call people "Morons" when they do not know as much? Shouldn't they be called "Lessons?)
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To: Carry_Okie

Ice Core data has been shown to be mostly hogwash anyway.


12 posted on 03/30/2008 6:19:48 PM PDT by Supercharged Merlin (The way to take money out of politics is to take the politics out of money !)
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To: Radix

Now, that’s what I call science. Thank you for introducing some sanity into this discussion.

Send the graph to AlGore. I think I see another Nobel prize on the horizon.


13 posted on 03/30/2008 6:22:30 PM PDT by Rocky
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To: Exton1; Normandy; CygnusXI; Fiddlstix; Defendingliberty; WL-law; Genesis defender; proud_yank; ...
 


Global Warming Scam News & Views

14 posted on 03/30/2008 6:27:38 PM PDT by steelyourfaith
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To: Supercharged Merlin
Ice Core data has been shown to be mostly hogwash anyway.

Hadn't heard that. Got a link?

15 posted on 03/30/2008 6:34:46 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (Islam offers three choices: fight, surrender, or die. Y'shua offers two: death or eternal life.)
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To: Exton1
Money Line:

“In some areas, global warming can result in the increase of snow at high elevations,” Howat said.

16 posted on 03/30/2008 6:44:10 PM PDT by beebuster2000
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To: beebuster2000
Gorbal warming when you're hot.

Gorbal Warming when your cold.

Gorbal Warming for the young.

Gorbal Warming for the old

Gorbal Warming in the night.

Gorbal Warming in the day.

Gorbal Warming is the fight,

Makes your money go away.

17 posted on 03/30/2008 6:48:17 PM PDT by purpleraine
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To: Exton1
Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Palisade Glacier in the High Sierra of California. 270 miles north of Los Angeles.

18 posted on 03/30/2008 8:27:28 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono (If you don't want people to get your goat, don't tell them where it's tied.)
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To: Exton1
“In some areas, global warming can result in the increase of snow at high elevations,” Howat said.

CYA on all possibilities...

19 posted on 03/30/2008 9:57:28 PM PDT by tubebender ("Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.")
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To: Radix

So this is why the climate in D.C. is not being effected.


20 posted on 03/31/2008 5:13:33 AM PDT by MissAmericanPie
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