"Shrinking Glaciers" -Seattle Times

Here's a non-uplifting article on the front page of the Times today  :'(

seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews...4195_glacier01m.html

Well said TonyM. I was listening to talk about this news on the radio and someone stated that when Greenland was first inhabited back around 940ad the continent was all green, perfect for farming, etc. By the 1300s the entire continent had become a frozen wasteland because of a mini ice-age, which continued until the early 1800s. I hear that the warming has been a consistant trend since the 1830s or so.(need to read up on this to get more facts as I don't remember the entire conversation exactly) I'm sure the folks on Greenland would love to have their land back!

Given that there's another huge thread on global warming that's full of both sides of the argument, I want to say that, whatever the cause, it's a little sad to see that glacier go crawling back up the valley.  Thanks for posting the article Merk.

need to read up on this to get more facts

two thumbs up for this comment!

Why do these articles always come out when the freezing level is forecast to go to 11000 feet?
Depressing indeed, as if we needed it.

I think I'm beginning to understand a bit how the El Nino/Nina weather patterns impact us. This cold/dry followed by wet/warm seems to be a common theme up here when El Nino condiitons are in effect. It's another winter sitting on pins and needles wondering how warm the next front will be. Ugh. Everyone cross your fingers and toes for a few major volcanic eruptions ... another Krakatoa or Timbori could really help our glaciers out.

Why do these articles always come out when the freezing level is forecast to go to 11000 feet?
Depressing indeed, as if we needed it.

2 years ago (the horrible season) we were bombarded by the UW folks and their forecasts of "get a good look at the future of skiing in WA", predictions of more of the same as well as more hurricanes, ect...

Then last year we get the earliest ski season start in 20 years or so, and hurricane season this fall was almost ZERO. The UW GW folks went into the closet for awhile, but still toss out some tidbits here and there just to keep their hope of a GW catastrophy (it keeps the cash cow alive).

but still toss out some tidbits here and there just to keep their hope of a GW catastrophy (it keeps the cash cow alive)

Do you really believe this, or are you just trolling with this patently silly comment? The folks I know who devote their lives to this sort of research care deeply about the environment and sincerely believe they're doing their part to avert catastrophe. I am quite certain they'd be happy to be forced into another line of research by finding conclusive evidence that it's OK to just stick our heads in the sand and go ski. However, if you really believe your statement, I'll find it an enlightening indicator of just how much the "sides" in this debate are managing to caricature each other, and thus how little real communication is going on.

Well said TonyM.     I was listening to talk about this news on the radio and someone stated that when Greenland was first inhabited back around 940ad the continent was all green, perfect for farming, etc. 

Well either you mis-heard, or whomever said that has absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Greenland has had an giant thick ice cap for a long long long time. The margins of the continent may have had a little less ice cover during the warmer period when it was settled, but if someone suggested that the continent was ice free, they are very mis-informed (astoundingly so, if they were discussing global warming).

I believe much of the evidence of global warming comes from ice cores in Greenland. Ice that's been around for a hundred thousand years or more.

I did some searching, not much on OLD history of Greenland then 'boom' I stumbled across info that is very close to what I remembered hearing on the radio...(and I thought I was maybe hearing things?).
I'd guess it wasn't ice-free, but does say it was much warmer...

FWIW

---

Greenland was home to a number of Paleo-Eskimo cultures in prehistory, the latest of which — the Early Dorset culture — disappeared around the year 200. Hereafter, the island seems to have been uninhabited for some eight centuries.

Icelandic settlers found the land uninhabited when they arrived ca. 982. They established three settlements near the very southwestern tip of the island, where they thrived for the next few centuries, disappearing after over 450 years of habitation.

The fjords of the southern part of the island were lush and had a warmer climate at that time, possibly due to what was called the Medieval Warm Period. These remote communities thrived and lived off farming, hunting and trading with the motherland, and when the Scandinavian monarchs converted their domains to Christianity, a bishop was installed in Greenland as well. The settlements seem to have coexisted relatively peacefully with the Inuit, who had migrated southwards from the Arctic islands of North America around 1200. In 1261, Greenland became part of the Kingdom of Norway. Norway in turn entered into the Kalmar Union in 1397 and later the personal union of Denmark-Norway.

After almost five hundred years, the Scandinavian settlements simply vanished, possibly due to famine during the 15th century in the Little Ice Age, when climatic conditions deteriorated, and contact with Europe was lost. Bones from this late period were found to be in a condition consistent with malnutrition. Some believe the settlers were wiped out by bubonic plague or exterminated by the Inuit. Other historians have speculated that Basque or English pirates or slave traders from the Barbary Coast contributed to the extinction of the Greenlandic communities.

It long has been known that the Greenland Ice Sheet probably originated about 2.4 million years ago. Geological records indicate the Greenland Ice Sheet most likely is the only Northern Hemisphere ice sheet to have survived the last Interglacial warm period of 130,000 to 115,000 years ago (roughly the Eemian warm period as identified using terrestrial records from Europe).

link

...granted, this is from a biased (anti-global warming) website, but I trust we can assume this data is correct.

What's the bigger cash cow? GW denial (Exxon Mobil, the auto industry), or GW "advocacy" (academia, Sierra Club)? Whatever your position, the deniers have a lot more cash in the game than the true believers ever will.

We are re-hashing old news and I don't think we really want to beat a dead horse. Just go through the GW thread and you'll read it all there.

Why do these articles always come out when the freezing level is forecast to go to 11000 feet?
Depressing indeed, as if we needed it.

I think I'm beginning to understand a bit how the El Nino/Nina weather patterns impact us. This cold/dry followed by wet/warm seems to be a common theme up here when El Nino condiitons are in effect. It's another winter sitting on pins and needles wondering how warm the next front will be. Ugh. Everyone cross your fingers and toes for a few major volcanic eruptions ... another Krakatoa or Timbori could really help our glaciers out.

Have you seen a couple of the recent Nova programs on Super Volcanoes? Pretty interesting. I'm sitting here with a plastic bag over my head shaking in my boots. I think Tambora or Yellowstone is about go. Were going to have some great skiing.

Really, while glaciers "come and go" it is only recently that mankind has been able to take advantage of favorable environmental conditions to flourish. Much warmer or much colder and mankind is likely to be severely stressed. Much colder probably means a Super volcano or some solar output event, much warmer....well we're running that experiment right now. We'll see.