Glaciers: Games Greenies Generate

Games can be played with data to create a desired picture that may direct attention where the author desires while ignoring contrary data that provides a clearer picture of what Nature is really doing. If a picture of rapidly receding glaciers is desired with a conclusion that it must come from the current warming a picture of a glacier in earlier times can be compared to a picture of the same receding glacier in more modern times. Conclusion: the world is warming and warming is the cause of the recession. However, if a third intermediary picture is also presented that shows most of the glacial retreat took place between the first and middle picture then a different conclusion might be drawn, especially if the glacier receded most in the earlier cooler time. Such a farce has been presented by warmists but skeptics have caught on. Read up on glaciers.

Not all glaciers are receding. Some are advancing. Including Norway. Inconvenient truths.

Or let's show via time lapse photography how the Columbia glacier in Alaska retreated thousands of feet in a mere 4 years between 2007 and 2011. Well, it did. But then that kind of  hasty retreat has been beat before.
But let's not point that out or people might yawn and ask: didn't that happen when CO2 was lower than now?

Or, let's imply that the modern retreat of Alaskan glaciers is due to human induced CO2 in the atmosphere. We'll forget to mention that glaciers have been retreating since the late 1700s. If CO2 is the cause shouldn't melt be speeding up as CO2 is added to the atmosphere by humans in ever greater quantities? Don't worry about Greenland glaciers. Unlike the economy they are no longer in recession.

Let's imply that the glacial melt is due to a warming trend due to man-made climate change.. Seems reasonable. In Washington State the glaciers have been receding. But the state has been cooling. Whaaaat!! And some glaciers in the State have actually been growing. So what is going on? They grow when it is warm; they grow when it is cold; they shrink when it is warm and they shrink when it is cold. Seems glacial behaviour has little to do with temperature or CO2.

Here is an article from 1952 which shows that glacial retreat was well-known before the late 20th century warming when it suddenly became fashionable to blame CO2 for the change in climate. Let's not mention research which suggests other explanations for glacial retreat.

With all the heat trapping gas we humans are adding to the atmosphere we may soon have glaciers in Texas. As one commenter remarked: "As you know, snow in Texas is a sure sign of a warming planet."

They had the same worries about melting  glaciers in 1902 that we have now. European glaciers beat a retreat starting in 1864. This was at a time when SUVs were in short supply. In 1849 people knew that some glaciers had advanced and now occupied land that was formally used for growing corn.

Let's blame black soot and GHGs for the retreat of glaciers in modern times. Except that glaciers have been retreating since the end of the last ice age. Interestingly, as one commenter pointed out Jim Hansen said that Tibet had not warmed in 120 years but the glaciers were receding anyway. Even the experts can't keep their stories straight.

It appears that glaciers have a mind of their own and do not conform to Al Gore's preference for a dependence on human induced CO2 as a cause of their retreat. And some of them will defy the theory of CO2 induced warming and expand when it is warm and shrink when it is cold. How dare they!