Nutty Story of the Day #4: Germans apply glacier anti-melt screen

Why am I not surprised by this, especially since Germany has such nice things as the “Ant Police.” I kid you not! As I understand it, if you get caught disturbing those precious little ants, you get a free ticket to jail.
Actually, this professor has a good thing going for him: if a nature produced cold wave kicks in, he can say he can still claim a measure of success by downplaying nature. If it doesn’t and it actually works, he can say he’s successful. If the dumb idea doesn’t work, he can say AGW is too far advance to do anything. It’s a “win-win” for him!
Jack Koenig, Editor
The Mysterious Climate Project
http://www.climateclinic.com

It might work and the screen is very small for the effect it might produce. But they might want to work on how to melt glaciers in a hurry if things get colder,

A feel good story for the AGW crowd.
Mankind saves the planet!
Mankind saves Mother Nature!
Mother Nature pays back such kindness with blizzards of the centuries. {Gotta give them flea specks some proper perspective.}

Yeah… that’s kind of ridiculous.
Perhaps when this attempt fails, more of my fellow proponents will be persuaded that there is no “quick fix” to the climate change problem. We have to be pro-active and work diligently if we want to mitigate climate change; there are no easy fixes, just hard work. In my opinion, though, the benefits of that work will permeate many aspects of the economy and society for the better, make them very worthwhile.

If they would recover a piece of wood exposed by those receding glaciers, I believe they would find that it carbon dates to about 5000 years ago. There have been several studies in the Alps doing just that. Apparently, the valleys where those glaciers are were forested at one point since the last ice age ended. It seems to me that the environment is simply “recovering” to what it was some 50 centuries ago.
Actually, this isn’t about “the environment” at all. It is about money. That summer snow brings in a lot of cash. They can try to overpower Mother Nature, but she always bats last.

Counters
Please demonstrate what the climate change “problems” are that you refer to so blithely. Do you sincerely believe man can “mitigate” the climate?

“The year was 1645, and the glaciers in the Alps were on the move. In Chamonix at the foot of Mont Blanc, people watched in fear as the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice) glacier advanced. In earlier years, they had seen the slowly flowing ice engulf farms and crush entire villages.
They turned to the Bishop of Geneva for help, and he made the journey to Chamonix. At the ice front he performed a rite of exorcism.
Little by little, the glacier receded….”
http://www.geology.um.maine.edu/ges121/lectures/11-little-ice-age/little-ice-age.html
Theme and variation!

I remember we were chatting at The Reference Frame (Motl’s blog) about the albedo a couple of years ago. As a joke I did propose, in order to reduce the average temp. of the Earth, to cover the whole Sahara with aluminium foil increasing thus the albedo from 0.4 (sand) to almost 1 (aluminium foil). Since Sahara is about 6% of the total land surface then increasing 100% the reflectivity of that surface should yield a net reduction of 1 or 2 °C for the whole earth. Of course we would need the whole worldwide production of aluminium foil during two or three years. This reminds me not to make jokes just in case someone takes them seriously 🙂
best

For you. Thiz debate iz über…

This is not the first such attempt to save the Alpine ski industry
Revolutionary methods to preserve snow, the ‘Austrian gold’
A news report from 2005 reports “Workers cover the ski slopes on the Pitztal Glacier in Austria with an innovative white fleece in an effort to protect the mountain from glacier melting”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8432120/

Why is it necessary to “mitigate” climate change? Hasn’t the history of this planet been rife with a great deal of drastic climate change? I have difficulty believing that the earth merely popped into existence at given temperature, and has only now begun to experience climate change. Unless the AGW’s are pushing a religious point of view… That would explain the stable climate thingy.

You watch, the next thing we hear about this will be of the massive fish die off due to “mitigating climate change”, and halting the normal melting of glaciers! Ironically, it will be hailed as another example of how unnatural (and just plain awful) mankind is! (After all, we merely popped into existence as well)

statePoet1775 (18:58:07) :
“It might work and the screen is very small for the effect it might produce. But they might want to work on how to melt glaciers in a hurry if things get colder,”
I’ve read that the Chinese are melting glaciers by spraying coal dust on them. They melt the glaciers to produce fresh water.

This story brought back a lot of memories.
We drove by the Rhone glacier in the summer of 1991. Only later did I realize the road through this region was the backdrop for several of the scenes in Goldfinger. I was watching a rerun on TV and recognized the setting, including a shot of the Rhone glacier.
It was also the same year the Iceman was discovered in another part of the Alps we had driven through earlier.
At the time it was believed the ice melt through out the Alps was attributed to the soot released by Saddam’s burning of the oil fields. When the hikers went through the area, the ice was at historic lows and portions of his body were revealed.
It turns out he was the victim of foul play or combat. There was a big fight between Italy and Austria over possession of the body. I don’t recall what honorary citizenship was finally bestowed on our bronze age visitor. He also believed in acupuncture.
http://www.crystalinks.com/oetzi.html
We stayed with friends close to the town of Montana and observed the fireworks set off for the celebration of Switzerland’s 700th anniversary on August 1, 1991.
If a home overlooking the Rhone Valley in Switzerland is not heaven on earth, there is no such thing.

I’ve lost count of the times, in internet debates, that warmists have cited the entire IPCC report to support their position.
It’s fascinating just how much like a religion this whole global warming thing has become.
But one advantage the warmists have is that they can update their Bible every 5 years.

As others have mentioned, it’s when glaciers are advancing that we have to watch out. Brian Fagan mentions in his book The Little Ice Age, that when the Bishop of Geneva arrived to perform his exorcism, the Les Bois glacier was advancing “by over a musket shot [120 meters] every day, even in the month of August.” Astonishing, if it’s accurate. Can anyone confirm whether glaciers are able to move this fast?
Re New Scientist, I’m not a subscriber but managed to skim the “Climate change: The next ten years” story in the paper edition when I was in the supermarket last week. The gist of it, as far as I recall, is that there seems to be plenty of uncertainty as to what will happen to climate change in the next few years but indications are that global warming will come back with a vengeance sometime soon. That’s a bit vague but I was in a hurry and thinking about lunch. Oh, and they also quote Michael Mann.

Neil, I’ll refer you to the IPCC AR4; the case and conclusion is laid out plainly there. Yes, we can mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Yes, and that’s entirely beliveable because of all the model forecasts have been dead on accurate.

Jack Simmons said: “At the time it was believed the ice melt through out the Alps was attributed to the soot released by Saddam’s burning of the oil fields. When the hikers went through the area, the ice was at historic lows and portions of his body were revealed.”
Jack, I have to wonder if the ice was really at a “historic low”… after all, he was buried UNDER the ice.

Counters, re: your post to Neil saying:
“Neil, I’ll refer you to the IPCC AR4; the case and conclusion is laid out plainly there.”
I’ll refer you to Anthony’s posting called “The Tale of the Hockey Stick.” That accounting alone, at the least, shoots a big hole in AR4.
There is a place for environmentalism but, similar to religion, that place is not in government regulations. And more importantly, nothing man will ever do short of thermonuclear war, will ever change the climate of this planet in any direction we would desire, whether we wanted eternal snow or Eden-like warmth.

I think there is a narrow point in a valley that the screen is placed in to block the flow of air above the glacier. By trapping a layer of air above the glacier, heat gain might be reduced. Just a guess. I don’t see how else a small screen could work.

Sean G
I certainly appreciate your point.
Generally when one says historic, it refers to something actually written down in someone’s history. Unfortunately, no one recorded what was going on at the time of the Iceman’s internment.
Another critical factor in his preservation was the placement of his remains in a shallow depression in the rock. Thus melting water tended to gather in a pool about the remains, which would freeze in the winter. Also, moving snow and ice would pass over the body.
You might want to get the book “The Man In The Ice” by Konrad Spindler. I was fascinated enough by the story I obtained a copy for my own library.
Here’s the passage covering the discovery:
“Later, Helmut Simon would describe their discovery to us like this: ‘From a distance of 8 or 10 metres we suddenly saw something brown sticking out of the ice. Our first thought was that it was rubbish, perhaps a doll, because by now there is plenty of litter even in the high mountains. As we came closer, Erika said: “But it’s a man!”‘ Helmut Simon immediately ran back to get the Austrian couple, from whom they had parted shortly before. But they were no longer in sight.
Sticking out of the ice is a leather-brown round bald skull with a medallion-sized injury. Also visible are the shoulders and back, draped against a rock. The face is immersed in water, with dirt around the chin. The arms cannot be seen, and seem to be missing. Because of its delicate proportions, Erika suggests that it is the body of a woman.”
The book is a great read.
Oh here’s the fun part:
“The intersection of the red cross on the stone on which the corpse had lain is exactly 92.56 metres from the state frontier, on Italian territory.”
How could I forgotten that detail?
I guess he was going to be treated to pasta and wine instead of strudel and beer.
Certainly if he had been exposed to the air earlier, nothing would have survived; or at least not as much as they did get.
I do know the snow and ice levels were very low that summer in the Alps because our hosts commented on the fact. There was extensive coverage of the effects of the oil fields being set on fire by Saddam when he exited Kuwait. I seem to recall a Nature article on the distribution of the soot reaching all the way up to Europe.

Jack,
Thanks for the extra info!

Discovery channel has been hyping a new series about bizare new schemes to counteract global warming. Everything from seaborne cloud generators to wrapping glaciers in blankets.
The nuttiness gets worse every year.
(My guess is that they are trying to hype up these solutions, so that when it is shown that global warming has stopped, they can claim credit.)