Scandinavian nation reverses trend, mirrors results in Alaska, elsewhere.
After years of decline, glaciers in Norway are again growing, reports the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE). The actual magnitude of the growth, which appears to have begun over the last two years, has not yet been quantified, says NVE Senior Engineer Hallgeir Elvehøy.
The flow rate of many glaciers has also declined. Glacier flow ultimately acts to reduce accumulation, as the ice moves to lower, warmer elevations.
The original trend had been fairly rapid decline since the year 2000.
The developments were originally reported by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).
DailyTech has previously reported on the growth in Alaskan glaciers, reversing a 250-year trend of loss. Some glaciers in Canada, California, and New Zealand are also growing, as the result of both colder temperatures and increased snowfall.
Ed Josberger, a glaciologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, says the growth is “a bit of an anomaly”, but not to be unexpected.
Despite the recent growth, most glaciers in the nation are still smaller than they were in 1982. However, Elvehøy says that the glaciers were even smaller during the ‘Medieval Warm Period’ of the Viking Era, prior to around the year 1350.
Not all Norwegian glaciers appear to be affected, most notably those in the Jotenheimen region of Southern Norway.
Peter Taylor,
I found the report abstract by our friends Gavin Schmidt and Michael Mann and others that you mention above.
They state in it:
“Global average temperature changes are small (about 0.3° to 0.4°C) in both a climate model and empirical reconstructions. However, regional temperature changes are quite large.”
I though Mann’s proxies were bristlecones on land and regional with his reconstructions not showing 1-2°C fluctuations. And how can he make the above statement with no real ocean data records from back then?
I pointed this out on another forum and our esteemed “expert” on Climate Change told me that of course the glaciers are increasing in size – more warming = more precipitation = more snow = bigger glacier! I’m afraid it’s impossible to win this argument. You might as well close your blog right now.
I have a little tale to tell about Glacier.Back in my other life, I was a Co-pilot
on an Airtanker. DC-7,3000 gal retardant load. Back in 1996,I was based in Winslow Az. It had been quiet,we weren’t allowed to play with the big fire up
near Santa Fe in the Sangre’ De Christos… So I washed the Airplane,and watched the whole of The Aero Union,TBM,and Neptune fleets overfly Winslow.Finally near quitting time,6 pm., We get a call:”Go to the Pine Complex!??” Huh? It was out some days before with just some mopup going on. Well, we figgured that something must’ve got away,sooo,off we go. We get to the sea of black that was the Fire.In the middle, there is an island of green,with a smoke curing up.We were told by air attack to:” drop on the edge of the black” as if it was going any where,Ok, so we and the Alamogordo tanker did that.”Go home!” so back to Winslow. Some 200 or so air miles-loved that trip in the evening,
We went right over Monument valley and John Ford Country. We land,service the airplane with one of those Georgia O’Keefe sunsets from the wing of a DC-7 It was a good night. Getting to the Motel I turned on the TV-on the News as this breathless reporter,extolling the the virtues of the the Heroic Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, fighting the Global Warming caused
fire with his new Pulaski and freshly washed yellow Nomex. A photo op…
Now fast forward to late June,early July-just before the Monsoon season in the Southwest.We’d been working a nasty fire up near Sunset Crater,near the San Francisco Peaks,the Horseshoe complex.Nasty place to work,turbulence,
up and downdrafts,and, as an added bonus, it was UP everywhere,no real
easy way out of that caldera if you lost an engine or couldn’t get rid of your load.Now,that fire went out.As with all big fires,it went out mostly on it’s own. Usually due to the following:it ran out of things to burn,the wind quit
blowing and it rained on it.Ok, we were at Winslow,thankful we’d never go back to that hellhole of a fire again.The clanger goes off:”Load for the Horseshoe complex!” Ok. We launch.We got over the same scene as before:
an Island of green and a sea of black.Except.This is now in the bottom of the Sunset caldera,and the nearest green is a good mile from the Island.”Drop half
in and half out!” Ok.So we do.Now in this mess which now has heavy helicopters,news choppers,Three heavy Airtankers(including ours) D-8 Cats,
Pumpers and-Bruce Babbitt.Upon hearing that,the Air Attack,and the Leadplane Pilot in unison said-“What? this is a photo op,and a waste of Taxpayer’s money-we’re calling the Airshow off!””GO HOME!”-so we did.
now later there were repercussions to that AIr Attack and Lead Pilot,but they
didn’t get fired.Now it is Mid August-the fire trail leads to Billings, Mont.
One of my fave tanker bases. It was slow day, nightly news was on.There with a straight face, was Babbitt.At Glacier. In a suit. Standing in front of a Terminal Morane,with the following signs: 1889,1914,1935,1950,1996.
(ignoring a run of that glacier in the 20’s.)Babbitt then gives us a sermon.
Sort of a “Sinners in the hands of an angry Gaia .” Pointing the bony finger of accusation at US unwashed,it is our Ford SUV’s and Chevy Pickups that are killing the planet!Let’s put it this way.It was exquisite in it’s Irony….
Here’s a clip I haven’t seen:
(It’s in English)
http://klimakatastrophe.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/die-sonne-das-klima-unstoppable-solar-cycles/
Pierre,
Yet, I keep hearing from some institutes, e.g. Potsdam PIK, that climate change is occuring faster than even what the models predicted.
Do they mean global warming or global cooling? I don’t know what “climate change” is supposed to mean.
May I ask? You know how everything is green this, green that and that by being green we will help the planet.
Wouldn’t the ‘green’ in greenhouse gas suggest that we ARE being green?
And the lunacy continues.
Good to hear of this. Maybe Kivalina will stop eroding:
http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/kivalina-alaska-a-melting-village-/article98947.html
After another storm forced an evacuation of the island in the fall of 2007, you might say that Kivalina reached the end of its rope. Which is why, on February 26, 2008, this community of 400 Native Americans filed suit in federal court against 24 oil, electricity, and coal companies, including ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, British Petroleum, Chevron, and Shell. Demanding up to $400 million in damages-the estimated cost of moving the village out of reach of the rising sea-the lawsuit accuses the companies of contributing to global warming and creating a public nuisance that has harmed property in the town.
It’s an audacious move-after all, even snowmobile-using Kivalinans bear some responsibility for climate change. But the lawsuit goes further, charging that some of the corporations “conspired to create a false scientific debate about global warming in order to deceive the public.”
The article of course considers global warming a fact.
One of the most interesting climate related discoveries in recent years is that the Earth’s rotation isn’t slowing down as fast as it should. The only explanation is ice accumulation at the poles. Ice accumulation tends to increase the speed of rotation of the Earth by shifting mass closer to the poles, in the same way an ice skater spins faster when they pull their arms closer to their body.
Guess when this started?
1998
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/The_Ice_Caps_are_Growing.pdf
Nice pictures of advancing glaciers in New Zealand.
http://nzphoto.tripod.com/south/04Glaciers.htm
Note, this information is 2 or 3 years old. I have been unable to find current data. Advancing glaciers are obviously not of interest.
Speaking of growing ice,
The National Ice Center , http://www.natice.noaa.gov/ims/index.htm, contains animations of Snow cover and Ice for the Northern Hemisphere.
Douglas DC,
Thanks for a hands-on picture perfect pilots view of what you guys go through.
And still in my minds eye I see this old DC-6 diving (DIVING!) on a fire just off the Amtrac tracks in California. Picture Perfect drop – throttles max and that old piece of iron climbed like a lark!
BEA-U-TIFUL!
Mike
While a lot of folks get worked up about glacial advance/retreat trends, I think that’s interesting, but what’s the bottom line? – ocean level variations.
Lately, it’s been 1.4 mm/year. Over the next hundred years, that’s 6 inches increase. Yet since the last Ice Age, ocean levels have risen 400 feet (48 inches per century). That sounds like a disproportionate change. And yes, I understand the impact of a graduated elevation of the low-sloped edge-of-the-bathtub influence impact on sea level change (i.e., more water into a bathtub with flat-sloped perimeters yields lower increases in depth per gallon contributed to the tub).
But at some point, when do the predictions of catastrophe end and reality intrudes??
This article in todays ‘The Australian ‘ newspaper is unusual in that it presents (allows) controversy over supposed Climate Change’. It is entitled ‘Cold snap fails to cool protagonists of global warming’. Here is the link: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24723425-11949,00.html
I’ve read a few references to glacial coverage being as low 6,000 to 7,000 years ago as it is now. Not bad, no change over several millennia.
I’ve collected some of them together and stretched the timeframe to 5,000 to 7,000 years.
If anyone has other nice links that fit or reasons behind that glacial retreat, let me know here or through Email.
http://wermenh.com/climate/6000.html
So whats new, F Rasmin. ABC and Fairfax media are essentially junk. Contrary evidence is presented as “the southern ocean adapting to climate change”. Hilarious.
Another article in an Australian Newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald, critical of the Global Warming Religion. What is interesting is firstly that the SMH even published it – they are very pro human AGW, but secondly this Saturday morning in Australia it is the most watched article on SMH. A sign I think that the sceptics are on the rise.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/miranda-devine/beware-the-church-of-climate-alarm/2008/11/26/1227491635989.html
I think I have located the original NVEreport.
It has a graph of the glacier length change here, it would be nice if this could be added as a visual aid to the article above. 14kB PDF here.
To quote:
Peter Taylor, when I try to visit your website I get a malware warning from my mac. Have you heard that before? I would like to be able to e-mail you; my address is hambler@Mac.com
Back to the discussion, as more than one person has recently pointed out, it is amazing how little good data there are at present in re ocean heat content and sea levels, among other items on the list. I’m not saying there is, but it’s as though there is a cabal.
There is no other area of wide public interest where the disconnect between the best of the blogs and the MSM is as great as climate. Thanks as always to Anthony.
More on Glacier National Park. Figure 6.D shows that of the Sperry Glacier shrinkage between 1850 and 2003, 80.6% of that shrinkage had occurred by 1945.
http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/wkgrps/ecosys_resp/postings/pdf/pederson_etal2006.pdf
Hello again,
Just trying to understand how this article adds up to global cooling? I don’t see it and I’m sure the good folks here at WUWT can help as you have on the other threads.
You’ve probably followed the fallout on Politico over Erika Lovley’s article “Scientists urge caution on global warming”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15938.html
Naturally, there’s been a huge backlash over her attempt to push forward the GC theory.
The author relies on the work of Joseph D’Aleo, a meteorologist (meteorology is the study of weather, not climate). D’Aleo’s lack of qualifications in climate science would be less relevant if he had published his work on “global cooling” in peer-reviewed scientific journals rather than the Farmers Almanac.
From the letter to the editor written by Russ Walker and David Roberts of Grist Magazine in response to the original article. Walker and Roberts write:
” While reasonable people may debate the value of cap-and-trade legislation, and it is certainly worth reporting on how its congressional opponents are strategizing to block it, it is simply false to point to a “growing accumulation” of evidence rendering basic climate science “shaky.” There is no such accumulation; there is no such science. If there were, perhaps the author would have cited some of it — it is telling that she did not.”
Politico acknowledges their error in publishing the original article and now recants. The editor writes:
“Giving voice to the losing side of a national debate is often fraught with peril. It requires navigating a terrain littered with grudges, slights, insults and hard feelings.
To do that without becoming ensnared requires extraordinary care. In Politico’s case, we slipped.”
I just don’t get how this glacier post in any way shape or form somehow indicates that GW is slowing rather than accelerating?
Will
very good if the glacier growing again….
Hey Will. What you have described is a major U.S. news organization sounding about as cowed as TASS under Leonyd Brezhnev. I recommend that you enjoy the apex of your side’s power. It will never reach this point again.
And while the billions underpinning AGW may be capable of silencing CNN, they will not silence me.
I just don’t get how this glacier post in any way shape or form somehow indicates that GW is slowing rather than accelerating?
Will Small, the IPCC and many others cite retreating glaciers as clear evidence of Global Warming.
While there are multiple factors at work in glacier advance/retreat, it is clear that many ‘short response’ (glaciers that respond fastest to changes that cause advance/retreat) glaciers are now advancing. This is clearly the case in New Zealand.
Either, glaciers are not good indicators of climate change over periods up to a couple of decades and the IPCC and others are wrong, or glaciers are advancing due to climate cooling.
Take your pick.
Otherwise re the article at Politico, the global warming establishment uses unethical and frankly immoral tactics to suppress legitimate debate.
Will, did you read Al Gore’s quote? That should be enough to make you think twice.
I’ve read a few references to glacial coverage being as low 6,000 to 7,000 years ago as it is now.
We know from multiple sources that the Holocene Maximum (or Holocene Optimum) was warmer than today. No one really disputes this, including the likes of Hansen.
The Warming Lobby hardly ever mentions the Holocene Maximum because it makes a mockery of the climate tipping point argument. If such a tipping point exists then the Holocene Maximum would have passed it and been much warmer than it was and of course we would still be much warmer.