Some Of The World’s Largest Non-Polar Glaciers Are Expanding, Despite Global Warming

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Trekkers and porters hike down the Baltoro glacier in the Karakoram mountain range in Pakistan September 7, 2014. Geographically, Pakistan is a climbers paradise. It rivals Nepal for the number of peaks over 7,000 meters and is home to the world’s second tallest mountain, K2, as well as four of the world’s 14 summits higher than 8,000 meters. In more peaceful times, northern Pakistan’s unspoilt beauty was a major tourist draw but the potentially lucrative industry has been blighted by years of violence. The number of expeditions has dwindled, wrecking communities dependant on climbing for income and starving Pakistan’s suffering economy of much-needed dollars. Picture taken September 7, 2014. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay (PAKISTAN – Tags: ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY TRAVEL) ATTENTION EDITORS – PICTURE 31 OF 32 FOR WIDER IMAGE STORY ‘K2 – THE SAVAGE MOUNTAIN’ SEARCH ‘RATTAY K2’ FOR ALL IMAGES – RTR4B6HY ∧

Some Of The World’s Largest Non-Polar Glaciers Are Expanding, Despite Global Warming

From The Daily Caller

Michael Bastasch

12:36 PM 08/11/2017

Some of the largest non-polar glaciers in the world are either stable or growing due to a “vortex” of cold air over a 1,200-mile section of the greater Himalayan mountain range in central Asia, according to a new study.

Climate models haven’t been able to reproduce the phenomenon, which is keeping Karakoram mountain range glaciers from melting like most of the world’s other glaciers, the study found.

“While most glaciers are retreating as a result of global warming, the glaciers of the Karakoram range in South Asia are stable or even growing,” Hayley Fowler, the study’s co-author and professor at Newcastle University, said in a statement.

Karakoram is one of the most heavily-glaciated areas of the world outside the poles, and boasts the world’s second- and third-largest non-polar glaciers. It’s also home to the world’s second-largest peak, K2 — Vertical Limit, anyone?

The study found that ‘anomalous cooling’ over Karakoram could have an impact on river flows, which are heavily dependent on ice melt. The call it the “Karakoram vortex.”

“Most climate models suggest warming over the whole region in summer as well as in winter,” Fowler said. “However, our study has shown that large-scale circulation is controlling regional variability in atmospheric temperatures, with recent cooling of summer temperatures.”

“This suggests that climate models do not reproduce this feature well,” Fowler said.

Fowler isn’t the first to wonder why Karakoram glaciers aren’t melting like the models predicted. Several studies have been published over the years asking the same question — what’s happening?

A 2014 study found climate models tended to over-predict warming over Karakoram, meaning they under-predicted snowfall in the region. The region gets colder westerly winds from Afghanistan, which is increasing winter snow. Other mountains are getting more rain.

Most other major glaciers are receding, according to Fowler, which only makes the case of Karakoram more interesting. It also shows the pitfalls of model predictions.

“But the circulation system is currently providing a dampening effect on global warming, reducing glacial melt in the Karakoram region and any change will have a significant effect on ice melt rates, which would ultimately affect river flows in the region,” Fowler said.

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Gloateus
August 12, 2017 4:04 pm

What global warming?
http://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2017/july/july2017_update_bar_th.jpg
Looks as if none for going on 20 years.

Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 4:58 pm

Yup. Plus we got the same thing as for as no ocean warming:comment image

WTF
Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 7:07 pm

Gloateus maximus,
Global warming is an observable long term event, your own graph shows an average increase over the years.
Instead of kicking own goals you should stop cherry picking and talk to a scientist.

David A
Reply to  WTF
August 12, 2017 8:11 pm

Define the cherry pick? What is the decadal warming trend compared to the model mean?

Reply to  WTF
August 13, 2017 12:59 am

The world has been warming since the end of the Little Ice Age on the very long trend.
But that is entirely natural. AGW asserts that CO2 causes extra warming. As the greatest additional CO2 emissions have been released with the industrialisation of China the warming ought to be the greatest in the last 20 years.
Look at the evidence and try thinking like a scientist. That’s how to be a sceptic.

kokoda - the most deplorable
Reply to  WTF
August 13, 2017 5:25 am

M Courtney…………Your explanation is superb; perhaps this one sentence “The world has been warming since the end of the Little Ice Age on the very long trend.” can be amended, as the cooling didn’t stop on a dime. J. Curry uses a figure of 300 years of current warming, which is well before the ‘END’ of the LIA. Suggest….’since the unwinding of the LIA’.

Reply to  WTF
August 13, 2017 8:37 am

Scientists share their data and methods for others to check. Businessmen hoard their data and methods for profit. Haven’t seen much data sharing from all the so-called climate scientists. Did not Michael Mann refuse to provide data in court clainiming the data was proprietary?

Gloateus
Reply to  WTF
August 13, 2017 10:37 am

WTF,
For at least the past 3000 years, the long-term trend is down. For over 300 years, since the depths of the LIA during the Maunder Minimum, the short-term trend has been warming. But there are counter cycles within that secular trend. The counter cyclic cooling of the 1920s-40s interrupted the early and late 20th century warming cycles.
The warming cycle of the early 20th century was practically identical to the late 20th century warming, while the early 18th century warming, coming out of the Maunder, lasted longer and warmed more than the late 20th century warming.
So, it is indeed warmer today than 320 years ago and 160 years ago, at the end of the LIA. But it’s not warmer than 80 years ago, during the mid-20th century warming cycle.
And the now trend is flat, hence no statistically significant warming at all in this century. The two peaks in that graph are both super El Ninos, and the other spike up in between them was a normal El Nino.
Talk about own goals!

rogerthesurf
Reply to  Gloateus
August 13, 2017 3:30 pm

But if the glaciers wont melt as predicted by the climate models, there must be an anomaly!
Cheers
Roger

WTF
Reply to  rogerthesurf
August 13, 2017 9:30 pm

Gloateus,
I can see why you live here in this echo chamber, have you tried running this info past some real scientists?

paul courtney
Reply to  rogerthesurf
August 14, 2017 8:04 am

W: It isn’t here, but there’s an echo chamber out there, and they are preparing to adjust that bad data about “glacier growing” so as to match the can’t-be-wrong models. Please let us know when that echo becomes the voice in your head.

Sara
Reply to  Gloateus
August 14, 2017 7:54 am

The models failed because the software used (IPCC’s product) flattens the areas and does not recognize anomalies like mountain ranges. There is a better product that does not do this and is more accurate and has predicted increases.

Jones
August 12, 2017 4:12 pm

“Some Of The World’s Largest Non-Polar Glaciers Are Expanding, Despite Global Warming”
Despite?…No no no….”because of” surely?

Auto
Reply to  Jones
August 13, 2017 1:41 pm

Jones,
Absolutely.
Everything under heaven is ‘Because of globull warming’.
The ice melting in my drink – August in London – CAGW.
The Perseid meteorites – CAGW.
Vanishing of the Loch Ness Monster since Tim Dinsdale’s film – CAGW.
Liverpool conceding a very late goal against Watford, in the 1230 kick-off game yesterday – CAGW.
The recession of the nebulae – CAGW.
Me looking older than I did thirty years ago – CAGW.
And you can probably fill in the next – even more gut-wrenchingly far-fetched – dozen yourselves!
A marvellous thing this CAGW!.
Which doesn’t exist – except in the belief systems of some ‘useful idiots’ – if such a phrase is still allowable; and in the machinations of the New World Order stalinists [no Capital S for them!].
Auto

Tom Halla
August 12, 2017 4:14 pm

Maybe the climate models do not predict the Karakoram glaciers well because they don’t do anything well.

TA
Reply to  Tom Halla
August 12, 2017 4:51 pm

Yeah, the climate models are not very good at predicting the climate, either.

Gerry, England
Reply to  TA
August 13, 2017 5:48 am

“Most climate models suggest warming over the whole region in summer as well as in winter,”
Most? Surely they all do. Is she trying to suggest that some don’t? But if that was true then they would be showing that the glaciers aren’t melting wouldn’t they? Too much to admit that every model is wrong I suppose but then once you start lying you can end up in knots.

Tom Gelsthorpe
August 12, 2017 4:14 pm

This story can’t be true. Any weather/climate data that contradict the warming/doomsday narrative MUST BE FALSE. The Doomsday Priesthood has been thundering for an entire generation that everything is bad and getting worse. Every person of conscience is either engaging in ritual self-flagellation, pretending to give up the stuff they like, or both, in order to signal their virtue to each other. They can’t be wrong because 97% of all big shots agree. Don’t upset the (organic) applecart by suggesting there are any wrinkles in the doomsday scenario. It’s not something you discuss among the right kind of people.

WTF
Reply to  Tom Gelsthorpe
August 12, 2017 7:20 pm

Tom,
If all the climate scientists are wrong then please come up with evidence that stands up in the real world.

Mike Graebner
Reply to  WTF
August 12, 2017 7:53 pm

I think Tom was being sarcastic

David A
Reply to  WTF
August 12, 2017 8:15 pm

Another meaningless post Define ALL the climate scientists. ( Those that study causeation, not attribution)
Having defined and listed them, show me the document where they state that human CO2 emissions are catastrophic to human life on earth.

Reply to  WTF
August 13, 2017 12:32 am

The real word of climate science denies the real world of ordinary men, who still have to put t he central heating in in August in the UK

Reply to  WTF
August 13, 2017 2:38 am

You dont get the null do you, the scientists have to prove it, and they have not even come close

seaice1
Reply to  WTF
August 13, 2017 4:43 am

“I think Tom was being sarcastic”
It is impossible to tell because many people here say pretty much same thing in all seriousness.

Gloateus
August 12, 2017 4:15 pm

The glaciers on which I spend the most time, in Alaska and Patagonia, are also expanding.

KRM
Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 4:55 pm
Gloateus
Reply to  KRM
August 12, 2017 4:59 pm

And in terms of the world’s total ice balance, montane glaciers aren’t a pimple on the posterior of ice sheets, especially the East Antarctic, repository of most of the world’s fresh water. It is growing.
Wegener’s 1930 grave on the Greenland Ice Sheet is under more than 100 meters of ice.

Reply to  KRM
August 12, 2017 10:09 pm

Just read about Wegener in wikipedia. Such a man. Such a pioneering giant. He makes today’s climate scientists look like nothing. The consensus was firmly against his theory of continental drift. He was right, and not by accident. He was ahead of everybody else. We need to keep in mind that continental drift was not the major point of his career, but an incidental discovery of a man trying to understand geology and meteorology. It is cause for reflection that he lost his life in Greenland bringing supplies to people in his survey team, and he fought on the Western Front and was wounded twice in WW I.
And, they do say in wikipedia that his grave is under 300 feet of ice and snow. I suppose that is due to increased precipitation from global warming.
His generation were real men. I doubt they needed safe spaces.

Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 6:06 pm

Yes, Hubbard, Taku and the Patagonia tide water glaciers are advancing – all very large tidewater glaciers among others…

Reply to  J. Philip Peterson
August 12, 2017 6:13 pm

The glacier is unusual in that it is advancing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perito_Moreno_Glacier
It’s the largest tidewater glacier in the SH outside of Antarctica…

Reply to  J. Philip Peterson
August 12, 2017 6:18 pm

And nobody ever mentions Mt Saint Helen’s glacier – expanding…:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Glacier
And there are others…

Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 8:24 pm

The winter snow fields in the Sierra’s were at a relatively low minimum 2 years ago, but this summer, they are as large as they ever get. Mammoth Mountain shut down for the season just last weekend!

Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 8:29 pm

WTF
You are getting pwned. Anything else you need to know?
The models all predict warming will continue inexorably and the glaciers will ALL retreat, flooding Florida etc. Well, most models were written and run since 2000. So far they are terrible at predicting anything.
Can we say they are wrong? They surely are not right. For a model to be useful it has to, now and then, predict something that happens. That’s what they are for. The premise is that more CO2 equals higher temperatures everywhere. It doesn’t work like that.
The models predict temporal and spatial inhomogenities. Fine, but in toto, they suck at predicting anything. Frankly I am disappointed. I expected at least a few modelers would come up with something that would give predictions that were broadly in line with measurements, particular in the fabled hot spot, something fundamental to the physics of GHG’s. What is in error on its fundamentals cannot be right in general except by accident, in which case it is not really a model, just prestidigitation: press a button, get a digit, invent an excuse.

WTF
Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
August 13, 2017 12:03 am

Crispin in alternative science land,
I’m getting “pwned” ( or do you mean covfefeed ? ) by armchair experts, who’s stuck here unable to get any evidence past peer review ?
Try engaging the scientific community.

Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
August 13, 2017 12:34 am

love to engage the scientific community but they are already employed by governments for whom climate reality is an inconvenient truth.

Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
August 13, 2017 2:38 am

WTF “talk to scientists”
I think you should 😀

Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
August 13, 2017 4:14 am

WTF
Who are you referring to WRT getting published? Me? Stop guessing.
Are you engaging in cite-o-logy? Show me a peer-reviewed paper describing a climate model that has the CO2 concentration matching the temperatures for the past 30 years. Show me a paper describing a climate model without a tropospheric hot spot. It is in the hot spot you can warm yourself burning alternative science papers.

WTF
Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
August 13, 2017 2:36 pm

Crispin,
It’s not me you need to convince, it’s the real world outside this bunker.
Just put us out of our collective misery and provide evidence like a good scientist.

Latitude
August 12, 2017 4:17 pm

damn….now people are going to die because glaciers are growing
..you just can’t win

Reply to  Latitude
August 12, 2017 8:28 pm

When a km thick glacier inevitably bears down on Manhattan, the rest of the East Coast, Northern Europe, Canada and Russia, people will only wish CO2 has as big an effect as claimed by the IPCC. Unfortunately, there’s not enough carbon on the planet to keep the next ice age from occurring.

crackers345
Reply to  co2isnotevil
August 12, 2017 9:00 pm

evil: why would a glacier descend over
manhattan?
that makes no sense at all, given
physics.
the next ice age is toast.
already ruined.
past ice ages ended when
co2 ~ 280 ppm.
we’re much above that now
with milankovitch factors now implying
cooling.
but there is no
cooling, is there?

Reply to  crackers345
August 12, 2017 9:39 pm

Crackers,
What do you think happened during the last ice age? I’m not saying this is happening now, but no amount of CO2 will prevent it from happening again. If you think otherwise, then you’re failing to grasp the underlying physics.
You seem to be misled by the absurdly high sensitivity claimed by the IPCC. The physics tells us that the sensitivity must be less than the lower limit claimed by the IPCC and that there’s not enough carbon on the planet to prevent the next ice age from occurring.
Consider Mars, which on a molar basis has far, far more atmospheric CO2 than Earth, yet it remains a very cold place.
Past ice ages did not end at CO2==280 ppm, they ended at far low levels and the warmer temperatures increased planet wide biomass, causing the steady state atmospheric CO2 to slowly rise as new forests grew, as is clearly indicated in the ice core data, where changes in CO2 FOLLOW changes in temperature by centuries. BTW, the 280 ppm was at the end of the LIA which was about 20K after the end of the last real ice ice.
The Milankovitch forcing factors indicate that the next ice age is still thousands of years in the future. Of course by then, climate scientists will have regained their senses and accept the true nature of the climate sensitivity and the inevitability of the next ice age giving the world time to prepare, although this will most likely mean evacuating most of the NE US, Europe, Canada and Russia.
The next ice age is actually far enough away that we will have run out of fossil fuels and out biggest concern will be how to pump up atmospheric CO2 to keep agriculture from crashing.

GlenM
Reply to  Latitude
August 13, 2017 2:43 am

You can’t win! That’s it! Goalposts are continually moved or taken away.WTF is brainwashed- just like so many others. Oh, appeal to authority. We have relied on so-called “experts” in so many fields and they invariably fail. Once again the failure to prove attribution is the REASON that many are sceptical. Where is the proof.

noaaprogrammer
August 12, 2017 4:32 pm

Have any studies been done on glacial growth/recession versus altitude and latitude?

Gloateus
Reply to  noaaprogrammer
August 12, 2017 4:47 pm

No synoptic analysis that I know of, but observations from all environments, many dubious:
http://cdn.antarcticglaciers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Glacier_Mass_Balance_Map.png

Gloateus
Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 4:48 pm

Glaciologists of course in effect get paid to be alarmists.

Gloateus
Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 4:50 pm

http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/glaciers-and-climate/glacier-recession/shrinking-patagonian-glaciers/
These Antarctic people claim that glaciers receded more rapidly in the late 20th century than in the late 19th, after the end of the LIA, but as noted, I’m dubious about a global conclusion to that effect.

Gloateus
Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 4:54 pm

For instance, Chile’s Pio XI Glacier, largest in the Southern Hemisphere. is growing. The Moreno Glacier, Argentina’s largest, is too.

Gloateus
Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 4:56 pm

My impression is that about half the montane glaciers are receding and half staying the same or growing. However many of those shrinking are little, while a lot of the biggest ones are growing. In terms of area and volume, the net net might well be stasis in this century.

WTF
Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 7:13 pm

You say dubious without any evidence, hardly scientific is it ?

Reply to  Gloateus
August 13, 2017 2:40 am

“Gloateus August 12, 2017 at 4:48 pm
Glaciologists of course in effect get paid to be alarmists.”
Today a Glaciologist goes into the field today wanting to save the ice and the earth. They more or less are paid to be alarmists

seaice1
Reply to  Gloateus
August 13, 2017 5:21 am

Gloateus,
Where did you get the impression that half were receding and half were stable or growing? We can check this out quite easily.
http://wgms.ch/latest-glacier-mass-balance-data/
For 2016, I counted 31 growing (positive mass balance) and 128 shirinking (negative mass balance). The overall mass balance is negative.
This page shows number of advancing vs retreating glaciers by length over several decades. It shows nearly all currently retreating.
http://www.grid.unep.ch/glaciers/pdfs/5.pdf

Reply to  seaice1
August 13, 2017 1:43 pm

Problem is I have to look at volume not surface area.

tony mcleod
Reply to  Gloateus
August 13, 2017 5:10 pm
Reply to  Gloateus
August 13, 2017 8:25 pm

seaice1 writes

Where did you get the impression that half were receding and half were stable or growing? We can check this out quite easily.
http://wgms.ch/latest-glacier-mass-balance-data/

I took a look at that reference and cant seem to find data on the Karakoram glaciers described as “the world’s second- and third-largest non-polar glaciers.”. Either that’s a fairly substantial …oversight or I’m missing the references by name. Can you help seaice?

Reply to  Gloateus
August 14, 2017 1:35 am

seaice writes

Where did you get the impression that half were receding and half were stable or growing? We can check this out quite easily.
http://wgms.ch/latest-glacier-mass-balance-data/

OK, now that I’m home I can do a little more research and no, the second (Siachen) and third (Biafo) largest glaciers aren’t part of the “world” glacier monitoring service. These ones from the OP are increasing in mass.
How about the largest glacier, the Lambert Glacier in Antarctica? Nope, not that one either. My first reference found suggests that one is increasing in mass too.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02879518
So when you say “check this quite easily” then no. Your link has not shown that at all.

Reply to  Gloateus
August 14, 2017 1:50 am

To top off this investigation of the “science” behind the claim that glaciers are net contracting, it turns out that none of the world’s longest 7 non-polar glaciers are listed on the “world” glacier monitoring service.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_glaciers

bitchilly
Reply to  Gloateus
August 18, 2017 12:56 pm

tim, i am surprised at your surprise . i thought it was generally accepted that the only climate metrics that were recorded were those that support the warming/disaster meme. pretty sure tony heller showed this with united states cool vs warm records a couple of years back.
growing glaciers are no good for the cause. of course utter spoon fed clowns like wtf that appear with their drivel here from time to time may not agree.

Gloateus
Reply to  noaaprogrammer
August 14, 2017 4:14 pm

WTF August 12, 2017 at 7:13 pm
Dubious for the reasons I gave.
Seaice,
Your “references” are cherry-picked, selective packs of lies, as well pointed out by Tim.
Same as all Warmunista garbage. Not even junk science. Not science at all, but self-serving advocacy.

seaice1
Reply to  Gloateus
August 21, 2017 1:38 pm

Way too late, but please post your references to support your assertion. Nobody has posted any evidence at all.

Randy in Ridgecrest
August 12, 2017 4:39 pm

“Vertical Limit”? Good grief. My favorite K2 movie is a documentary titled “K2, Siren of the Himalaya” . Lovely cinematography, a light hearted story of an attempt by some really hard climbers.

August 12, 2017 4:50 pm

Was covered before as a Eureka Alert, CtM. Same sillies.

Gloateus
Reply to  ristvan
August 12, 2017 5:08 pm

Air temperature is far from the only variable that goes into glacial waxing and waning. More moisture in the air can mean more snow to turn into ice. Less wind can mean less wasting. Cutting forests downslope can also reduce precipitation.
Sea level, coastal glaciers are different animals from high altitude glaciers and ice fields. Cirques differ from valley glaciers.
At the grossest possible scale however, glaciers did advance on balance during the LIA, despite drier and windier conditions, and have on balance receded during the Current Warm Period, which began in the mid-19th century.

Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 8:36 pm

The biggest effect is whether more snow falls during the winter than can melt during the summer. The summer melt rates seem relatively constant while the winter growth rates are far more variable, not so much because of temperature variability, but because of precipitation variability.

Tom Gelsthorpe
Reply to  Gloateus
August 14, 2017 8:31 am

More unmeasurable variables make it harder to anticipate outcomes in a complex system of any kind — let alone a system as complex as global climate. Sports are about as simple as systems get. Sports are time & space constrained, with a fixed number of players. Yet how often does the favorite team at the beginning of a season end up winning the championship? And those predictions are made only months in advance. What’s the chance climate can be predicted, or tweaked, a century in advance?
A warning by Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra is in order here: “It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future.”

August 12, 2017 5:05 pm

just a layman but pretty sure increased precipitation causes glacial growth and decreased precip. causes them to recede.

Gloateus
Reply to  Bill Taylor
August 12, 2017 5:09 pm

Generally true, but depends on whether the precip be snow or rain. Also, if you have a half inch of snow but an “inch” of wind, mass will wither.

Gloateus
Reply to  Bill Taylor
August 12, 2017 5:11 pm

Beringia, for instance, was largely ice free during the Last Glacial Maximum because of both dry air and windiness.

bw
Reply to  Bill Taylor
August 12, 2017 6:02 pm

Go to the KNMI climate explorer
http://climexp.knmi.nl/select.cgi?id=someone@somewhere&field=prca
Click on the box labeled “Make time series”
and you will see a time plot of global precipitation since 1900
Here is a saved copy of that plot
https://www.flickr.com/photos/108196908@N08/35400848480/in/datetaken/
The bottom line is that global precipitation has not changed since 1900

Gloateus
Reply to  bw
August 12, 2017 6:31 pm

Hence, IPCC’s spurious assumption of feedback effect from water vapor itself vaporizes.
Thus, at best a doubling of CO2 will produce 1.2 degrees C of warming. But that ignores known negative feedback effects, so that a more reasonable range is 0,7 degrees C to 1.7 degrees C per doubling, with net negative feedbacks more likely than not, ie 0.7 to 1.0 degrees C.
This is a far cry from the unjustified, unphysical, evidence-free IPCC range of 1.5 to 4.5 degrees C.

crackers345
Reply to  bw
August 12, 2017 7:41 pm

the wv feedback is obvious — it’s
basic physics.
and it’s happening.

David A
Reply to  bw
August 12, 2017 8:35 pm

Crackers, even the IPCC admits their understanding of cloud feedback is poor. Please show your ” obvious” WV feedback.

Reply to  bw
August 12, 2017 8:49 pm

Crackers,
Basic physics tells us that without GHG’s the Earth albedo would be the same as the Moon (0.12) and the average temperature would be about 270K. Adding GHG’s and clouds DECREASES the temperature by about 15C due to the albedo effects of ice and clouds, while the warming from GHG’s and clouds increases the temperature by 33C. The consensus conveniently ignores the 15C of cooling, all of which is due to albedo effects from liquid and solid water which can not be separated from the GHG warming effect of water vapor which accounts for about 2/3 of the 33C of warming.
Water has a NET effect of 22C – 15C = 7C, while all the rest of the GHG’s and clouds combined have a net effect of about 11C. The net effect of water is nearly a wash, where the cooling offsets most of the warming, although a little more warming arises as part of the 11C attributed to clouds absorbing surface energy and re-emitting it back down to the surface.
Can you see how physics tells us how preposterous the claim is that doubling CO2 increases the surface temperature by 3C, even with the red herring of water vapor amplification?

crackers345
Reply to  bw
August 12, 2017 8:51 pm

David A: clouds
are not “water
vapor.” they are
clouds.

crackers345
Reply to  bw
August 12, 2017 8:56 pm

evil: sorry, but adding ghgs does not
cause a temperature decrease.
the baseline isn’t relevant to agw. it is what it is, and
it was reproduced by lacis et al in science (2010).
the question is the warming from the baseline. it’s
now 1 c, warming at 0.2 c/dec. more over land. more over
nh land. that’s a lot of warming.

crackers345
Reply to  bw
August 12, 2017 9:04 pm

evil wrote-
“Water has a NET effect of 22C – 15C = 7C, while all the rest of the GHG’s and clouds combined have a net effect of about 11C”
perhaps you mean water vapor, and not “water?”
in any case, it’s not this simple.
it takes both w.v. and co2 to put the
earth’s avg temp above the freezing pt of
water.
physically, it’s meaningless
to remove one without
considering the impact of the other
or the resulting change in feedback from
ice-albedo.

Reply to  bw
August 12, 2017 10:17 pm

Crackers,
Basic physics tells us that without GHG’s the Earth albedo would be the same as the Moon (0.12) and the average temperature would be about 270K. Adding GHG’s and clouds DECREASES the temperature by about 15C due to the albedo effects of ice and clouds, while the warming from GHG’s and clouds increases the temperature by 33C. The consensus conveniently ignores the 15C of cooling, all of which is due to albedo effects from liquid and solid water which can not be separated from the GHG warming effect of water vapor which accounts for about 2/3 of the 33C of warming.
Water has a NET effect of 22C – 15C = 7C, while all the rest of the GHG’s and clouds combined have a net effect of about 11C. The net effect of water is nearly a wash, where the cooling offsets most of the warming, although a little more warming arises as part of the 11C attributed to clouds absorbing surface energy and re-emitting it back down to the surface.
Can you see how physics tells us how preposterous the claim is that doubling CO2 increases the surface temperature by 3C, even with the red herring of water vapor amplification?

Reply to  bw
August 13, 2017 6:58 am

Crackers,
“it’s not this simple. it takes both w.v. and co2 to put the earth’s avg temp above the freezing pt of water.”
With only water and no CO2, CH4 or O3, the average temperature of the planet would certainly be well above freezing. Considering 1/3 of the warming to be due to GHG’s other than water, the average temp would be about 277K which is still above freezing. You seem to be embracing the argument that the climate is too complex to be quantified by the simple laws of physics. Arm waving illusionary complexity doesn’t work here, you need to be much more precise. And BTW, the simple laws of physics like COE and the SB Law are immutable and MUST apply..
Without GHG’s, the average temperature would be about 270K and while his is below freezing, the tropics will get more than enough solar energy for liquid water to exist. Even if you presume that without GHG’s (which includes water), the albedo would still be about 0.3, liquid water will still exist in the tropics and even in mid latitudes during the summer. While the planet might get an AVERAGE of only 240 W/m^2, the equator will see an average of 480 W/m^2 and this is more than enough to keep water from freezing. The average needs to be about 130 W/m^2 to freeze up the whole planet which requires an albedo greater than 0.6.
You’re exhibiting the typical behavoir of an alarmist driven by unsupportable logic which is to consider only those factors that support your preconceptions, while ignoring everything else. Open your eyes to the big picture and the truth will set you free from your angst about man caused climate change.

Reply to  bw
August 13, 2017 8:39 pm

crackers345 writes

the wv feedback is obvious — it’s
basic physics.
and it’s happening.

Speaking of basic physics, increased SST means more evaporation which is a “basic physics” negative feedback since that energy is removed from the surface. Which wins? And then there’s albedo changes with clouds, convection changes…the list goes on. If you look at a single feedback and think you have a grasp on the net effect it just means you dont understand the complexity…

Reply to  Bill Taylor
August 13, 2017 2:42 am

Glaciers grow with sublimation too depending on moisture and temp. They suck the moisture from the air

Kenneth Simmons
August 12, 2017 5:35 pm

I find it strange that each time I visit a link about a region’s unexpected growing glaciers, it mentions that the rest of the world’s glaciers are melting. Am I missing something here, how can that be? If that were true, I would not be able to visit links to articles discussing the unexpected growth of the region”s glaciers.

Gloateus
Reply to  Kenneth Simmons
August 12, 2017 5:37 pm

Alarmists are selective of course, but as noted above, probably half or more of the world’s montane glaciers are in fact still shrinking, just as they’ve been doing since c. AD 1850.
But about half are also growing or staying the same.

crackers345
Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 7:39 pm

can you prove your
claim of “about half?”

Alan Robertson
Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 7:41 pm

As long as most of them don’t start growing, we should be okay.

Bryan A
Reply to  Gloateus
August 12, 2017 9:00 pm

Hopefully everyone realizes that glaciers are hardly ever unchanging. They are either shrinking or growing but almost never unchanging. Much like the Climate never has been static, it always has been and will be changing

seaice1
Reply to  Gloateus
August 13, 2017 5:28 am

Gloateus, please say where your “half” comes from. I posted a couple of links demonstrating that a large majority are shrinking both by mass and by length.

crackers345
Reply to  Kenneth Simmons
August 12, 2017 9:05 pm

kenneth – what does
the science say, the peer
reviewed literature?

Alan Robertson
Reply to  crackers345
August 13, 2017 4:22 am

You were given a link which would have taken you to much of the peer reviewed literature.
What was your response?

Pop Piasa
August 12, 2017 6:04 pm

“But the circulation system is currently providing a dampening effect on global warming, reducing glacial melt in the Karakoram region and any change will have a significant effect on ice melt rates, which would ultimately affect river flows in the region,”
…and with that curtsey to climate change, the paper passed pal review.

Roger Knights
August 12, 2017 7:37 pm

“But the circulation system is currently providing a dampening effect on global warming,

Shouldn’t that be “damping”?

Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
Reply to  Roger Knights
August 12, 2017 8:41 pm

Yes, Roger. And the word ‘effect’ is redundant. Damping is an effect.
Climate science is not the work of the fattest acorns on the oak. See what Freeman Dyson had to say about that.
I read the letter from Phil Jones quoted on the other thread last night on how to lower the 1940’s temperature spike by fiddling (replacing) the ocean temperatures. We are dealing with the ‘plots’ of sophomores here. They didn’t study English either.

Roger Knights
Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
August 12, 2017 9:00 pm

Come to think of it, also unnecessary are “providingg a” and “on”. Sufficient would be, “… is currently damping global warming.” Struck & White would agree!

Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
August 13, 2017 4:16 am

Roger: well spotted. I has a letter to the New Scientist published once on their ‘last page’ question and my text was whittled down to 99 brilliant words by some copy editor I have admired ever since. You have out-scored me today.

crackers345
August 12, 2017 7:39 pm

so what?
we’re going to have 2-4 C warming by 2100.
you’re in the gutter, but some of us
are looking at the
stars.

Reply to  crackers345
August 12, 2017 7:52 pm

or maybe 2-4 C of cooling. Who from all you folks will be here to record that??

crackers345
Reply to  J. Philip Peterson
August 12, 2017 8:04 pm

no, there certainly wont
be much if any cooling.
this century is the
century of warming, due to
ghgs.
this is basic physics.

Roger Knights
Reply to  J. Philip Peterson
August 12, 2017 9:08 pm

we’re going to have 2-4 C warming by 2100.
this century is the century of warming, due to ghgs. this is basic physics.

The warming by 2100 due to GHGs is about 1 C. That’s the basic physics part. The rest of the rise is due to hypothesized positive feedbacks, which is woo-woo physics.

Alan Robertson
Reply to  crackers345
August 12, 2017 8:05 pm

crackers345-
You can bring yourself up to speed on glacier research going back many years, starting here:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/category/glaciers/
Wouldn’t recommend that you actually research any of the links you will find there, unless you are self- aware enough to search for the whole truth of things, rather than mere facts about things which support your beliefs.

crackers345
Reply to  Alan Robertson
August 12, 2017 8:52 pm

the glaciers are
melting, and this will continue. i’m not
so much interested in the yr-by-yr
melting of glaciers as I am
in long-term agw.

noaaprogrammer
Reply to  Alan Robertson
August 12, 2017 10:12 pm

Are you also interested in modeling long term periods of global warming & cooling as evidenced in the geologic column?

Alan Robertson
Reply to  Alan Robertson
August 13, 2017 4:19 am

crackers345-
What you really just said, is that you aren’t interested in learning the truth of things, but are only interested in supporting your beliefs and agenda.
If you were to look through the research nested within the link I posted, you would learn that your statement “the glaciers are melting”, does not meet the truth test.
Why do you bother to post, here?
You can’t give evidence to support a single assertion you’ve made in this thread, so far.
All you’ve done is declare that you “believe it, so that settles it”.

seaice1
Reply to  Alan Robertson
August 13, 2017 5:55 am

Alan Robertson
“If you were to look through the research nested within the link I posted, you would learn that your statement “the glaciers are melting”, does not meet the truth test.”
If you actually look at the evidence you find that glaciers are melting. The statement does meet the truth test. I posted links above, and here they are again. The majority are melting and the overall mass balance is very significantly negative.
http://wgms.ch/latest-glacier-mass-balance-data/
http://www.grid.unep.ch/glaciers/pdfs/5.pdf
Can you show me even one study that says the opposite?

Tom Gelsthorpe
Reply to  Alan Robertson
August 13, 2017 7:12 am

Your assessment of “Don’t-pester-me-with-facts” crackers345 is astute. Unfortunately there are a lot more committed apocalyptians than Sergeant Fridays among the doomsday cult operating under the rubric of climate change.
Noted spokesyellers Albert Gore and Bill McKibben are not scientists; they are polemicists animated by quasi-religious zeal. They are not running an investigation of testable hypotheses; they are running revival meetings like 19th century millenarians who predicted the world would end on such-and-such a date, so you better repent NOW! In the meantime, give me your money, and give up your worldly comforts so I can fly around on lecture tour and act like a big shot.
When the world fails to end on schedule — like Gore’s ice-free Arctic by 2013 — they just change the date, call another meeting and ask for more money.

Alan Robertson
Reply to  Alan Robertson
August 14, 2017 2:25 am

seaice1 said:
“If you actually look at the evidence you find that glaciers are melting. The statement does meet the truth test.”
————-
No, that statement does not meet the truth test. It meets the fact test. SOME glaciers are melting. Who would disagree?
You then went on to say that an argument which added the percentages of both stable and advancing glaciers to reach an 88% total, gave a subtle twist to the truth.
Tell us how your own quoted figure of 12.3% retreating glaciers gives a label of truth to the statement: “the glaciers are melting”.
Facts are not truth. Facts are only facets of the complete shining diamond of truth.

Darcy
August 12, 2017 7:56 pm

These are same glaciers that IPCC 2007 report indicated would be gone in 2035. When it became apparent that 1/2 were actually growing or stable the IPCC head refused to apologize for the mistake (or his ad hominem attack “voodoo science” againts india’s environment ministers questioning of the conclusion). Turns out they got the information from the world wildlife foundation.
Look up
No apology from IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri for glacier fallacy | Environment | The Guardian
Sorry Dont know how to paste the link from my ipad

Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
Reply to  Darcy
August 12, 2017 8:57 pm

They claimed that 2035 was a typo. The glaciers will be gone in 300 years, or not, depending on whether global warming makes glaciers bigger or smaller. At the moment it appears they get bigger and smaller – like Alice taking both pills at once.
When I take both pills at once things stay pretty much the same and I get a really pleasant buzz in my ears. Climate alarmism is the warm buzz in the ears of the faithful. If it is loud enough it overcomes inhibitions.

Gloateus
Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
August 18, 2017 1:10 pm

As you know, that’s a blatant lie, since IPCC cited the non-peer-reviewed load of twaddle from which it derived the preposterous prevarication about 2035.

Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
August 12, 2017 8:14 pm

“While most glaciers are retreating as a result of global warming, the glaciers of the Karakoram range in South Asia are stable or even growing,”
Hang about…aren’t ‘most glaciers’ in Antarctica? They aren’t ‘retreating’. Why? Because the Antarctic continent is cooling as a whole.
If the world really is warming, on average, it doesn’t surprise me at all that it is raining more on other mountains. If it gets warm enough, it will return to raining throughout the Gobi and Sahara Deserts. Nothing wrong with that.

noaaprogrammer
Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
August 12, 2017 10:16 pm

… nothing wrong growing wheat in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, & Nunavut either!

MFKBoulder
Reply to  noaaprogrammer
August 15, 2017 2:58 am

Next to the fact that most of the soils in Youkon differ “a little” in their ability for sustainable growing wheat from the Iowa Soils.

seaice1
Reply to  Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
August 13, 2017 5:57 am

Most gaciers are retreating – just look at the evidence.

noaaprogrammer
Reply to  seaice1
August 13, 2017 4:25 pm

… and, nothing wrong with letting forests grow where glaciers used to flow.

seaice1
Reply to  seaice1
August 21, 2017 1:42 pm

noaaprogrammer. Indeed, if people would accept the evidence we could reasonably discuss the ramifications. If they are going to argue that black is white or that glaciers are generally advancing (equably absurd arguments) then we cannot discuss the effects and impacts.

Dr. Strangelove
August 12, 2017 8:31 pm

88% of glaciers in the Himalayas are stable or advancing
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261436319_Are_the_Himalayan_glaciers_retreating

Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
Reply to  Dr. Strangelove
August 12, 2017 8:59 pm

Dr Strangelove:
It’s a the victory of basic measurements over basic physics.

Reply to  Dr. Strangelove
August 12, 2017 9:02 pm

And ash will be found responsible for the 12% of nonrecurring ice mass.

Crispin in Waterloo but really in Ulaanbaatar
Reply to  Pat Childs
August 13, 2017 4:19 am

Good point Pat.
At the ICCI Conference in Warsaw in May they held that domestic combustion of coal was responsible for a lot of ice loss. That has to be subtracted from CO2-related claims for ‘warmth’ causing the same thing.

seaice1
Reply to  Dr. Strangelove
August 13, 2017 10:13 am

The study finds that from 2000 to 2010 “Among these, 1752 glaciers (86.8%) were observed having stable fronts (no change in the snout position and area of ablation zone), 248 (12.3%) exhibited retreat and 18 (0.9%) of them exhibited advancement of snout.
Thus almost none are advancing. It would be reasonable to say that the study found almost 87% were stable and the rest retreating over that period. To say 88% were stable or advancing conveys a slightly different meaning.

August 12, 2017 9:00 pm

Dampening?
Reads like the authors think it is a plot.

August 12, 2017 9:41 pm

The climate models don’t “predict” the PDO, either.
COULD SOMEBODY TELL ME:
My impression is that climate models don’t predict wind and cloud cover. Is this true?

noaaprogrammer
Reply to  Joel Hammer
August 12, 2017 10:19 pm

Wind & cloud cover could be tacked on with just as much veracity as anything else in the models.

Gary Pearse
August 12, 2017 10:20 pm

They are surprised that the tallest mountains in the world are not melting? Did they not also get the memo that despite the strong but quickie El Nino and with rhe precipitous drop in equatorial temperature that followed, the oceans and atmosphere are cooling and the Dreaded Pause is about to reach back to pre 2000 again and resume! They really do think the science is settled and seem to be missing out on a learning moment. I’ve unhappily predicted an early and deep winter in Canada this year.

Warren Blair
August 12, 2017 11:46 pm

This is hilarious; same deal in New Zealand (especially Franz J).
Can’t wait for the evolving line-up of excuses; the art of the ‘tuned’ excuse.
There’s no place in any of the models for such persistent cooling (regional or otherwise).
It’s impossible . . .

August 13, 2017 12:10 am

You’ve been warned: glaciers are coming to town near you soon (/sarc)
Second summer snow in the Alps. These chairs near Zermatt (11th August) are meant for sunbathingcomment image

bitchilly
Reply to  vukcevic
August 18, 2017 1:05 pm

snow is no barrier to sun bathing vuk, you just get a cold bum at the same time as the tan 😉

Tom Gelsthorpe
August 13, 2017 1:06 am

When are they going to run a computer model proving Mark Twain’s observation: “There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.”? Or are the models proving him right already?
How about a computer model that examines this one: “Scientists have odious manners, except when you prop up their theory; then you can borrow money of them.” Govt funding for doomsday scenarios bolsters that quote. They round up the usual suspects then conclude, “The only reasonable response is more govt control — with me in charge of the program.”
We may develop artificial intelligence some day, but I doubt it will best the inimitable Mark Twain. When you press the button for “Wit,” will it come up with anything that good?

Richard
August 13, 2017 1:20 am
Rhoda R
Reply to  Richard
August 13, 2017 11:20 am

Interesting weather. How exciting for the kids!

August 13, 2017 2:18 am

The two places that have helped pull the earth’s climate to glaciation (along with ocean circulation changes) are Antarctica and the push-up of the Himalayas. Both significantly cool the climate. That both these regions are now cooling, and increasing in ice amount, is not a signature of a warming world.