Heeeerrrreeee’ss Lonnie
(Lonnie Thompson has a whole category at Climate Audit)
Public Release: 17-Dec-2018
Ohio State University
Climate change could have devastating effects on vulnerable residents in the Andes mountains and the Tibetan plateau, according to researchers at The Ohio State University who have been studying glaciers in those areas for decades.
Their findings–that glaciers in both parts of the world are melting more rapidly than at any point in the last 10,000 years–mean the water supply in parts of Peru, Pakistan, China, India and Nepal will decline, soon.
“Supply is down. But demand is up because of growing populations,” said Lonnie Thompson, a climate scientist at Ohio State’s Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. “By 2100, the best case scenario is that half of the ice will disappear. Worst-case scenario: two-thirds of it will. And you’ve got all those people depending on the glacier for water.”
Thompson, a distinguished university professor of earth sciences at Ohio State, presented the team’s findings on Dec. 14 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C.
Thompson has been studying and documenting the effects of climate change on glaciers in Peru for more than 40 years. The glaciers there supply critically needed water for people, crops and livestock. In 2016, Thompson and researchers in China and India launched a research initiative to conduct similar research on the Tibetan plateau, which holds thousands of glaciers that supply water to people in parts of Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Tajikistan. The international research team dubbed the plateau the “Third Pole” because it contains the largest stores of freshwater in the world outside of the North and South poles.
Since then, they have drilled ice core samples from across the Tibetan plateau and the Andes mountains, examining the ice for clues about temperature, air quality and other large-scale events in history.
“The last 200 years or so, we really understand,” Thompson said. “Now we are looking at the last 10,000 years.”
What they are finding is causing him some alarm.
There have been times throughout history when the glacial ice cores showed temperatures increased–during an El Nino, for example. But within the last century, the cores from both the Andes and the Himalayas show widespread and consistent warming.
“This current warming is not typical,” Thompson said. “It is happening faster, it is more persistent and it is affecting glaciers in both Peru and India. And that is a problem, because a lot of people rely on those glaciers for their water.”
Melting glaciers can trigger such hazards as avalanches and floods. And they also can have long-lasting effects on a region’s water supply.
As the glaciers melt, initially those regions will have more water. But over time, as the glaciers shrink, the water those glaciers typically supply will dwindle, Thompson said.
“Precipitation is down and temperatures are up and that leads to retreating glaciers,” he said. “There are 202 million people in Pakistan who rely on water from the Indus River–and that river is fed by the glacier.
The effects in Peru, too, could be far-reaching, particularly on Peruvian agriculture and on the water supply in Lima, the Peruvian capital.
Thompson and his team are hoping that by studying the glaciers in both areas, they will find answers to slow glacial retreat–or to provide new water sources to at-risk areas.
“The problems are similar in both the Andes and the Tibetan plateau,” he said. “The hope is that by finding solutions, we can help both places.”
###
In 2014 a study of 2181 Himalayan Glaciers from 2000-2011 showed that 86.6% of the glaciers were not receding. This was informed to Indian Parliament by the Minister of Forests & Environment and Climate Change after his return from Paris meet in December 2015. Also heavy snnowfall recorded in the last two years in Himalayan Zones. IPPCC also withdrew its conclusion on Himalayan Glaciers will melt by 2035.
The frequency of high magnitude floods in Chenab, Ravi and Beas followed the 60-year cycle in the southwest monsoon rainfall of India. The rivers data was published in “State of Environment Report, India — 2009 MoEF/GoI”
Dr. S. Jeevananda Reddy
Thank you, Dr. Reddy.
Let’s not overlook Lonnie’s role in Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth” (2006).
“And now we’re beginning to see the impact in the real world. This is Mount Kilimanjaro more than 30 years ago, and more recently. And a friend of mine just came back from Kilimanjaro with a picture he took a couple of months ago. Another friend of mine Lonnie Thompson studies glaciers. Here’s Lonnie with a sliver of a once mighty glacier. Within the decade there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro.”
Twelve years later it is still snowing on Kilimanjaro.
From Snow-forecast.com…..today!
“Days 0-3 Mount Kilimanjaro Weather Summary:
A heavy fall of snow, heaviest during Wed morning. Becoming milder with heavy rain (total 28.0mm) on Fri night. Temperatures will be slightly above freezing (max 2°C on Wed morning, min 1°C on Wed morning). Wind will be generally light.
Days 4-6 Mount Kilimanjaro Weather Summary:
A heavy fall of snow, heaviest during Sun morning. Becoming milder with light rain (total 9.0mm) on Mon afternoon. Temperatures will be slightly above freezing (max 2°C on Sat afternoon, min 1°C on Sat morning). Wind will be generally light.”
Anyway we do not need to worry. After all we keep on being told that the world id getting hotter. Now Earth is a water planet, so warmer means more evaporation, so the rain does not freeze, it just comes down the river system, Problem solved.
MJE
“..glaciers in both parts of the world are melting more rapidly than at any point in the last 10,000 years…”
And what caused the greater melting 10,001 years ago?
I am sure Lonnie Thompson knows that most water in the Himalaya’s come from monsoon rain, but he is deliberately hiding his mind in ice: a True Believer of CACW.
Certainly he knows. Winters are so dry that that the plateau is usually snowless despite the extreme cold. The little snow that falls mostly sublimates away.
This winter is a partial exception by the way, there is a fair amount of snow on the plateau:
https://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/chart_daily.php?ui_year=2018&ui_day=352&ui_set=2
The sad thing is that, much like Richard Alley, there once was a time when Lonnie Thompson was a serious glacial geoligist.
Yeah, but as Mark Twain said, “that was so long ago that it is a lie now”.
Skepticism related to climate change has now become ridiculous, and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions has also failed due to economic interests. The only realistic option is geoengineering, so this may be another goal of sick skepticism.
Wrong. Geoengineering is an expensive, dangerous, and extremely stupid idea dreamed up by Warmunists, and often used as a straw man by them, for a “problem” that only exists in their weak brains.
If this is representative of the quality of work of a distinguished professor, I dread to think what an undistinguished one would produce.
Lonnie Thompson is famous as the man who never ever makes any of his data available if there is any conceivable way he can avoid it.
The dishonesty and disingenuity of Alarmists is quite remarkable. Take this statement, for example: “There have been times throughout history when the glacial ice cores showed temperatures increased–during an El Nino, for example.” Really? That’s her “example” of when temperatures increased “throughout history”? The Climate Liars continue to try to disappear the MWP, and other warm periods of the Holocene, and pretend they never happened, because it helps them present their other Big Lie, that the current warming since the LIA is particularly fast, or unusual in any way.
There is less ice than 18000 years ago and we are still here. Oceans rose 400 feet we are still here. Oceans were even higher in prior interglacials we are still here. The Roman ports are miles inland now indicating sea level was higher 2000 years ago and yet we are still here. Leading me to conclude we will adapt to whatever we have to. The weak will die off and the herd will stabilize.
“Roman ports are miles inland now…” Either sea level was higher or land was lower, or some combination of both.
Again?
Or is this oldies but goodies hour?
https://tambonthongchai.com/2018/06/15/history-of-the-global-warming-scare-chapter-6-2005-2010/
Glaciers melt? I did not know that. I assumed the Wallowa Lake terminal moraine story about a melting glacier flooding the Wallowa Valley area 10’s of thousands of years ago was just local folk lore! And don’t get me started on the Lostine Canyon and its multiple terminal moraines, indicating, now that I have been told that glaciers melt, several episodes of melt and regrowth to different spots. So what I want to know is who caused the CO2 boogeyman back then?
Funny about those Wallowa Mountain glaciers. While they were melting, the valley was nothing but a stinky swamp with very little going for it. My back of the envelope educated guess is that glacier growth was likely as hard on surrounding flora and fauna as much as glacier melt was. Kinda glad those glaciers are gone.
‘Climate change could have devastating effects on vulnerable residents in the Andes mountains’
‘Vulnerable’ residents? What about the others?
Who knew that people live in the Andes?
“By 2100, the best case scenario is that half of the ice will disappear. Worst-case scenario: two-thirds of it will. And you’ve got all those people depending on the glacier for water.”
Too late; it’s already gone.
A quick look at the Andes on Google Earth, pic dated 12/30/2016 (summer), show very little glaciation AT ALL. There is a very slight bit in Peru. If you zoom in a good bit, you can see it SE of Lima, near the Bolivian border.
The picture doesn’t match his rhetoric.
I followed all the links I could and I couldn’t find where any actual research was done. This must be some of that “just believe me I’m a climate scientist” type of work.
Somebody tell that Ice that it’s not allowed to melt from such a tiny increase in anomalies!
“Climate change could have devastating effects”
In other news: I could win the lottery tomorrow. My son could grow up to be the next Albert Einstein. Trump could get congress to agree to fund the wall. Windmills could become a reliable source of cheap electricity.
OK…that last one may not be entirely accurate…
https://www.ccin.ca/ccw/snow/current
Looking at the Snow Departure Chart – The variance from historical normal in Asia ranges from +/- 5 cm, since they are the same color, to + 80cm. I’ve been monitoring The Canadian Crysopheric Information website for a couple of years now, and the results of past years has been similar.
Eurasia – Snow Extent is near the top of the range of one standard deviation, and the Snow Water Equivalent is above standard deviation. So comparing long term averages, more area is covered in snow and the snow pack is deeper.
North America – Snow Extent is near the bottom of the range of one standard deviation, and the Snow Water Equivalent is at the top one standard deviation. So comparing long term averages, a less area is covered in snow, and the snow pack is deeper.
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global-snow/201811
Shows a positive trend of Snow Cover Extent both North America .18M km^2, and Eurasia .25M km^2
This does not lead to the continued claim of melting glaciers in the Himalayas.
High level glaciers don’t melt. The year around temps, even for tropical glaciers are still well below freezing. Precipitation patterns and not temperatures are key. And most precip patterns in the tropics are controlled by large scale oscillations like the Walker Cell and ENSO.
“Supply is down. But demand is up because of growing populations, “said Lonnie Thompson, a climate scientist at Ohio State’s Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. By 2100, the best case scenario is that half of the ice will disappear. Worst-case scenario: two-thirds of it wants. And you’ve got all those people depending on the glacier for water. ”
he will probably retire soon. then the heart has peace and he can look at beautiful old black and white documentaries where the glaciers still shine on the mountain slopes and the people down in the valley operate field work with hoe and sickle till dusk comes down.