Trouble On ‘Lonnies Mountain’

Looks like serial non-archiver Lonnie Thompson ran in to some “Climate Communication” issues of his own~ctm

From the Peruvian newspaper “El Comercio”

Áncash: scientists withdrawn from Mount Huascaran at the request of community members

People of the town of Musho, in Yungay, demanded that the researchers come down from the mountain because they were told that they went to exploit minerals. 

Laura Urbina, 07.08.2019 / 05:05 pm

Scientists who had been studying Mount Huascaran for a month, located in the Ancash region, had to withdraw to avoid a conflict with the people of the local community of Musho, Yungay province, who argue that they will cause damage to the mountain.

The expedition, made up of 8 Peruvian, American, Italian, French and Russian scientists, and led by the renowned glaciologist Lonnie Thompson, was transferred from the base camp of Huascarán to the town of Musho last Monday at 10 pm

The researchers, who carried drilling rigs and portable radars to monitor rocks, went to the mountain to collect ice cores samples in order to study the effects of climate change on the planet and to obtain information on the eco-diversity of the Andes and the Amazon of Peru, and to perform other important analyzes, as reported at the time by the National Institute of Glaciers and Mountain Ecosystems (INAIGEM).

In this regard, the prefect of the Ancash Region, Eunice Dextre Castillejo, explained that last Saturday at a meeting the community demanded the removal of the scientists because they had not asked permission to execute that study, and the scientists had informed them that they were going to dig a mine on Mount Huascarán, located 6,768 meters above sea level, in the province of Yungay.

“The importance of the study has been explained to them, but they say the scientists do not have permission, despite the fact that the Huascarán National Park is managed by the National Service of Natural Areas Protected by the State (SERNANP) and this is who has issued the permits. In addition, the people have been wrongly informed that Mount Huascarán has been sold to exploit its minerals, and that is not true. They say the scientists are damaging their mountain, but we know that the studies will help us to design public policies at national and international level on climate change, the El Niño phenomenon and global warming,” he told El Comercio.

Dextre Castillo confirmed that last Thursday a group of community members went to the area to ask that the researchers and their teams withdraw within 12 hours, and after discussion, they were giving them two days to leave.

“We have complied with their request, seeking the safety of scientists and social peace. Scientists have been removed to safety, they are calm and waiting for the population to understand the importance of the study,” he said.

The politician remarked that the dialogue with the local population will be resumed so that the scientists can return to the mountain to finish their work.

“We are going to talk and urge the population to understand the importance of the study and let them know that they have been poorly informed,” he added.

For its part, the president of INAIGEM, Guisella Orjeda, said that the project has not been interrupted and that the ice cores necessary for the study have been obtained.

“We have obtained the necessary samples. It has been a great expedition. We have achieved all that was proposed. I will just talk with the scientists about what happened,” he said in a brief telephone interview.

The ice cores will be transferred to Lima and then to Ohio State University where they will be analyzed. 

Meanwhile, the head of the Macro-region in Ancash, PNP general Héctor Petit, reported that the transfer of the scientists was carried out peacefully and without confrontations between the police and the community members.

“For security reasons, we have moved the scientists, at this time they are no longer on the mountain. There were threats that could jeopardize their safety. At the moment there is no one working,” he told reporters.

Officer Petit asked the Musho population to get the real facts and not to get carried away by ill-intentioned people. “Some have said that these works are mining excavations and that they are going to take water from glaciers and other things that lack any truth,” he said.

FOOTNOTE: (by Anthony Watts)

Mount Huascaran:

WUWT readers may recall that OSU’s Dr. Lonnie Thompson was single-handedly responsible for Al Gore making the claim in his movie An Inconvenient Truth that Mt. Kilimanjaro was losing it’s ice-cap due to “global warming”. The ever wrong Guardian esposed this in 2009 and the NYT attributed Thompson to saying that “global warming” is the cause. That was entirely false, and Thomspon knew it. Here you see a photo of Thompson standing next to ice spires on the top of Kilimanjaro. Note the lack of meltwater.

The real reason for ice loss? Poverty.

People around the mountain stripped the forest for firewood. No trees meant no evapotranspiration into up-slope winds, and without that additional moisture, the ice began to sublimate due to lack of additional snowfall.

Climategate revealed that behind the scenes, “climate scientists” didn’t believe the melting was due to warming at all, but they let it slide for “the cause”.

Climate science is morally and factually bankrupt when they allow things like this to happen.

Gore subsequently and quietly removed Kilimanjaro claims from his presentations. Kilimanjaro is now regaining its ice-cap.