2009-1-23 04:14:00
Good to hear from you again Sharri. (I have been in contact with her even before the Keys.)
She writes:
"I don't know about the Earth not warming since 1998, because I'm not a Climatologist. But I do remember Robert Felix saying on Coast to Coast AM on May 20, 2003 that the glaciers were growing in the Cascade Mountains and on Mt. Rainier as I'm sitting at my computer looking at the photos I'd taken in Oct. 2002 of my trip over the North Cascade Highway, of strange tanish-brown streaks down mountain after mountain where glaciers used to be, and then photos of Mt. Rainier as I flew over it in late Oct. 2002 of the least snow I'd ever seen on The Mountain!"
JJ:
I doubt of Robert Felix or anyone else is 100% accurate but I have read his book and listened to him on Coast to Coast and think he is doing his best to dig up the truth.
The universally accepted truth is that glaciers go through cycles of advancing and retreating. The only thing I can find on Felix's web site or writings where he talks about increasing ice in Mt Rainier or the Cascades is referencing an article about the Nisqually glacier. Here is the text:
"On Nisqually.
"That brings us to the Nisqually glacier, up on the 14,410-foot Mount Rainier, near Tacoma, Wash. Just 85 feet shy of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48 states, Mount Rainier has 26 glaciers, and is the largest single peak system in the United States.
"In 1931, fearful that the receding glacier would provide insufficient runoff for their newly completed hydroelectric facility, Tacoma City Light began careful measurements of the glacier. Since the mid-1800s, the glacier had receded about 1 kilometer. Annual to semi-annual measurements, continued by the U.S. Geological Survey and private contractors for the National Park Service, provide the longest continuous series of glacier measurements in North America.
"The details are described in a report by government specialists, which appeared in the September 2000 issue of Washington Geology:
"'The greatest thickening during the period of measurement occurred between 1931 and 1945, when the glacier thickened by about 50% near 2,800 meters of altitude. This and subsequent thickenings during the mid-1970s to mid-1980s produced waves that advanced its terminus. Glacier thinning occurred during intervening periods. Between 1994 and 1997, the glacier thickened by 17 meters at 2,800-m altitude, indicating probable glacier advance during the first decade of the 21st century.'
"That's the story from Mount Rainier. Retired geologist Sauers, who has been observing conditions in the Cascade Mountains of western Washington for a lifetime, says 'I'm preparing for an Ice Age.' Perhaps we all should."
(http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/Ice_Age.html)
Then from Wikipedia we read:
"Retreat of the Little Ice Age glaciers was slow until about 1920 when retreat became more rapid. Between the height of the Little Ice Age and 1950, Mount Rainier's glaciers lost about one-quarter of their length. Beginning in 1950 and continuing through the early 1980's, however, many of the major glaciers advanced in response to relatively cooler temperatures of the mid-century. The Carbon, Cowlitz, Emmons, and Nisqually Glaciers advanced during the late 1970's and early 1980's as a result of high snowfalls during the 1960's and 1970's. Since the early-1980's and through 1992, however, many glaciers have been thinning and retreating and some advances have slowed, perhaps in response to drier conditions that have prevailed at Mount Rainier since 1977."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisqually_Glacier)
I can't find what the Nisqually Glacier was doing in 2003 but we do know that it goes through cycles of advancing and retreating. It could have been retreating in 2002 when you saw it and advancing in 2003. After the tremendous snow Washington has had this years it could start advancing again.
I heard [Robert] Felix questioned once on "Coast to Coast" by a person who thought a certain glacier was retreating because he saw it in person and the surface area was getting less. Felix agreed with him but said the glacier was still increasing because you have to take in consideration the depth of the ice. An increase in depth can mean the glacier is growing even if the surface area becomes less.
Overall glaciers have been retreating for over 11,000 years since the last ice age (with lesser cycles in between of advancement). Almost all of this time period was when man burned no oil. Geologically we are now overdue for another major ice age. Maybe a little CO2 in the atmosphere will lesson the blow. It also acts as a fertilizer for plants making for a greener planet.
Sharri:
"He [Robert Felix] even said that the ocean levels weren't rising when George Noory had read an article about some of the South Pacific Islands loosing 13 feet of beach front and in danger of disappearing below the waves permanently!
"You are probably referring to Tuvalu, which is often used as an example of a problem area if sea levels rise. Felix correctly pointed out that sea level rise is not uniform throughout the planet. Levels rising in one area does not mean they are rising everywhere. In fact there is evidence that they are not even rising in Tuvalu.
"'There are several estimates of sea level changes for Tuvalu. The first is a satellite record showing that the sea level has actually fallen four inches around Tuvalu since 1993 when the hundred-million dollar international TOPEX/POSEIDON satellite project record began. Second comes from the modern instruments recording tide gauge data since 1978. There the record for Tuvalu shows ups and downs of many inches over periods of years. For example, the strong El Nino of 1997-98 caused the sea level surrounding Tuvalu to drop just over one foot. The El Nino Southern Oscillation is a natural - as opposed to man-made -future of the Pacific Ocean, as areas of the Pacific periodically warm then cool every few years, causing significant sea level rises and falls every few years in step with the co-oscillations of the ocean and atmosphere.
"'The overall trend discerned from the tide gauge data, according to Wolfgang Scherer, Director of Australia's National Tidal Facility, remains flat. "One definitive statement we can make," states Scherer, "is that there is no indication based on observations that sea level rise is accelerating." Finally, there is the new estimate by scientists at the Centre Nationale de Etudes Spatiales who also find that between 1955 and 1996 the sea level surrounding Tuvalu dropped four inches."
"'All these measurements show that Tuvalu has suffered, at worst, no sea level rise.'
(http://www.pacificmagazine.net/issue/2002/02/01/is-tuvalu-really-sinking)
"So, I don't know that I can believe Robert Felix when he's going to tell blatant lies like that about glaciers growing when they are actually shrinking & the oceans are rising!"
JJ:
It's entirely possible he has some inaccurate data, but I haven't caught him in any intentional lies.
Here is a statement from a climate scientist on sea level rising:
"In the past 150 years, sea level has risen at a rate of 6 inches (plus or minus 4 inches) per century and is apparently not accelerating. Sea level also rose in the 17th and 18th centuries, obviously due to natural causes, but not as much. Sea level has been rising naturally for thousands a years (about 2 in. per century in the past 6,000 years). If we look at ice volumes of past interglacial periods and realize how [slowly] ice responds to climate, we know that in the current interglacial period (which began about 11,000 years ago) there is still more land ice available for melting, implying continued sea level rise with or without climate change."
("Unstoppable Global Warming, Every 1,500 Years," By S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery, Page 46)
Sharri:
"Besides 'Global Warming' is a very misleading term! It should be called 'Climate Change' ... or maybe 'Worse Weather'!"
JJ:
I think global warming alarmists are switching to the phrase "climate change" because they are beginning to fear that global warming may not materialize as predicted. Climate change is something that is always happening and has always happened. If the temperature goes up its climate change and if it goes down it is also climate change. The powers that be want to blame climate change on us no matter what direction it goes and then tax and control us to their desired ends which has nothing to do with the weather.
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