Cascade Glacier Meltdown Stuns Scientists

[Viva_La_Revolution]

May 11, 2006
Cascade Glacier Meltdown Stuns Scientists

By Brian Barker
and KATU.com Web Staff

Imagine a hot August day in Portland, with a clear sky and blazing sun. As you look out across the city from Washington Park, you see Mount Hood.

Except Mount Hood is a pointed cone of dark, bare rock, without any of the familiar white glacial blankets covering her flanks.

It's a frightening thought, but scientists say ice and snow on mountains up and down the West Coast are melting at an alarming rate.

In the past 100 years, some glaciers in our own back yard have shrunk by as much as 80 percent.

lots more :( http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=85773

[henslee]

1. The scariest headlines always have the phrase "scientists stunned"

"scientists alarmed" or "scientiests baffled". I want to read "scientists delighted"

[Boomer]

2. Fair and balanced...and ignorant

>> The whole concept of climate change used to be controversial.

>> Not anymore.

>> But what's causing it? Is it humans? Is it just a natural cycle?

Sigh.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. I was disappointed to read that too..

but at least the headline is a screamer...it'll get people to read it, and possibly even (dare I hope?), think about it.

[paparush]

4. I'm just glad that Scientists are still allowed to report their findings..

at all.

In the Bush** era, science has been so discredited by the administration.

[Uben]

5. but what if....

...they are melting from the bottom? Could the earth beneath the glaciers become heated from increased geo-thermal activity which may be indicative of a major imminent volcanic eruption?

Spooky?

Maybe it is a cyclical thing, who knows...I certainly don't. I did read where the pacific southwest has enjoyed a wetter than usual climate for the last few hundred years and that it is now returning the the more arid region that is was before that.

[Boomer]

6. Funny coincidence....

Almost every glacier on the planet is also shrinking at an alarming rate. (I think there's one which is getting larger, but due to increased snowfall in the interior rather than to an extension of the ice itself.)

During the past few years the convergence of various research results has created a preponderance of evidence in favor of global warming being the result of human activity.

All of which is a moot point since humans, especially American humans, have no intention of changing their behavior. So we're just going to have to live with the results... or not. Mostly not, for a few million or even billion unlucky souls.