Chacaltaya glacier gone

[pscot]

The 18,000 year old glacier which was home for more than 60 years to the world’s highest ski area, Chacaltaya in Bolivia, has now melted away completely due to global warming according to a report by Bloomberg.net.

The loss of the glacier has far greater significance than the end of skiing in Bolivia, the glaciers melt water helped power hydro-electric plants and provide water supplies to the 2 million residents of capital La Paz below.

The final parts of the glacier have melted away five years sooner than scientists had predicted.

“ From the Andes to the Alps, glaciers have retreated twice as fast as a decade ago, says the University of Zurich’s World Glacier Monitoring Service.” report Bloomberg.

Chacaltaya lost 80% of its bulk over the past two decades and sold its last ski ticket in 2003 before melting caused a list tower to collapse.



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http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/news-8404.html

[nightrain]

1. how very sad.

[hatrack]

2. I'd be willing to be that this happened faster than expected . . .

I remember when 2010 and 2020 seemed so very far in the future, and this would all play out "someday".

"Someday" is here.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. But that's OK, the really SERIOUS stuff won't happen until 2050.

And we might have a 9" rise in ocean levels by the year 2100.

:eyes:

If there's anything I've learned in the past 30 years, it is that the worst case projections made tend to be SHORT by 50%. If scientists today say the Arctic will be ice free in the summer by 2030, expect it by 2020. If they say the Greenland icecap will be gone by 2100, expect it to be gone by 2050.

There are feedback loops that engender MORE feedback loops, and we don't even know what some of them are, yet. Most projections ignore the increase of methane from the melting of Canadian, Alaskan, and Siberian permafrost, because they don't know how much is trapped there - and people are surprised when warming increases 2 1/2 times faster than projected.

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. It's the "until" that causes all of the trouble, (i.e. "until" 2050 or "until" 2100.)

These things really should be expressed as "before" and only occasionally "but not before."

Otherwise, people tend to think we're dealing with a time-bomb like they see on 24 (and other shows of that ilk.) You know, if our hero can just find the climate bomb and disarm it by 2050, then we can all breathe a heavy sigh of relief.

There's no set agenda of events. There is no fixed timetable. There are a number of things that we think are likely to happen within a certain time frame. "Consensus" (i.e. "conservative") estimates (like the IPCC's) tend to set them further off in the future than the true "worst case estimates" and the popular media tend to treat the IPCC's "worst case" scenario as the absolute "worst case." (So, they're always "surprised" when they aren't.)

[ensho]

3. in re: to climate change I used to give 3 ticks of the clock now I'm down

to one TICK

shit is going to happen drinking water wise and food wise


evaluate your own local water and food availability now and make plans

[kestrel91316]

5. ".....five years sooner than scientists had predicted......."

Pretty much sums up the entire climate change situation these days.......

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. "Chacaltaya … has been a barren slope devoid of permanent snow for about six months."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aijxVBCguhJM

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. And, on the subject -

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/08/07/global.warming/index.html

[pscot]

9. The real value of this kind of story

lies in its simplicity. This glacier was here, now it's gone. We may argue about the proximate cause, but even a moron like James Inhofe can't deny the concrete reality. This is too big to expect most people to digest it at one sitting. But if we can firmly establish the fact of global warming in their minds, maybe we can start to make some broader progess on causes and solutions.

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. "But other glaciers are growing!"

It's kind of got to be a two-pronged argument.

1. This glacier is melting, and it's affecting these people this way.
2. The vast majority of other glaciers are melting too, with similar effects.