As you might be aware, Mr. Obama took a long, fossil fueled trip to Alaska to complain about ‘climate change’. This has made many in the Cult of Climastrology squee, and proclaim the doom, such as the NY Times Editorial Board, which focuses on Obama proclaiming that “we’re not acting fast enough”, that the message is urgent, and, hey, look, this glacier is melting!!!, because Obama took a fossil fueled automobile convoy, then on fossil fueled helicopter, followed by a trip on a fossil fueled boat for a nice photo op
(Washington Post) President Obama has often complained that Congress moves at a glacial pace, and on Tuesday saw a glacier that might be moving a bit faster than some pieces of legislation.
Standing near the foot of the Exit Glacier, which has receded 1.25 miles since 1815 and 187 feet last year alone, Obama said “this is as good of a signpost of what we’re dealing with it comes to climate change as just about anything.â€
It was the second day of a trip melding a warning message about climate change and visits to some of the nation’s most beautiful spots. In front of a gravelly creek bed, he said that when glaciers retreat, the water runs down and raises sea levels, altering the flora and fauna of the park.
“It is spectacular though,†he said, sporting his aviator sunglasses. “We want to make sure that our grandkids can see this.†Earlier he said it “beats being in the office.â€
The president traveled here by helicopter from Anchorage and, dressed in hiking shoes, black slacks and a greenish-gray Under Armour jacket, he went on to take a short hike up to the face of Exit Glacier, a massive two-mile-long ice block that flows down from the larger Harding Icefield.
Our grandparents, and possibly even our great-great grandparents witnessed Exit Glacier retreating, well before CO2 was above the “unsafe” level of 350ppm. Consider this from the National Park Service (via Real Climate Science)
Exit Glacier advanced from the Harding Icefield during the Little Ice Age, burying this existing forest and advancing to a maximum marked by the terminal moraine dated to 1815. With the warming trend of the 1800s, Exit Glacier began to retreat from its 1815 maximum. Very slowly, the glacier retreated 230 feet (70 m) from 1815 to 1889, averaging about 3.1 ft/year (1 m/yr) (see Table 1). The glacier then retreated much more rapidly between 1889-1899, interspersed with periods of stagnation, which are marked by linear moraines (1889, 1891, 1894 and 1899). During this time, the glacier retreated 1680 ft (512 m), about 168 ft/yr (51 m/yr). The next fifteen years was a period of a slow but steady retreat, as the g lacier retreated only 42 ft/yr (13 m/yr). In the years between 1914 and 1917, Exit Glacier experienced its most rapid retreat. In just 3 years, the glacier retreated 908 ft (277 m) or almost a foot per day. From 1917 to 1973, Exit Glacier continued to retreat with periods of slow to moderate retreat. There were five periods of retreat, with the ice melting fastest between 1961 and 1968 (115 ft/yr or 35 m/yr).
Let’s see that in chart form
Interestingly, 1961-1968 was a period of cooling, a “Pause” during the Modern Warm Period. How did all that melt occur before everyone had a fossil fueled vehicle, before washers and dryers, refrigerators and icemakers, hair dryers, air conditioning, and so much more became normal in American households?
In fact, in some of the most recent years, some of the glaciers in the Hartfield Ice Mass, of which Exit Glacier is part of, have shown growth. Regardless, melting glaciers is something one would expect during a Holocene warm period. There’s virtually nothing anthropogenic about it. I say “virtually nothing”, because Mankind does have a small effect, some of it global, some of it in the realm of land use/Urban Heat Island Effect.
Oh, by the way, Washington Post writer Stephen Stromberg is proclaiming Obama is not a hypocrite for yammering about Hotcoldwetdry while allowing new drilling in the Arctic (I never got around to posting the article on this), as several Warmist groups are saying. No mention, though, of him being a massive hypocrite for his fossil fueled travel and massive carbon footprint.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
