Another scientist weighs in: Glaciers are expanding again

Our friend, Robert Felix, author of the popular non-fiction book, "Not by Fire, But by Ice," posted on his Web site this past week, www.iceagenow.com, that:

"The 5th largest ice field in the Western Hemisphere, Alaska's Juneau Ice Field, is growing."

Felix added, "contrary to Al Gore's assertions, almost all of the ice-covered regions on the Earth are GROWING, not melting. And, the seas are NOT RISING!"

Due to the length of Bob's report, I've split it into two parts, the second of which I'll run next week in 'Gems' on March 29.

Let's look at some 'icy facts' in Part I:

If you click on the words "Glaciers are melting" in Gore's article, you're taken to a paper by Michael Zemp at the University of Zurich. Mr. Zemp begins his paper by warning that "glaciers around the globe continue to melt at high rates."

However, if you bother to actually read the paper, you learn that Zemp's conclusion is based on measurements of "more than 80 glaciers."

Considering that the Himalayas boast more than 15,000 glaciers, a study of "more than 80 glaciers" hardly seems sufficient to warrant such a catastrophic pronouncement.

Especially when you learn that of those 80 glaciers, several are growing.

Growing. Not melting.

"In Norway, many maritime glaciers were able to gain mass," Zemp concedes. ("Able to gain mass" means growing.)

In North America, Zemp also concedes, "some positive values were reported from the North Cascade Mountains and the Juneau Ice Field." ("Displaying positive values" means growing.)

Remember, we're still coming out of the last ice age. Ice is supposed to melt as we come out of an ice age. The ice has been melting for 11,000 years. Why should today be any different? I'm guessing that most Canadians and Northern Europeans are very happy that the ice has been melting.

Unfortunately, that millenniums-long melting trend now appears to be changing. No matter how assiduously Mr. Gore tries to ignore it, almost all of the ice-covered regions of the Earth are now gaining mass. (Or, displaying positive values, if you will.)

For starters, let's look at those Himalayan glaciers. In a great article, entitled "World misled over Himalayan glacier meltdown," Jonathan Leake and Chris Hastings show that the IPCC's fraudulent claims were based on "speculation" and "not supported by any formal research."

As a matter of fact, many Himalayan glaciers are growing. In a defiant act of political incorrectness, some 230 glaciers in the western Himalayas - including Mount Everest, K2 and Nanga Parbat - are actually growing.

"These are the biggest mid-latitude glaciers in the world," says John Shroder of the University of Nebraska-Omaha. "And all of them are either holding still, or advancing."

And get this. Eighty seven of the glaciers have surged forward since the 1960s.

So much for Mr. Gore's "more than 80 glaciers."

(I don't know how many Himalayan glaciers are being monitored, but my guess would be fewer than a thousand, so it's possible that hundreds more are growing. There aren't enough glaciologists in the world to monitor them all.)

But we don't need to look to the Himalayas for growing glaciers. Glaciers are growing in the United States.

Yes, glaciers are growing in the United States.

Look at Washington State. The Nisqually Glacier on Mount Rainier is growing. The Emmons Glacier on Mount Rainier is growing. Glaciers on Glacier Peak in northern Washington are growing. And Crater Glacier on Mount Saint Helens is now larger than it was before the 1980 eruption. (I don't think all of the glaciers in Washington or Alaska are being monitored either.)

Or look at California. All seven glaciers on California's Mount Shasta are growing. This includes three-mile-long Whitney glacier, the state's largest. Three of Mount Shasta's glaciers have doubled in size since 1950.

Or look at Alaska. Glaciers are growing in Alaska for the first time in 250 years. In May of last year, Alaska's Hubbard Glacier was advancing at the rate of seven feet (two meters) per day - more than half-a-mile per year. And in Icy Bay, at least three glaciers advanced a third of a mile (one half kilometer) in one year.

Oh, by the way. The Juneau Icefield, with its "positive values," covers 1,505 square miles (3,900 sq km) and is the fifth-largest ice field in the Western Hemisphere. Rather interesting to know that Gore's own source admits that the fifth-largest ice field in the Western Hemisphere is growing, don't you think?

But this mere handful of growing glaciers is just an anomaly, the erstwhile Mr. Gore would have you believe.

Well, let's look at a few other countries.

Perito Moreno Glacier, the largest glacier in Argentina, is growing.

Pio XI Glacier, the largest glacier in Chile, is growing.

Glaciers are growing on Mount Logan, the tallest mountain in Canada.

Glaciers are growing on Mount Blanc, the tallest mountain in France.

Glaciers are growing in Norway, says the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE).

And the last time I checked, all 50 glaciers in New Zealand were growing.

But this is nothing. These glaciers are babies when you look at our planet's largest ice masses, namely, the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.

Contrary to what you may have heard, both of those huge ice sheets are growing. I'll have Part II next week...

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS: The almost snowless winter of 2009-10 will end on a dry and relatively mild note. It was a near-record 66 degrees locally in Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls on Tuesday, March 16. I'm writing this article on Thursday, March 18, another sunny day after a frosty morn. Remember to cover those sensitive plants!

Not only have we seen the least snowfall ever observed during January, February and March since at least 1895, but we're likewise short of vital moisture. It's very dry, folks.

Remember, it was exactly a century ago in 1910 that our part of the country was hit by the WORST WILDFIRES IN RECORDED HISTORY. I'll have more on this subject in my April 5 'Gems' column as well as some details on the upcoming seminar in Wallace, Idaho on May 20-22 entitled; "1910 FIRES, A CENTURY LATER."

The spring and summer of 1910 were very dry and quite warm across the Inland Empire, including eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana.

We're dry now, but I still see a new WETTER than normal weather pattern arriving late this month extending at least on-and-off through April, May and early June, possibly later.

The El Nino is weakening. A moist flow from the Gulf of Alaska should push through the Inland Northwest. Some mountain snows will fall above 3,500 feet in April and, perhaps, as late as early to mid May above 4,000 feet.

The summer season still looks like it will be both WARMER and DRIER than last year as a strong ridge of high pressure is due to camp over the region. Major forest fires could occur at this time into the early fall season. Stay tuned as always.

SPECIAL NOTE: My thanks go out to Tim Martin and his Coeur d'Alene road crews for keeping our streets completely free of ice and snow this winter. It was your best job yet!

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. E-mail sfharris@roadrunner.com