Yet another photo from NASA's Earth Observatory page, showing yet more evidence of what carbon dioxide hath wrought.
In the past 125 years, the Athabasca Glacier has lost half of its volume and receded more than 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles), leaving hills of rock in its place. Its retreat is visible in this photo, where the glacier's front edge looms several meters behind the tombstone-like marker that indicates the edge of the ice in 1992. The Athabasca Glacier is not alone in its retreat: Since 1960, glaciers around the world have lost an estimated 8,000 cubic kilometers (1,900 cubic miles) of ice. That is approximately enough ice to cover a two-kilometer-wide (1.2 mile-wide) swath of land between New York and Los Angeles with an ice sheet that is one kilometer (0.62 miles) tall.
I wonder how long they will keep updating the exhibit? Of course I don't recommend that people fly a thousand miles to see an exhibit about global climate change, but perhaps the following can be just as enlightening:
To understand what global warming means for humanity, it is necessary to understand what global warming is, how scientists know it's happening, and how they predict future climate. These ideas are explored in the Earth Observatory's newly updated fact sheet on global warming. We invite you to read Global Warming, and then send us your questions with "global warming" in the subject line. We won't be able to answer every question that is sent to us, but we will address some of the most frequently asked questions in a follow-up article.
One of the points they raise has to do with the distinction between global warming and climate change. Climate change is more than just warming. It is also an increase in the variability, leading to weather that is even less predictable than it is now. Perhaps instead of global warming, or climate change, we should speak of climate chaos.
Comments
Nothing to say about this post, but can you do anything about these annoying popups (GE "Ecomagination")? I'm starting to have a disincentive to check your blog.
Posted by: Greg P | May 16, 2007 11:44 AM
I'll forward the comment to the proprietors of this place. I am curious about this because I do not see the popups. Perhaps that is because I use adblock, adblock filterset.G updater, and flashblock. (Using Firefox).
Using Konqueror, I do see ads but also no popup. Same on Opera. No ads using links, but then, no pictures of any sort. I wonder if it is a random thing. Like sometimes on NYTimes when you click a link, you go straight to the story; other times, you have to see an ad first.
OK... I tried Epiphany and I did see the popup. You are right. It is annoying. As it happens I am not terribly fond of GE anyway: their profits went up 50% after the Iraq war.
Posted by: Joseph j7uy5 | May 16, 2007 6:42 PM