Now on ScienceBlogs: Must Read

ScienceBlogs Book Club: Inside the Outbreaks

Greg Laden's Blog

Evolution, Life Sciences, Science Education, Human Evolution, and Stuff

Darwing_Face.jpg Learn more about Charles Darwin and his work.

Hornbill170.jpg Looking for stuff about birds?

Lion_mane170.jpg Lean more about lions

Congo_sidebar.jpg An archaeological expedition to the Congo


The Skeptical Search Engine


Nature Blog Network
Climate Defense Fund


The contents of Greg Laden's Blog are copyrighted by Greg Laden.

Recent Comments

Search

Profile


Click on "About" for the big picture, and "Archives" for the details.


Recent Posts

Blogroll

If you don't see yourself on my blogroll, just drop me a line and let me know. I'll add you.*
*Assuming that I'm on your blogroll, of course!

Archives

« More "Junk" DNA is Not | Main | Origin of Life »

Himalayan Ice Fields Have Not Grown in Fifty Years

Category: Global Warming
Posted on: December 12, 2007 4:28 PM, by Greg Laden

Starting with Los Alamos, repeated atomic explosions altered the isotopic composition of the Earth's atmosphere in a way that is easily seen in historic proxyindicator records such as ice cores, lake cores, tree rings, and so on.

Recently raised cores from the Himalayan ice fields, when analyzed, failed to show this global signal. This strongly suggests that these ice fields have not grown during the last fifty years, or more.

The ice fields provide an important buffer in the headwaters of major rivers relied on today for agriculture and other uses by a very large number of people.

Similar findings have occurred elsewhere. For instance, it is predicted that the glaciers on Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, will be gone in about 7 to 10 years from now. Eighty percent of the 15,000 or so mountain glaciers in the Himalayas are expected to be melted away in about twenty to twenty five years from now.

Details here.

Share on Facebook
Share on StumbleUpon
Share on Facebook
Find more posts in: Environment

TrackBacks

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/58253

Comments

1

Whilst, ironically, the pace at which we're trying to combat global warming is...glacial!

Posted by: Ian | December 13, 2007 6:52 AM

Post a Comment

(Email is required for authentication purposes only. On some blogs, comments are moderated for spam, so your comment may not appear immediately.)





ScienceBlogs

Search ScienceBlogs:

Go to:

Advertisement
Follow ScienceBlogs on Twitter

© 2006-2011 ScienceBlogs LLC. ScienceBlogs is a registered trademark of ScienceBlogs LLC. All rights reserved.