K LESLIE GRAVES BLOGGER BLOGTALK SHOWS
Today's topics: flooding, drought and glaciers
People denying global warming cannot deny that most of the fresh water in the world is locked into glaciers. The question is, are they melting?
Referenced in this post The Top 10 Glaciers In The World
Glacier Melt, Drought America so you cannot sleep tell
in Self Help
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NO COUNTRY SHOULD STAND ALONE, NO VICTIMS FORGOTTON during Natural Disasters. We discussed the torrential flooding in North Korea, Manila and China and the continued drought in America. Earthquake activity will also be discussed. New Wildfires in Washington State
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Global Warming Skeptics Rethinking
According to the NOAA National Climatic Data Center's "State of the Climate: National Overview for June 2012" report released Monday, the 12-month period from July 2011 to June 2012 was the warmest on record (since recordkeeping began in 1895) (every) state in the contiguous U.S. except for Washington saw warmer-than-average temperatures during this time period. The period from January to June of this year also has been the warmest first half of a year on record for the U.S. mainland
-------------Will there be 50 million Environmental Refugees by 2020?
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Greenland's ice sheet melt: a sensational picture of a blunt fact
Once you look at the colour coding and absorb what it means it is a mapping of potential climate change catastrophe
Credit NASA
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In an assessment of 197 countries, British risk consultancy Maplecroft said six Asian countries were among the 10 countries whose economies were most vulnerable to catastrophes
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Glaciers and icecaps: Storehouses of freshwater
Even though you've probably never seen a glacier, they are a big item when we talk about the world's water supply. Almost 10 percent of the world's land mass is currently covered with glaciers, mostly in places like Greenland and Antarctica. Glaciers are important features in the hydrologic cycle and affect the volume, variability, and water quality of runoff in areas where they occur.
In a way, glaciers are just frozen rivers of ice flowing downhill. Glaciers begin life as snowflakes. When the snowfall in an area far exceeds the melting that occurs during summer, glaciers start to form. The weight of the accumulated snow compresses the fallen snow into ice. These "rivers" of ice are tremendously heavy, and if they are on land that has a downhill slope the whole ice patch starts to slowly grind its way downhill. These glaciers can vary greatly in size, from a football-field sized patch to a river a hundred miles (161 kilometers) long.
The water cycle describes how water moves above, on, and through the Earth. But, in fact, much more water is "in storage" at any one time than is actually moving through the cycle. By storage, we mean water that is locked up in its present state for a relatively long period of time. Short-term storage might be days or weeks for water in a lake, but it could be thousands of years for deep groundwater storage or even longer for water at the bottom of an ice cap, such as in Greenland. In the grand scheme of things, this water is still part of the water cycle.
The white areas in this map show glaciers and ice sheets around the world (reproduced from National Geographic WORLD, February 1977, no. 18, p. 6, with permission). The vast majority, almost 90 percent, of Earth's ice mass is in Antarctica, while the Greenland ice cap contains 10 percent of the total global ice mass. The Greenland ice cap is an interesting part of the water cycle. The ice cap became so large over time (about 600,000 cubic miles (mi3) or 2.5 million cubic kilometers (km3)) because more snow fell than melted. Over the millennia, as the snow got deeper, it compressed and became ice. The ice cap averages about 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) in thickness, but can be as thick as 14,000 feet (4,300 meters). The ice is so heavy that the land below it has been pressed down into the shape of a bowl. In many places, glaciers on Greenland reach to the sea, and one estimate is that as much as 125 mi3 (517 km3) of ice "calves" into the ocean each year—one of Greenland's contributions to the global water cycle. Ocean-bound icebergs travel with the currents, melting along the way. Some icebergs have been seen, in much smaller form, as far south as the island of Bermuda.
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Alaska is home to more than 100,000 glaciers. More than 2,000 of these are substantial in size, says Bruce Molnia, a scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey who has been studying glaciers and other topics related to global water supply for more than 40 years. Glacier National Park is one of the best places to view a number of the large glaciers. Glacier Bay Lodge is the only accommodation within the park, and from it, visitors travel by boat through the bay, seeing numerous major glaciers in one day, including the spectacularly massive Margerie and Grand Pacific.
Furtwängler Glacier, Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Of the world's receding glaciers, Mount Kilimanjaro's are among the most highly publicized. During the last century, they have lost more than 80 percent of their mass, and scientists predict that they will be gone sometime in the 2020s. Furtwängler Glacier, near Kilimanjaro's summit, is perhaps the most notable of these disappearing glaciers. Once they are gone, the mountain that inspired Ernest Hemingway will be permanently altered.
Resting at the foot of Austria's tallest mountain, the Pasterze Glacier is today about five miles long—the largest of Austria's 925 glaciers. However, Pasterze could lose up to 60 percent of its mass by 2100. For now, though, visitors can take in a magnificent view of both glacier and mountain by taking the Grossglocknerstrasse mountain road (open only in summer) to Kaiser-Frans-Josefs-Hohe, which maintains a large visitors center.
Anyone who ever wondered how Iceland got its name would likely find the answer in the fact that the country's largest glacier alone covers more than eight percent of the country. Near the Vatnajökull Glacier's center, several active volcanoes make for a contrasting landscape. For example, visitors can visit hot springs located within the glacier's ice caves.
China's Yulong Glacier has been receding steadily since the early 1980s, but it is still one of the most popular attractions in the Yunnan Province. It's not necessarily easy visiting the glacier—the high altitude of the final climb to the observation deck leaves many visitors gasping for air. Some even make the climb with small oxygen bottles.
Although sibling glaciers Fox and Franz Josef retreated for much of the 20th century, they are currently advancing, thanks to the area's recent heavy precipitation. They are also unique among the world's glaciers in that they extend down the mountains and into a temperate rainforest. Visitors can experience the glaciers in any number of ways, including by helicopter and on foot, where it is often possible to explore the many tunnels and crevasses.
Part of the Canadian Rockies' Columbia Icefield, a system of glaciers that straddles the Continental Divide, the Athabasca Glacier has already lost half its volume and continues to recede. Still, it is currently almost four miles long. Although the most popular glacier in North America for tourists, it is also one of the more dangerous—visitors are cautioned not to set foot on the ice without a guide.
Biafo Glacier is located in the Karakoram Mountain Range (sometimes considered part of the Himalayas, where glaciers are retreating at an alarming rate). Tourists looking for a challenge can hike on the remote glacier for several days to reach the ten-mile wide Snow Lake. Along the way, they are treated to sights of rare flora and fauna, as well as to the mountain peaks of Pakistan.
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