"In the face of the overwhelming evidence presented to us, not only by scientists, but by most of our own experiences of recent intense weather patterns, I am struggling to understand why this is still being debated."
It is still being debated Damian simply because the "overwhelming" evidence that you say is being presented to us actually comes from two different camps. One which states one thing backed up by scientific evidence with another claiming the opposite which is again, backed up by scientific data.
Last summer I experienced global warming for myself, literally, when I was up in the Otztal Alps on the Austrian Italian border looking at the glaciers which are called "Ferner" which means "old snow". In the last 150 years there has been an increase of 1 oC and this has led to the rapid melting of some glaciers with some shrinking to half their size. According to the Otztal Nature Park who say;
"During warm summer seasons glaciers lose about 5-7 m at the tongue! The lateral moraines of the Rotmoos glacier near Obergurgl give an indication of the prior advances of the glacier.
The “Ferner†(glaciers) have noticeably retreated since their peak extension around 1850 and their advances in 1920 and 1980; however, the retreating ice does not leave behind a wasteland devoid of life. Instead, the newly uncovered land is populated in a typical succession. The glaciers are hence a large-scale experiment of nature."
Interesting to note there are dates in there when the glaciers "increased"?
The park then goes on to say;
"The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), a global association of climatologists, and international environmental organizations are expecting climate change to speed up and cause the rise of global mean temperatures between 1,5 and 5°C. As a result the Alps would become ice-free and permafrost (permanently frozen soil, amounting to about 5% of the Alps) would melt.
The commission for glaciology of the Bavarian Academy of Science has stated in recent studies, that on a warm summer’s day, the amount of water melting at the Vernagt glacier (Ötz valley/Vent) would provide enough drinking water for the entire city of Munich for one day. In 2003, a new record for glacial melting was observed. The yearly amount of melting water from the “ice-monster†would be enough to supply Munich with water for a whole year."
There are 67 glaciers in the Otztal Nature Park and I walked across six of them. They all had markers showing how far the ice had retreated and without being there one could not imagine the huge scale of it all. These glaciers are simply massive and the areas where they have retreated is also massive! It is interesting to note that the glacial theory was only developed in the early 1800's so prior to that nothing was really known about them.
Some places on Earth are so cold that water is a solid—ice or snow. Scientists call these frozen places of our planet the "cryosphere." The word "cryosphere" comes from the Greek word for cold, "kryos." The cold regions of our planet influence our entire world’s climate.
The national Snow and Ice Data Centre says;
"September 2012 was a record-setting month for both of Earth’s poles, but for different reasons: sea ice in the Arctic fell to a record low minimum extent after a summer of melting, while Antarctic sea ice froze to a record high extent during the South Pole winter. Is record Antarctic sea ice canceling out the losses in Arctic ice? And does the record in the south mean that Antarctica is not warming?"
To read this go here;
Arctic melt versus Antarctic freeze: Is Antarctica warming or not? | Icelights: Your Burning Questions About Ice & Climate
To read about Greenlands Ice Sheet Today go here;
Greenland Ice Sheet Today | Icelights: Your Burning Questions About Ice & Climate
Thomas Mote, a professor at the University of Georgia is one of many scientists studying Greenland’s ice, and especially concerning 2012 when 40% of Greenlands ice sheet appeared to be melting said this on the NSIDC website;
“There is some evidence recently that suggests that the Greenland Ice Sheet can recover more easily perhaps than we might have thought,†Mote said. “I think we’re still trying to get a sense of just how inter-related these different cryospheric measures are across the Arctic.â€
To read this go here;
What caused last summer
Then again, more than 17,000 scientists have signed a petition circulated by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine claiming that global warming has nothing to do with man made influences.
Equally by the same token I can balance the global warming scales by placing scientific evidence "FOR" the global warming argument on one side then place the scientific arguments "AGAINST" global warming on the other. That leaves us, the majority of the Earths population weighing this scale in between both arguments.
So it is clear there is indeed plenty of reason for debate.
Regards,
Lee.
`
