World's Ice Caps are Melting!

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Europe's Alps could lose three-quarters of their glaciers to climate change during the coming century.

That is the conclusion of new research from the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) in Zurich.

Scientists base their conclusion on forecasts of temperature and precipitation changes in a new computer model of Alpine glaciation.

Glaciers are crucial in providing fresh drinking water, and are also key for tourism, irrigation and hydro-power.

There is already strong evidence of a major ongoing melt.

In the 1850s, according to WGMS data presented at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) annual meeting in Vienna, nearly 4,474 sq km of the Alps were glaciated.

By the 1970s, the area covered had fallen to just under 2,903 sq km, and in 2000, it was down to 2,272 sq km.

"From 1850 to the 1970s, there is an average loss of 2.9% per decade," WGMC's Michael Zemp told EGU delegates.

"From the 1970s until 2000 it is 8.2% per decade, and we see most of that increase since 1985," he said.
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read the whole article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4874224.stm
 
So, it is, the roof of the world is melting. I wonder why. Last week it was cloudy and cold here. This week the sun is shining and it's warm. That made me think a lot. Isn't there any remote change that the current warming is caused by the sun?

These guys seem to think so too:

http://cc.oulu.fi/~usoskin/personal/2006GL0259211_pub.pdf

...Nonetheless, it is confirmed with the new palaeomagnetic series that the Sun spends only 2–3% of the time in a state of high activity, similar to the modern episode. This strengthens the conclusion that the modern high activity level is very unusual during the last 7000 years.
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I compared their results of the last 1000 years with Von Storchs Echo-G simulation and the well known multi proxi reconstruction "spaghetti" graph here:

Usoskin-Storch.GIF


Yes, it could be the sun, couldn't it? Especially where high altitude glaciers spend most of their time in the sun with only little cloudiness going on, they could be very good sun activity monitors.

After all, it doesn't really matter if the temperature on those glaciers is -10C or -8C.
 
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