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Posted by Ivan Garcia
on February 14th, 2007 filed in
global warming,
Apparently, not so
much. The previous link is from India. As such, it’s not translated
in perfect English; but the gist of it remains:
Believe it or not.
There are only about a dozen scientists working on 9,575 glaciers
in India under the aegis of the Geological Society of India. Is
the available data enough to believe that the glaciers are
retreating due to global warming?
That’s a good question.
When alarmists claim that glaciers are shrinking in the Himalayas,
it becomes vital. In order for twelve scientists to look at even 10%
of these glaciers, each scientist would be responsible for 80
glaciers! (10% of 9,575 = 957.5, divided by 12 people = 79.8
glaciers/person.) In order to see all 80 glaciers in a year, said
scientists would have to visit a new glacier every 4.6 days.
Thus: “[VK Raina] feels
that the research on Indian glaciers is negligible.” I think I
agree. But these scientists haven’t even looked at 80 glaciers
en toto:
Raina told the
Hindustan Times that out of 9,575 glaciers in India, till date,
research has been conducted only on about 50. Nearly 200 years
data has shown that nothing abnormal has occurred in any of these
glaciers.
50/9575 = 0.5% of the
glaciers. And rather than having all 1/2 percent demonstrate Global
Warming, these demonstrate “nothing abnormal” for the last 200
years.
Strong evidence for
receding glaciers indeed! So let’s finish up with:
“Claims of global
warming causing glacial melt in the Himalayas are based on wrong
assumptions,” Raina, a trained mountaineer and skiing expert said.
He rued that not much is being done by the Government to create a
bank of trained geologists for an in-depth study of glaciers.…
His views were echoed
by Dr RK Ganjoo, Director, Regional Centre for Field Operations
and Research on Himalayan Glaciology, who is supervising study of
glaciers in Ladakh region including one in the Siachen area. He
also maintained that nothing abnormal has been found in any of the
Himalyan glaciers studied so far by him.
Still, he wondered on
the Himalayan glaciers being compared with those in Alaska or
Europe to lend credence to the melt theory. Indian glaciers are at
3,500-4,000 meter above the sea level whereas those in the Alps
are at much lower levels. Certainly, the conditions under which
the glaciers in Alaska are retreating, are not prevailing in the
Indian sub-continent, he explained.
Another leading
geologist MN Koul of Jammu University, who is actively engaged in
studying glacier dynamics in J&K and Himachal holds similar views.
Referring to his research on Kol glacier ( Paddar, J&K) and Naradu
(HP), he said both the glaciers have not changed much in the past
two decades.
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