Glaciers and Lahaina

I recently returned from a trip that saw me spend almost two weeks in Alaska.

The trip included visits to both Glacier Bay National Park and the College Fjord glaciers.

Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska

Margerie Glacier, Glacier Bay National Park
The face of that glacier is over 300 feet high

Harvard Glacier, College Fjord, Alaska

Of course, you can't look at any of these glaciers without a National Park Ranger or someone else remarking that the glaciers are receding because of "human-induced climate change".

There is an argument to be made that the climate may have warmed over the last 30 years but where is the evidence that it is "human-induced"?

For example, this is an image taken from the brochure that the National Park Service provides to visitors to Glacier Bay National Park.

This was in my hand as I was listening to the park ranger tell me that the glaciers were receding due to "human-induced" climate change.

The brochure shows the recent history (the last several hundred years) of the glaciers in the park.

Source: Glacier Bay Visitor Brochure
National Park Service

Notice that glacier size increased dramatically in the 70 years between 1680 and 1750 during what is often referred to as the "Little Ice Age" period.

The next 130 years (1750-1880) saw the glacier receding at an enormous pace.

Of course, this is a period when there was almost no fossil fuel activity caused by man.

There has been additional glacial recession in the succeeding 145 years until today but it is minimal in comparison to what has been seen previously,

For example, this is a graphic shot from the same Glacier Bay National Park brochure referenced above which shows the positions of individual glaciers at various points of time.

I have added the red highlights to the image so as to make what occurred with the glacier to be more readable.

Much of what is now called Glacier Bay today would not exist without the decline and melting of the glacier formation that took place in the 19 years between 1860-1879.

The main glacier receded 25 miles in just 19 years---more than 1 mile per year---when humans and fossil fuels could not possibly have been responsible in the slightest for the warming of the climate.

Any decline in the glaciers today is measured in feet per year and we are told it is "human-induced"?

Can you imagine the hue and cry if we were seeing this type of decline in these glaciers today and what it would be attributed to?

It is actually quite remarkable how pervasive the climate change propaganda narrative is used day in and day out without any regard to the facts.

And with almost no challenge based on real facts.

Instead, we hear about models.projections and forecasts. 

There is almost no one that ever looks at the historical record or actual facts.

The narrative is everything and it is clearly being used in support of a political agenda.

For example, consider this suburban Philadelphia weather forecast for August 9-18 that I saw recently.

74 degrees in August is VERY HOT?

Source: https://twitter.com/phillyrich1/status/1689228195243962369

Notice the use of the cactus to symbolize those extreme temps in suburban Philly. Nice touch!

Of course, with the tragic wildfire in Lahaina on the island of Maui in Hawaii last week we see once again that the opinion makers cannot miss the opportunity to let a crisis go to waste.

You can count on the The New York Times in times like this.

Has climate change turned lush Hawaii into a tinderbox of late?

That statement is not be supported by actual data that is collected and reported by the U.S. Drought Monitor time series.

It actually shows that Hawaii has recently been in one the the best periods it has been regrarding drought  conditions in the summer period looking back to the year 2000.

 

Source: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DmData/TimeSeries.aspx

The data does show that Maui was drier than many other areas of Hawaii recently.

However, there were no parts of Maui that were considered high risk drought areas (drought levels 3 or 4) the week of August 8.in 2023

Compare that to last year when almost 30% of Maui was in drought levels 3 or 4 at the same time.

This is all due to recent climate developments?

How about the summer of 2000 on Maui when the entire island was in drought conditions and two-thirds of it were levels 3 or 4?

I was in Lahaina, Maui last exactly seven years ago this week.

I took this photo of the giant banyan tree that graced the seaside park near the center of town at that time.

Banyan Tree, Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, August, 2016

The tree is still standing after last week's inferno although it was charred and traumatized by the flames.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/maui-wildfires-lahaina-banyan-tree-standing-hawaii/

Arborists expressed hope that it will generate new growth and produce buds on its branches according to a CBS News Report.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told CBS News the tree is "still breathing" and is absorbing water and producing sap, just not as much as it usually does. 

"It's like a burn victim itself," Green said. "Traumatized, much like the town." 

Yes, trees need water to survive. A big tree like that also needs sunlight.

However, what they need most is carbon dioxide.

That is the same thing that the climate change crazies want to massively reduce from our environment.

However, trees, vegetation and crops do not grow without CO2. 

For example, this little graphic shows the effect CO2 has on the growth of rice.

Credit: https://twitter.com/_ClimateCraze/status/1691076561611419648

This is the reason that many greenhouses that grow plants and vegetables pump carbon dioxide into the enclosure to accelerate growth.

How much of the earth's atmosphere is currently composed of carbon dioxide?

.04%.

Source: https://www.worldatlas.com/environment/how-much-carbon-dioxide-is-in-the-atmosphere.html

What is the latest scheme that Joe Biden and his climate alarmists want to do to stop climate change?

They are in the process of spending $3.7 billion of your tax dollars in a plan to vacuum carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and then store it.

Source:https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-37-billion-kick-start-americas-carbon-dioxide

Why?

I guess when crops start failing and trees begin to die they can then turn on the spigot and save us all.

Would it not be ironic if that banyan tree in Maui survived the fire but dies in the end due to a lack of CO2?

Undoubtedly, that would also be blamed on "human-induced climate change".

That is also what the Democrat Governor of Hawaii has placed the blame for the Maui fire on.

How could it be anything else?

Never mind that the local fire department left a small brush fire caused by a downed electrical wire claiming that it was 100% contained. It wasn't. 

Winds came off of the Maui mountains and whipped the smoldering embers into the inferno it became. Most citizens did not even receive a warning to evacuate from the the spread of the fire from government authorities. As a result, many were trapped to face the fire with no place to go.

Was it climate change or a government that failed the people?

Believe me when I tell you that we are living in a world day in which facts, reason, logic and any understanding of meteorological or human history mean nothing compared to the importance of the current political agenda.

Look no further than those glaciers I recently saw and the tragedy in Lahaina.