LA Times: "The great retreat" A little reality check for global warming deniers.

[20score]

Five years ago I purchased a photograph by the late Bradford Washburn, the uncontested pioneer of museum-quality aerial photography. Driving home and sneaking peeks of my new picture of mountaineers high on a glacier, I started wondering: If global warming is real, what does that icy scene look like now?

The result of that question was three trips to Alaska, two trips to the Alps and a series of 15 comparison black-and-white photographs in an exhibit touring the country. I re-shot Washburn pictures from the 1930s and 1960s at the same altitudes and vantage points, and sometimes almost to the same day and minute.

The news is not good.

As the photos show, the ice world is melting fast. This includes the ice stored in the planet's largest water tower, the Himalayan mountain range, which annually sends drinking water down seven major rivers to hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indian citizens. In another 20 or so years, they are likely to start getting thirsty; the well-armed governments for another 7 billion people will be getting snippy about their water; and I won't be able to buy flood insurance for my home on the Boston waterfront.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-arnold13-2009dec13,0,6182358.story

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-galciers-gallery13-2009dec13,0,6591611.photogallery

[defendandprotect]

1. Ignoring nature is dangerous -- NATURE IS OUR FIRST AND LAST SCIENCE ....

All science is merely and only observation of nature --

[The Doctor.]

2. And so many have been making mere sport of inexorable devastation.

The fools.

That we may be counted among them is only a minor tragedy in comparison.

[punkin87]

3. Wow! k&r

[20score]

4. A glacier retreating 14 miles does deserve a "wow."

[deaniac21]

6. Not even close to these

http://tapestry.usgs.gov/features/36glacialextent.html

[Quantess]

5. The first and third set of photos were the best.