Shock study shows Himalayas and nearby peaks have lost no ice over the last decade

Sunday, February 12, 2012 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: Himalayan, ice, global warming

(NaturalNews) Man-made climate change theory proponents frequently cite claims that ice caps and glaciers all around the world are melting at an alarming rate because of excess carbon dioxide (CO2). But new research published in the journal Nature reveals that, contrary to popular belief, ice caps in the Himalayan mountains and many nearby peaks have not actually melted at all in the past ten years.

Professor John Wahr from the University of Colorado and his team evaluated data collected by a pair of satellites known as "Grace" that measured changes in the earth's gravitational pull from 500 kilometers (311 miles) up in space. These satellites revealed that ice levels in these high peaks are basically the same as they were a decade ago, despite the fact that many people still think they are melting.

"I believe this data is the most reliable estimate of global glacier mass balance that has been produced to date," Professor Jonathan Bamber, a glaciologist from Bristol University in the U.K., is quoted as saying to the Guardian. "This is a compelling reason to try to understand what is happening there better."

The reason why many scientists still believe that ice caps and glaciers in these higher elevations are melting has to do with the way data on melting has been collected up until this point. Rather than come from satellite imagery and gravitational analysis, most of the research is based on data gathered on the ground from just a few glaciers, which fails to take into account the 200,000-or-so glaciers in existence across the globe.

At the same time, the researchers claim that lower-level ice melting is still occurring, and that the new findings do not negate existing theories on global warming. This declaration, however, appears to be more of a politically-charged opinion rather than a hypothesis based on the facts, as there simply is no concrete evidence that ice caps as a whole are melting any faster than usual, or that man is responsible for causing this if they are.

The new study is not the only one to blow holes in the sacred cow theory of man-made global warming, either. A report published last summer by Human Events, for instance, revealed that those iconic images of polar bears dying because of melting ice caps are based on lies. The polar bears observed in the study that was used to make this claim appear to have actually died from an isolated windstorm, which means that polar bears are not necessarily an endangered species (https://www.naturalnews.com/033370_polar_bars_scientific_fraud.html).

Sources for this article include:

http://www.guardian.co.uk

http://www.csmonitor.com