Glaciers in Washington's Olympic Mountains will be gone by 2070, study concludes (2015, luxury)

[flyingsaucermom]

Originally Posted by MechAndy

We do have glacier fed creeks and rivers.
If they went dry it would be a large domino effect.
Salmon, orca, Seahawks and other thing could not survive or at least not be thriving.

Do you know what the cornerstone species here? I'm assuming it's salmon.

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by flyingsaucermom

Do you know what the cornerstone species here? I'm assuming it's salmon.

Perhaps more for aquatic species and predatory birds like ospreys (sea hawks), but I do think the land-based ecosystem survives without salmon. Black bears are generalists in terms of diet and while they may fish salmon, they can survive and thrive without them. Mountain lions I don’t think bat an eye at salmon (they don’t like to get wet). Maybe it’s an occasional treat but they prefer land-based animals mostly. And of course the peninsula supports a huge array of herbivores that don’t presumably rely on the glacier or salmon for that matter.

So I wouldn’t, as an educated guess, consider salmon to be a cornerstone species for the ecology of the peninsula in general. It’s a bit different for the marine species like orcas and seals. But even ospreys can find other fish and the open ocean isn’t really far from anywhere on the peninsula.

[MechAndy]

I am not sure of all the species FSM but even the smaller and less thought of species count in a big way .

If you consider just how much biodiversity a beaver damn brings wiping out beavers or even greatly reducing their numbers is huge.
There are much more than this one example.

At the visitor center on Hurricane Ridge you can see a timed glacier map.
That map is a rather sad sight.

I am not a dweller on gloom per say, in fact this pattern could even change or shift by then but I don’t know.
It would be hard for me to imagine a peninsula that doesn’t have constant running water.

[41Willys]

Originally Posted by the_modern_philosopher

These predictions have time and time been wrong. Too many variables, way too many. They might cherry pick past years where the change is significant and draw linear line from that.

Glacier National Park is replacing signs that predicted its glaciers would be gone by 2020


https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/08/us/gl...rnd/index.html

Did you watch the video? They have a comparison of a few glaciers from a 100 years ago to now. HUGE difference! It's kind of hard to say they are wrong.

[pnwguy2]

Total bs. Just hyper hysterical rhetoric, with no scientific evidence to support.

[MechAndy]

As an independent and an avid outdoorsman I think that the earth has been going through cycles since the beginning of time.

We definitely are getting warmer right now and that’s a fact.
The glacier maps prove that.

What clouds/confuses things up are the political nutters like Al gore and some from the far right.

I live as green as possible and hope that one day my future solar panels will power my car around town, but we are not there yet…or at least me.
I also believe Al Gore book was a counter productive work of fiction.

[rjshae]

Originally Posted by MechAndy

As an independent and an avid outdoorsman I think that the earth has been going through cycles since the beginning of time.

We definitely are getting warmer right now and that’s a fact.
The glacier maps prove that.

What clouds/confuses things up are the political nutters like Al gore and some from the far right.

I live as green as possible and hope that one day my future solar panels will power my car around town, but we are not there yet…or at least me.
I also believe Al Gore book was a counter productive work of fiction.

Yes, the planet Earth does go through many long-term cycles, which typically run for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. The main difference now is the rapid pace of change (decades rather than hundreds of thousands of years), which is not giving the larger life forms time to smoothly adapt. The result will be a major disruption to the ecosystem, and a big reduction of our quality of life. Regardless, once we go extinct the planet will bounce back after several million years and possibly evolve a new intelligent species. That future species may take better care of the planet, after finding out about us when they visit the Moon. Fun to think about, huh?

Is it nuts to believe in the extrapolations of physics and atmospheric science? Mmm, I don't think so. It may be nuts to believe the carbon industries aren't spreading falsehoods to benefit their bottom line. But whatever.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by 41Willys

Did you watch the video? They have a comparison of a few glaciers from a 100 years ago to now. HUGE difference! It's kind of hard to say they are wrong.

Well, except that 2020 has come and gone and the glaciers haven't. So, it's not at all difficult to believe that they were wrong. Not hard to say at all.



I do notice that everyone doing the hand wringing about glaciers disappointing never, and I mean absolutely never, just happens to mention that the glaciers in Antarctica are growing larger.

[st33lcas3]

Originally Posted by MechAndy

We do have glacier fed creeks and rivers.
If they went dry it would be a large domino effect.
Salmon, orca, Seahawks and other thing could not survive or at least not be thriving.

I think losing Wilson and Wagner will hurt worse than glaciers, but anything can happen!

[rjshae]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

I do notice that everyone doing the hand wringing about glaciers disappointing never, and I mean absolutely never, just happens to mention that the glaciers in Antarctica are growing larger.

Yes, decadal-scale variations in the Antarctic ice sheet makes it more of a challenge to predict. If it does undergo a major melt-off though, Seattle will be in deep water.