Alaska Meltdown

Speaking of meltdowns, Arctic ice has been melting like crazy for the past 250 years or so, since the end of the Little Ice Age that peaked in 1650. National Geographic has the scoop on how far this recession has come:

To put this in perspective, when European explorers first sailed along the Alaska coastline in the 1790s, they noted only a small embayment along the coastline. By the 1880s the glacier that filled what became known as Glacier Bay had retreated, leaving a bay that extended nearly 40 miles (64 kilometers). The glacier has continued to retreat and today Glacier Bay extends more than 60 miles (96 kilometers) into the Alaskan coastline.

What complicates the human-induced global warming question is the fact that some of the glaciers in Alaska began their retreat more than 250 years ago, before the human population expanded and the industrial revolution. Some of Alaska’s glaciers began their retreat only in the last 25 years.

“The popular perception of global warming is that the entire Earth is warming everywhere. The record doesn’t show that,” said Molnia. Alaska’s temperature changes are far more dramatic than in other regions of the world, and the retreat of Alaska’s glaciers is quite significant, concludes Molnia. But there are many regions that show very little temperature change or none at all, and not all the glaciers in the world are melting.

Dan Rather’s impact on this isn’t at all clear.