Robert W. Felix

Robert Felix is the author of Not by Fire but by Ice, and the online publisher of www.iceagenow.info.

Asia’s Glaciers are getting Bigger!

Tuesday, 17 April 2012 23:11 GFP Columnist - Robert Felix

As are glaciers around the world - Satellite data shows that glaciers in part of the Karakoram range on the China-Pakistan border are putting on mass, defying (supposedly) the general trend toward glacier shrinkage.

In an article entitled “Slight mass gain of Karakoram glaciers in the early twenty-first century,” Researchers from the National Centre for Scientific Research and the University of Grenoble admit to “an anomalous gain of mass” for the Karakoram glaciers.

This is in direct contradiction to the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which claimed that ice from most of the region could disappear by 2035.

Often considered a part of the Himalayas, the Karakoram range, which runs through Pakistan, India and China, is technically a separate chain that includes K2, the world's second-highest peak.

Tragedy Unfolding in Europe

Monday, 13 February 2012 00:00 GFP Columnist - Robert Felix

European Cold Snap Damages Rome's Coliseum. Several small fragments from the top of Rome’s Coliseum have fallen away because of the cold snap and bad weather that gripped Italy. Freezing temperatures hit many European countries, including the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany and Ukraine, where extremely low temperatures have killed scores of people.

Is U.S. media trying to ignore it? - "The cold snap in Europe, which began in late January, has killed hundreds and brought deep snow where it hasn't been seen in decades," says this article in the Seattle Times.

This should be front page news. Instead, the article doesn't appear until page eight. And the title, "At least 3 killed in avalanche in Kosovo," belies the seriousness of the situation. (The print version carries a different headline: "Cold snap, snow lock down Europe.")

How about a headline that tells it like it is? "140,000 trapped by snow – Death toll rises past 550".

That headline would give readers a glimpse of what's really happening in Europe, where snow drifts reaching above the rooftops have kept tens of thousands of villagers prisoners in their own homes.

This is How Ice Ages Begin

Monday, 07 November 2011 04:17 GFP Columnist - Robert Felix

'...when scientist Nel Caine checked on Arikaree Glacier 20 miles west of Boulder, Colorado, he measured between 2 and 3 feet of snow from last winter and spring still remaining in late September...'

Look at this weekend’s Halloween snowstorm. Headlines across the U.S.A. called it “historic.” Historic because it dumped record snowfall on at least 20 cities from Maryland to Maine. Historic because it was the most snow – and the earliest – in many areas since the end of the Civil War.

And we’re not talking mere tenths-of-an-inch here. This snowfall shattered the old records, it obliterated them.

The 14.6 inches of snow that fell in Worcester, Mass., almost doubled its previous single-day October record of 7.5 inches set in 1979, while Hartford’s 12.3 inches crushed the previous single-day October record of 1.7 inches, seven times more than its earlier record.

But with 32 inches (81 cm) of snow, Peru, Massachusetts, won the prize. Two-and-a-half feet! Waist deep! Before Halloween!

This is how ice ages begin.

Glaciers Growing on Mt. Shasta

Saturday, 10 September 2011 23:16 GFP Columnist - Robert Felix

Record snowfall to spur even more growth - Although the media has done a great job of covering this up, the inconvenient fact is that all seven glaciers on California’s Mount Shasta are growing. This includes Whitney Glacier, the state's largest.

Yes, growing. Not melting.

Not only are Mt. Shasta's glaciers growing, two have nearly doubled in size.

Both the Hotlum and Wintun Glaciers have nearly doubled in size since 1950, says this article on Wikipedia. The Bolam Glacier has increased by half, while the Whitney and Konwakiton Glaciers have grown by a third.

Sea Levels Dropped in 2010

Monday, 29 August 2011 00:00 GFP Columnist - Robert Felix

'Red line shows increase in global sea level since the early 1990s. Sea level has risen by a little more than an inch each decade, or about 3 mm per year. The recent drop of nearly one quarter inch (½ cm), is attributable to the switch from El Niño to La Niña.'

“Sea Levels Dropped in 2010.” That’s what the headline should have read. Instead, NASA tried to hide this startling information under the nondescript headline “NASA Satellites Detect Pothole On Road to Higher Seas.” (See http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-262)

The story begins as yet another global warming horror story, explaining how “ocean waters expand as they warm. This, along with melting glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, drives sea levels higher over the long term.”

Red line shows increase in global sea level since the early 1990s. Sea level has risen by a little more than an inch each decade, or about 3 mm per year. The recent drop of nearly one quarter inch (½ cm), is attributable to the switch from El Niño to La Niña. (Credit: S. Nerem, University of Colorado)

While the rise of the global ocean has been remarkably steady for most of the last 18 years, the article continues, (undoubtedly due to global warming caused by we nasty humans, of course) “every once in a while, sea level rise hits a speed bump. This past year, it’s been more like a pothole: between last summer and this one, global sea level actually fell by about a quarter of an inch, or half a centimeter.”

Cold Weather Destroying Ozone in the Arctic

Thursday, 21 July 2011 00:00 GFP Columnist - Robert Felix

BBC ever so subtly tries to blame humans - "The ozone layer has seen unprecedented damage in the Arctic this winter due to cold weather in the upper atmosphere," says this article by BBC environmental correspondent Richard Black.

"By the end of March, 40% of the ozone in the stratosphere had been destroyed, against a previous record of 30%," says Black.

Severe ozone depletion has been seen over Scandinavia, Greenland, and parts of Canada and Russia.

It must have pained the BBC to publish this, because their headline - "Arctic ozone levels in never-before-seen plunge" - carefully avoids the word "cold."

However, I will give them credit for admitting - in the very first paragraph - that the damage is due to cold weather in the upper atmosphere.

Then, in an apparent attempt to switch the focus onto humans, Black reminds us that ozone "is destroyed by reactions with industrial chemicals." He also speaks of the Montreal Protocol, which was meant to control the amount of (supposed) ozone-depleting gases that we nasty humans pump into the atmosphere.