Another depth plumbed by BBC science reporting. A warmist fanatic – in this case Alun Hubbard, a glaciologist whose self-declared mission is to confirm his fanaticism – has now only to say that he’s “gob-smacked” about the extent of ice loss for it to make a website lead story. Never mind that there is huge controversy about the causes of glacier melt in Greenland, and never mind that many experts suggest it is triggered by nothing more sinister than natural variability. I am not sure under which category of scientific measurement you will find the gob-smacking technique, but clearly for the BBC, any form of panic-mongering will now do. Especially if it’s from one of its regular warmist pimps, as Dr Hubbard clearly is.
GOB SMACKING
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Icebergs calving off the Petermann Glacier are not unusual. Petermann Glacier’s floating ice tongue is the Northern Hemisphere’s largest, and it has occasionally calved large icebergs. The recently calved iceberg is the largest to form in the Arctic since 1962, said the University of Delaware.
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/petermann-calve.html
So the clearing of the channel is something that the Petermann does periodically.
I’m sure that it is a magnificent spectacle.
I share the sense of wonder and awe which nature has to offer.
But ‘gob-smacked’ is not the term I’d use.
Similarly, global warming as in AGW or CAGW isn’t what would necessarily cross my mind, either.
But with the less than subtle referencing of the ‘grim’ future for the Greenland Ice-cap in previous references to Petermann and NW Greenland, I’m sure that the ‘gob-smacked’ scientist no longer feels he need explain.
Perhaps the ground has been so well prepared that the imagery reinforces the hard sell of years.
As usual, RGH allows his gift for shrill hysteria to cloud his accuracy. Far from being a “website lead story”, it’s hardly given any prominence on the section it’s listed in – Mid Wales – and is nowhere to be seen within the Science/Environment section.
Some lead. Indeed, the BBC has given greater prominence in the past to stories which Biased BBC has then claimed have been “buried”.
Well, I am gob smacked, I really am.
I think you are projecting a little there Scotty, no need to get so hysterical is there? Calm down dear, its only a criticism about BBC CAGW bias.
Or am I being a shrill hysteric? Must calm down.
So global warming caused the Titanic to sink?
By way of introduction RGH is not Robin Horbury. Honest.
Look, if you will, Scott, at the related stories (links).
All of them present the sense of impending doom. Agree?
It happens that the Petermann break-up had the greens in a spin two years ago. It was the tipping indicator used in the run-up to Copenhagen. It is/was iconic for the AGW propaganda push.
Greenpeace site at the time:
“The ship is heading to the glacier to bear witness to the accelerating polar melt, and to support the work of a team of independent scientists, who are researching why climate change is melting the ice faster than expected.
The voyage to the Petermann Glacier is the first stage of a four leg tour during which we will:
Document the collapse of one of the world’s largest glaciersInvestigate how changing ocean currents could be accelerating Greenland’s meltVoyage to the place where the polar bears will make their last standSail in to the retreating ice edge to witness first hand the vanishing sea ice ”
In itself and of itself, the Hubbard article is interesting, but must be understood in terms of the widespread focus on GW/Climate Change issues ie the context.
The scientist is ‘gob-smacked’. Good for him. The Petermann has calved a big iceberg/ice raft four times the size of Manhattan if I recall.
That is what Petermann does every fifty years or so.
Not to point that out leaves Dr Hubbard’s subjective reaction as the only measure of the significance of the event.
Is he ‘gob-smacked’ at the wonder of nature, or at the rate and extent of the break-off from the glacier as being ‘shocking’.?
The latter would reinforce the AGW narrative.
If you say that RGH and Robin Horbury are different people, I’ll take you at your word. What fortuitous happenstance that you both have the same verbose obsessions, though! What are the chances of that happening, eh?
scottie M isn’t dez either
he’s just humping him
Hmm pro BBC pro AGW pro Labour pro anything he reads in the Grundy and a complete leftbatter methinks Scrott is Mr Thompsons alter ego ‘the fail’ on binge !!
Come on, Scott. The main post is hardly verbose, and Robin’s posts in general hardly qualify, epsecially compared to mine, which actually do tend to be ridiculously lengthy. RGH’s comments are on a variety of topics, although a significant portion are on history, not the climate. Robin’s posts are pretty much always about a single topic.
‘Robin’s posts are pretty much always about a single topic.’
And are invariably concise, factual, and well supported.
Unlike most from the £4Bpa propaganda tool we are compelled to pay for, and the others that support it with such facile, inappropriate (if the intent is to make any worthwhile, persuasive point) petty, foot-in-mouth drive-by shootings.
“What are the chances of that happening, eh?”
…the odds are worse than even as what they write is the opinion of many others.
The earth has been warming since the depths of the ‘little ice age’ some 300 or so years ago. CO2 started rising about 150 – 200 years ago.
So this means that uniquely to climate ‘science’ we see that effect precedes cause by over a hundred years. Normally a cause leads to an effect.
No, Scott.
RGH is Pounce, not Robin Horbury. David Vance is Sue’s brother-in-law and Martin is actually Polly Toynbee’s younger sister.
For the record, I’m Sarah Montague.
I’m Sarah Montague!
(and so is my wife…)
And I’m Deirdre Barlow and I’m still waiting compensation for my wrongful arrest bloody Labour Government !!
An ice tongue will break off when the mechanical stress due to its size becomes large enough. This has nothing to do with melting. Indeed, if the ice were to melt faster this would prevent the tongue from becoming large enough to accumulate sufficient stress!
Good point, “melting” would result in less ice bergs calving from the shelf. The rate at which the ice falls over the edge is due to the weight of the ice sheet (more snow / ice = more weight = more outward spreading of the ice sheet and subsequent ice bergs falling off the shelf).
Anyone ever noticed that they always come up with this crap during the summer?
Shortest Arctic Melt Season On Record?
New ice is starting to form in the Arctic, and it looks like 2011 has a possibility of becoming the shortest melt season (time from peak to minimum) on record. Longer polar melt seasons are a fundamental tenet of global warming theory.
<img src=”http://www.real-science.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/icecover_current-191.png”/>
SOURCE
Here is a report that the BBC will never show, this contradicts the BBC CAGW narrative, therefore this report does not exist. IF and it still is a big IF but if this winter is colder than last years then an awful lot of the poorest in the UK are going to suffer, the economy already reeling from the EU infection will take a nose dive. The energy matrix already under strain is going taken to the edge of failure. The political class/parasite class have made our bed and now we will have to lay in it.