Not that it will matter to either the right wing or the mainstream media, but here is yet further proof that climate change is happening and wreaking havoc on certain parts of the world.
A massive landslide sent tons of rock and debris tumbling more than five miles down a glacier in Alaska, the National Park Service reported in an event that could be yet another sign of a warming world.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/...
Located in a remote area of Glacier Bay National Park, the slide was so big it registered on earthquake monitors as a magnitude 3.4 event.
Officials noticed the monitor blip on June 11 but it wasn't until July 2 that a pilot passing over the site took photos that showed just how large it was, Glacier Bay National Park announced on its Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/...
After noting that this was one of the largest slides in the area in recent times, Marten Geertsema, a natural hazards researcher for the Forest Service in nearby British Columbia, continued,
No one was present, but had anyone been there they probably "would be blown over by the air blast," he told the Associated Press.
Officials have pinned the likely cause of the slide on a degradation of the permafrost caused by increased warming in the polar regions:
One possibility is that thawing permafrost, which is ground that stays frozen for two more our years, caused the slide.
"We are seeing an increase in rock slides in mountain areas throughout the world because of permafrost degradation," said Geertsema.
"I don't know whether permafrost degradation played a role here, but we can be almost certain that permafrost exists on Lituya Mountain," said Geertsema, who reviewed aerial photos of the mountain and slide area. "Certainly this type of event could happen from permafrost degradation."
But this is not the only spot on the globe where this is happening.
Many areas of mountain permafrost have been thawing in recent decades as temperatures warm, and some experts are becoming convinced that thawing is a factor in the frequency of rock slides, Geertsema said, pointing to data by Swiss scientists studying the Alps
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Geertseema is not alone in his assessment:
Sharman, the park ecologist, echoed that sentiment, saying he's heard from experts that "they would not be surprised" to see more such landslides inside the national park if temperatures continue to warm.
"Certainly we are seeing an increase in large landslides over the past decades," Geertsema said, citing his 2006 study that found between 1973 and 2003 the average in northern British Columbia increased from 1.3 large landslides per year to 2.3.
Moreover, he said, most of the slides in northern British Columbia are happening in the warmest years.
In the face of all this gathering evidence, the right wing is going to start looking more and more like ostriches with their heads in the sand (or somewhere else, actually). The question is will it be too late to do anything about it on the day those heads finally pop out?