Just in time for the Copenhagen conference we get scientific evidence that the snow on Africa's highest peak, Mt. Kilimanjaro, is loosing its ice pack at an alarming rate. Further evidence of Climate Change? Depends on who you ask.
For those of you who argue with Republicans/Teabaggers/WIng-nuts, it is important for you to be prepared for their bogus lines of attack and trollish arguments.
Teabaggers, of course, will focus on the evidence that suggests evaporation and sublimation of the ice over the millennium is responsible for the alarmingly fast rate of decline in the last 7 years.
Expect to hear Rush Limbaugh pushing this line in his radio show very soon.
It is true that much of the ice has disappeared due to sublimation and evaporation. Be aware of this scientific fact. There is historical evidence in the ice cores to support it. However, the rate of decline has accelerated in the last 7 years. Scientists examining this rapid decline observe that the cause of the decline has shifted dramatically.
Here's how to deal with these arguments. First, though sublimation is still partly responsible for the declining ice pack, its acceleration has not. Ice cores indicate that more recent declines in the ice pack are increasingly due to melting caused by high temperatures. While historical examination of the ice cores indicate that melting was not a causal factor previously, it is a causal factor now. Thus, existence of melting ice on Kilimanjaro is a relatively new phenomena. Acceleration is due to a new intervening variable.
I saw one argument where they suggested that deforestation was responsible, and not Climate Change. However, deforestation would not cause melting, but would instead cause accelerated sublimation and evaporation, so that argument is bogus as well.
Lastly, regardless of the causes of the disappearance of the ice pack over the last thousand years, you cannot argue away the existence of a new intervening variable that is having a significant impact on current conditions. The past is not a sufficient explanation for events/causes in the present.
For more reporting on this phenomena see MSNBCs reporting.