The data has taken another lurching advance this week, if any of it is believable.
Estimates of ice loss by Himalayan glaciers pre-2012: 50 billion tonnes p.a.
Estimates of ice loss by Himalayan glaciers Feb 2012: 4 billion tonnes p.a. (US team, published in Nature).
Today: “A French team, comparing 3-D satellite maps from 2000 and 2008, said the glaciers had not lost mass over this period and may even have grown a tiny bit, at 0.11 millimetres (0.04 of an inch) per year.”
—
My projection for the year 2035 (I picked this year at random) is that the glaciers will be so massive they will grind the entire Himalayan mountain range into gravel.
Sadly, the scientists involved don’t want to upset anybody: ‘Julie Gardelle of the University of Grenoble in southeastern France told AFP “But it does not detract in any way from the evidence for overall global warming,” ‘.
They always say that! They always, always say that! It reminds me of a wonderful line given to John Adams in the musical 1776, addressed to more genteel members of the Continental Congress: “Good grief, this is a revolution dammit! We’re going to have to upset somebody!”