More In The "Global Warming" Meme

Downtown Lad had posted these pictures about a month ago discussing global warming. (I admit it, I'm on a kick with this at the moment and don't know why. But you're probably going to be seeing a bunch more posts on this topic until my obsession with it subsides. My apologies ahead of time.)

Anyway....




February 17th, 1993








February 20th, 2000






Satellite images of Kilimanjaro taken 7 years apart. Obviously a dramatic decrease in the glacier at the summit of the mountain. Obviously global warming, right? Eh... maybe.

This National Geographic article points out that while global warming may be a factor, a more likely cause is the deforestation taking place around the mountain's base. I figured that being presented with a theory that can legitimately place culpability for this at the hands of human interference, the major environmental groups would be all over it.

Not really. The Sierra Club, while at least offering up the idea that the region drying out may be a cause of the melting (and also boldly pointing out that that idea comes from a group funded by fossil fuel industries, thereby implying it's bogus) sticks with the universal climate change theory.

The debate over [Kilimanjaro] obscures the nearly universal agreement among glacier and climate experts that glaciers are retreating all over the world, probably as a result of the greenhouse-gas buildup.

Greenpeace mirrored that sentiment, noting:

.... the world's highest free-standing mountain could lose its entire ice field by 2015 due to climate change.

Climate change. Global warming. Greenhouse gases. Again, it's possible. But why is there no mention of other possibilities as well? I'm not an expert, and this is all speculation, but I think it may be due to the fact that when you break the argument down into smaller, more isolated possible causes, you also break down the argument for a global warming trend. Deforestation is not a global crisis. The area around Kilimanjaro drying out is not a global crisis. Worldwide temperature increase? Now that's a global crisis. And global crises are good for environmental groups....

Food for thought: If global warming is the reason, as some say, for the record number of hurricanes this year, why have the total number of storm strikes per decade been decreasing since the 1940s?