Peruvian Glaciers Melting

[engineerdude]

Hi everybody,

 

I was watching the NBC nightly news tonight, and they did a segment on how Global Warming was causing the glaciers to melt in Peru. They showed video footage of the glaciers and they did look pretty meltie. The news report said that the glaciers could be gone completely by 2015.

 

So, I decided to check and see how much warming there actually has been in that area of the world, so I went to the US government's web page for this sort of thing. The closest station to the glaciers I could find with a decent temperature record was at Cuzco (13.6S, 72.0W). The glaciers are higher in elevation, but are pretty close to this Cuzco station.

 

Well, it turns out that there is no global warming in Cuzco. Quite the opposite, in fact - it is about the coldest it has been in the last 70 years. It is currently more than 2 degrees C colder than the 1940's, and one degree colder than the 1970's. Here's a chart, which can be found at

Data @ NASA GISS: Surface Temperature Analysis - Station Data

 

 

 

This is the closest temperature station to the glaciers I can find with any kind of historical record. It looks pretty clear that global warming is not causing the decline of these glaciers - what else can it be? Decline in precipitation? Soot in the air?

[freeztar]

Is this the station you are referring to?

 

METAR/Synop Information for SPZO in Cuzco, Peru