Las nieves del Kilimanjaro: Al Gore, premio Príncipe de Asturias, pillado en una nueva mentira

Por Luis I. Gómez

Decía mi abuela (y la suya, querido lector, también) que las mentiras tienen las patas cortas. Antes o después se acaba sabiendo la verdad. Seguro que Al Gore está empezando a preocuparse de la natural “velocidad” con que la ciencia trata determinados temas. Y se está preocupando porque cada vez que se publica un nuevo paper serio, es para decirle en la cara: mentiroso!

El último:

- dice Al Gore para explicar los efectos del calentamiento global:

“…This is Mount Kilimanjaro, 30 years ago and last year. Within a decade there will be no more snows off Kilimanjaro.” Fuente.

- la tozuda ciencia:

Global Warming Not Behind Kilimanjaro Meltdown

It’s bad science to use Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro as a poster child for global warming’s nefarious effects, two researchers say, pointing to other mechanisms causing the melt of the tropical glacier at the mountain’s summit.

Kilimanjaro’s ice has been melting away for more than a century, and most of that melt occurred before 1953, prior to the period where science begins to be conclusive about atmospheric warming in that region, according to Philip Mote of the University of Washington and Georg Kaser of the University of Innsbruck in Austria.

Also, as a tropical glacier, the processes governing ice melt on Kilimanjaro (located in Tanzania) are different than those on other mid-latitude glaciers located closer to the Earth’s poles.

These other mid-latitude glaciers become warmed and melted by surrounding air in the summer, while the air around Kilimanjaro’s 19,340-foot peak (the tallest in Africa) is generally well below freezing.

Instead, melt on Kilimanjaro is caused by sublimation, which turns ice directly into water vapor at below-freezing temperatures—essentially the glacier gets a giant case of moisture-sapping freezer burn.

Y si además leen esto y esto otro, serán ya expertos en el tema. Gracias, Don Antonio :)

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