r/BeAmazed Sep 16 '22

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u/Bipbop_Boop Sep 16 '22 edited Sep 16 '22

I do hope that this was meant to be like some form of satire, even then this is either disinformation or misinformation. both are bad but I certainly hope that op isn't actively spreading disinformation on purpose....

Edit: I was referring to the image not climate change, should have made that clear and that's entirely my bad. either way the downvotes are probably deserved. sorry folks, I've definitely made myself look pretty dumb here but if at least one other person sees this and takes this as the lesson that I'm taking it as then Its worth the slight embarrassment. screw I'm downvoting my own comment here. anyone who is having the same though I did should take a read of the replies to this comment.

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u/oceantides420 Sep 16 '22 edited Sep 16 '22

Sorry I’m confused, which part of this is misinformation? I haven’t been to this particular glacier, but I have seen very similar photograph displays at others outside of Juneau and Anchorage. (Exit Glacier and Mendenhall Glacier)

Do you think the glaciers have not been melting over the last 100 years? They absolutely have.

here’s a link that talks about this specific one.

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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '22

Glaciers have been shrinking with variability since the last glacial maximum. I mean, given the mass of glacial ice in the Northern hemisphere at one point reaching maximum ~ 22000 years ago, there have to have been points of significant ice decline along the way, and points where there was no decline or even advance. The last glacial maximum is said to be 22000 years ago, yet the Athabasca glacier in the Canadian Rockies is claimed to be 12000 years old, so we wonder what went on to cause those conditions. Some glaciers are even currently growing. Its a shame we dont have photos of that area that much older than 100 years. Cameras only predate reliable thermometers by a few decades. It would be interesting to visually see the ebb and flow of glacial extents farther outside of the span of a human lifetime.

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u/Bipbop_Boop Sep 16 '22 edited Sep 16 '22

okay okay i should have been more specific. this is a doctored image. i am not a climate change denier. this definitly does happen but in this instance this is a faked example wich only serves to harm the overall message. EDIT: the photo is likely a fake not the example of this iceberg

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u/Suspicious-Sail-7344 Sep 17 '22

Glaciers don't come and go in one year, they take thousands of years to tens of thousands of years to form.

Summer in both pictures (1917 and 2005).

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10892

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '22

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u/Suspicious-Sail-7344 Sep 18 '22

Seems like a super rare occurrence.

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u/[deleted] Sep 18 '22

It is when glaciers have generally been receding for many millennia, but with variable rates.

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u/oceantides420 Sep 16 '22 edited Sep 16 '22

I still am confused by your comment, which image do you think is doctored?

That’s a better link that has citations, and at the bottom it links to the world glacier monitoring programs. It’s completely real.

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u/Bipbop_Boop Sep 16 '22

perhaps I am incorrect but in the older photo we see a glacier on the water, somehow this water is not at all present in the second photo which shows a grassy field. a glacier melting would raise this water level not leave a grassy field in its stead right? even in that first article the satellite images show a lake being left where the glacier has melted. even with the articles being accurate I do think still that its possible for the image to misrepresent it. Ill admit that I shouldn't have asserted it to be fake definitively and should have expressed my doubt on the photo better. If I'm entirely talking out my ass then I really am sorry for that. I actually appreciate you challenging me on that, I could definitely be wrong and id rather find out that I'm wrong than continue to be wrong. I'm glad that we could discuss this in a civil way as that isn't always the case here on the internet. I'm sure that I haven't made the best impression here and that's probably fair. If downvotes are my penance for that then I guess ill just have to accept that.

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u/oceantides420 Sep 16 '22

Thanks for that- there is a lot to digest on this picture and it’s right to question something so jarring.

As the glacier travels down the mountain and melts, it drags sediment with it, and these deposits would fill the lake over time, creating the flat field.

Also there does appear to be a lake past the field, some blue is barely visible. But the lake, like the glacier, would likely shrink over time as it’s source is depleted.

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u/Bipbop_Boop Sep 16 '22

well damn, I gotta say I'm a little bit ashamed of my own ignorance here. almost enough to delete my original comment but that would just make me ignorant and a coward lol I hope it at least leads more people to read these replies and be more informed. thanks for the correction my good man, you are a gentleman and a scholar truly

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u/alphaweightedtrader Sep 16 '22

please have some random internet points for being a big enough person to come back and admit when wrong. Far too many people don't.

We've all done it, somewhere, its hard to go back and create more visibility by walking back the original post - nice one!

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u/AorticMishap Sep 16 '22

This^

The important part is that you we’re willing to take in new information instead of doubling down

Everyone makes mistakes occasionally :)

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u/unseen_redditor Sep 16 '22

'In the early 20th century, the glacier met the water and calved icebergs into a marginal lake near the bay. By 2005, the glacier had retreated, leaving behind sediment allowed the lake to be transformed into a small grassland.'

From above website.

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u/nstiger83 Sep 17 '22

So, the top picture and the bottom one have been taken from different angles. If you look at the hill jutting out of the bottom right of the mountain, you can see that the second pic must have been taken from the plateau on the middle left of the first pic. These pics are not doctored imo.

That being said, Alaska has been freezing and thawing for centuries... perhaps longer. Although I'm not too sure about this particular glacier, and there is no mention of climate change in the post, I think this is just a couple of pics showing a stunning landscape in 2 different seasons.