Mount Shasta in northern California circa 1984.

14,000 foot Mount Shasta, the southern most volcano in the Cascade Range and located in northern California is actually seeing its glaciers expand due to changing weather patterns over the Pacific Ocean. A majority of the mountains in the western U.S. and Canada are seeing a steady retreat and Shasta's glaciers are the only one's in the U.S. that scientists have identified as getting larger.

A wetter pattern (supposedly due to warmer Pacific waters, but not specified) since the end of a drought early in the 20th century has led to a 17% increase in precipitation on Mount Shasta over the last 110 years, leading to more snowfall which has built up the glaciers on Shasta.

Unlike Shasta, glaciers in the Sierra Mountains to the south have been retreating since they have not been able to overcome the 1.8 degree F. increase in temperature over the last century according to the USA Today article.

Mount Shasta from above in 2005.

According to Lonnie Thompson, a glacier expert from Ohio State, climate change is causing roughly 90% of the worlds mountain glaciers to shrink.

Here is a high resolution visible satellite image from earlier yesterday centered on northern California. The yellow arrow points to the tiny white spot which is Mount Shasta. You can also see a lot of hazy, wispy clouds across northern California and a lot of that is the smoke from the fires.

Well, maybe not a thousand in this case, but......

I have previously blogged about cows and the methane they produce, so there is not much more to say about it from my standpoint. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and some studies have shown that cows are contributing a significant amount of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. This particular article from the Telegraph notes that feeding cows clover and alfalfa instead of grains reduces their methane emissions by 25%.

Anyway, when I saw this picture from the Telegraph article it was tough not to laugh. I feel bad for that cow. How would you like to carry a container of your foul fart gas on your back? It might make a pretty good self-defense weapon though.