which means that, since 1997, the bacteria levels have gone down. Hmmm... does this support a natural temperature cycle supported by massive archeological studies done and evidence collected over the decades or imminent earth death through man-made global warming? Someone please tell me, was the ice age Man's fault because we were not around with our machines to warm the earth and keep half of America from being covered with ice? Shame on us. Jimbo

Brett: This is just another proof of Global Warming. Scientists don't walk around in Tibet for their health. How obvious will Global Warming have to be for Deniers to accept scientific FACT. The experts found that the bacterial abundance, lowest in 1938 and highest in 1997, increased in accordance with levels of oxygen-18, a natural, stable isotope of oxygen known to be well correlated with temperature. Usually, oxygen-18 concentration in ice will go up in warmer years.
The bacteria also increased with levels of dust in the core, scientists discovered when measuring calcium levels in visible dirty layers. The dust was likely transported onto the glacier during the spring dust storm season and trapped in ice through subsequent melting of the snow and ice.
Since 2002, Prof. Yao and his colleagues have turned to exploring the microbial community in Malan and Puruogangri Ice Cores on central Tibetan Plateau. The present study on Geladaindong Ice Core is also the first high-resolution restoration of annual abundances of trapped bacteria. KIPP
http://www.iconocast.com/B000000000000121/F9/News6.htm

Kipp Alpert
Nature Magazine
The coming decade is poised to see faster temperature rise than any decade since calculations began in 1960.
The fast warming would likely begin early in the next decade -- similar to the 2007 prediction by the Hadley Center in Science The mean North American temperature for the decade from 2005 to 2015 is projected to be slightly warmer than the actual average temperature of the decade from 1993 to 2003.
Average temperatures have gone up since 1850. You have up and downs, but the averages, in this time scale,have gone up! KIPP

Wow, you mean with warmer temperatures there was a little more bacteria? This was a huge investement for the taxpayer that funds research such as this. Guys, when the earth begins to cool (if it isn't already) and twenty years from now we are on the downside of the temperature cycle again, are any of you going to apoligize?

Reply: It's a Chinese study.

How this as an indicator of climate change:

We accurately measure the weather and aggregate those measurements over a long period of time to determine the climate.

That's all we need to do -- accurate and direct measurement.

' I did not find any information on the overall trend of bacterial concentrations during the full 70-year period, which would have been interesting to see. Brett. '

Method doesn't seem to be as straightforward as some try to suggest.

Variations of δ18Oxygen in precipitation from the Muztagata Glacier, East Pamirs

http://www.springerlink.com/content/pp121171m5572273/fulltext.pdf?page=1

They are also showing effects of altitude, and temperature or precipitation; while choice of the last depends on geographic location.

Dr. Tandong has worked with Lonnie Thompson on Tibetan glaciers for more than 2 decades.

A whole 70 years worth of data huh? Wow! Now there's some real conclusive evidence to hit those evil anti-eco skeptics with. Maybe the lawmakers can use it to bilk taxpayers out of another billion dollars to support some more junk science grants.

Kipp,

"Scientists don't walk around in Tibet for their health"

Oh Kipp how wrong you are. They go someplace because they got grant money to go there and thought the trip was worth it. Yes, it is that simple.
Years ago I knew a researcher who tried to get a grant to study why the Maui onion from Hawaii didn’t produce heartburn in the majority of folks.
He wanted to do the research in Maui so he could study the "onion" in its natural habitat. His grant request included new equipment and facilities in Maui as well as having his family moved to a house on Maui for 3 years.
He got the grant. It was for 3 years and all the needed equipment but the onions were to be flown in from Maui instead of him living there.
The drug company in Philadelphia balked because they thought it would be simpler to have bags of onions flown back to the east coast.
The grant was refused because “Who wants to work with onions for 3 years in Philly?”
That sir, is how grants are done!
This could have been a story for the Madison “Onion” except it was true.
Kipp it’s all about the money. As long as folks are willing to fund it, and somebody is willing to take the money.... “it will be done.”
....and as for why go to the Tibetan mountains??? Who knows maybe the guy likes snow, wanted to see the dalai Lama or he was just following the money!
LOL Remember, it's a real crisis if you don't get the grant, so climate crisis full speed ahead!

MAINE MAN:Wins the common sense award for 2008and9. KIPP

rd. You want to debate.Please pick one comment at a time. Nothing like a good honest WWF match!
KIPP

Yeah sure Ted.

Scientists go to college and get a degree, so that they can work in some office someplace making no money. Why do you think people go to college and choose a profession? Probably because they like what they do and they want to make money to be able to live and eat and survive and maybe have a family and enjoy the pursuit of happiness.

What's wrong with wanting to get paid to do work? What's wrong with researching something in the pursuit of knowledge and better understanding of something, anything?

Just because something doesn't agree with your perspective doesn't mean that it is wrong. So, it's the scientists fault for wanting to live in Hawaii and study the onion? How about the people that approved the grant? No fault there huh?

How about palentologists? Do they really need to dig up more dinosaur bones? Do we really need to fund that? After all the earth is only 6,000-10,000 years old. Surely studying dinosaurs is a meaningless profession and a waste of money.

Geology? HA! Another huge waste of time and money. Yet, studying geology also helps us better understand the earth system as a whole.

Seems to me that somebody thinks that climate change, AGW, or whatever you want to call it is pretty important and needs to be studied. Hence, money is made available to study it. Would you study the climate for free? Ted? Anyone?

Many people parrot on about how climate science is in it's infancy, but then in the next breath complain that scientists are only studying climate change for the money. Well duh!!

If we know so little about earth's climate, what causes it to change - and how the sun, moon, orbital variations, water vapor, cosmic rays, coal fired power plants, humans and space aliens all interact to affect the climate, then doesn't it make sense that we would SPEND MONEY to study it and doesn't it make sense that SCIENTISTS would WANT TO GET PAID, to study the climate so that we could better understand this whole mess????

I don't get what people are complaining about here. Isn't mans quest for knowledge what sets us apart from the animals?

Nathan - We elect people to office in whom we entrust the power to decide for us where and how taxpayer money is to be spent. Like it or not it is how our DEMOCRATIC system works. What do you suggest we do? Appoint Ted dictator? Stop funding all climate research? What good would that do?

On the other hand maybe we should just dig a bomb shelter and wait for the world to end.

Yeah right.

70 years of data! I agree with Joe S, what a crock! If that same study pointed out cooling tendancies it would be ripped by the Al Gore crowd. You people have such desperate hypocracy. By the way, what happened to global warming? Now the PC phrase is "climate change". Word is spreading more rapidly than stomach cancer. Your BS is finished.

I'm ready for global warming NOW! Where is it? Everything causes global warming, right? Animals, fires, smoking, growing food, earthquakes, cow farts. So, why the wait. Bring it on.

Global warming is unsientific in its findings.
Money speaks more than using the science principles in so called science facts!
All this is good for creating tax money for the goofs in Washington that have no standards in their so called service to the people.
Its now, we live and work to let them rule us on what we do, how we live and how far we can get in our ability to get ahead.