On Jun 23, 1:46?pm, "JimH" ask wrote:
"Chuck Gould" wrote in message

ups.com...





On Jun 22, 2:31?pm, Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:

Just got back from Alaska.

On one leg of our cruise ship vacation we motored up Endicott Arm,
(east of Juneau) and got up fairly close to the Daws glacier. (Got to
hand it to the Captain, I would never have thought anybody would
attempt to run a vessel of that size up through a snakey fjord filled
with ice bergs, but he did).

A lot of the passengers on this cruise seemed to hail from the south
and the midwest. Every time a whale would spout or somebody would spot
an eagle, a dolphin, etc there would be a chorus of oohs and aahs and
cameras would be snapping madly. (The scenery was a lot like Puget
Sound or SW BC, only a lot less populated, so it wasn't quite as
stunning or surprising for residents of the Pacific NW).

While stopped in sight of the glacier, one of the ship's Norwegian
officers gave a lecture over the PA system about glaciers. How they
form, why they're blue at the bottom, how many there are, etc.
Everybody listened with at least moderate interest until the officer
began mentioning the number of glaciers that have retreated
substantially or disappeared in Glacier National Park during the last
several years. You would have thought he had announced, "We support
Hillary for president." The crowd got pretty lippy. Comments like "Who
the hell is up on the bridge, Al Gore?" (and some worse) were
frequently heard. It was pretty obvious that the negative reaction was
*political*, not scientific.

The telling moment, for me, occured when the officer mentioned that
"as recently as 10,000 years ago much of the earth was covered by a
sheet of ice." Once person standing immediately behind me grumbled
"Not according to the Bible!", and another bystander confirmed that
sentiment by stating, "I guess it all depends on what you believe."
Indeed. As always, a solid belief or disbelief is unlikely to be
swayed by anything as trivial as actual evidence- on either side of
the question.

After returning from a cruise of the Alaska waters the last thing I would
think to post would be some political crap about global warming and
Hillary/Gore. Half of your post was devoted to that crap.

Glad to see you returned safely Chuck but get your priorities
straight......post some pics of the cruise and give us more
details.........but lay off the political stuff. ;-)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

My point was that global warming (observable via retreating glaciers
in AK and elsewhere) is supposed to be a *scientific* question and not
a political question. Both sides (as in yours as well as mine) of the
political spectrum foget that all too easily. The nay sayers often
ignore all evidence to that supports observations that the climate is
getting warmer, (and usually divert to remarks about Al Gore early
on). Those who believe the climate is getting warmer often tend to
overlook evidence that the warming may not be caused exclusively ore
even partially by nasty industrialist capitalism and excessive western
consumption.

My short story about observing the glacier from the cruise ship was
intended to illustrate how the topic becomes poliltical, not to take a
political side. Ergo my concluding comment about whether one is a
devout believer or devout disbeliever few who believe devoutly enough
at either end of the spectrum will ever be dissuaded by anything as
mundane as actual evidence.

However, as my personal bias is well known I do understand when bias
is read into something where it was never intended to be. I apologize
to any who interpreted my observations as a political remark.
Political remarks have no business in a recreational boating
newsgroup.

I have about 200 pictures to sort through. Views of glaciers, ice
bergs, and shots of Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. (Really liked
Skagway a lot). Got a funny photo series taken by somebody else from
shore as we were rafting down the Mendenhall river. I got stationed at
the bow of the inflatable raft, and the first shot shows a raft full
of people mostly smiing and laughing as we shot some class 3 rapids.
I'm looking at a huge hole dead ahead, and so am slightly concerned in
the first photo. In the second photo, everybody is wide-eyed and
laughing....everybody except me. I don't show up in the second photo-
where I am supposed to be there is this enormous wave of ice cold
water that has splashed up high enough to engulf me entirely. Even
through the full body rain suit and pfd that water was *darn cold*!
(About 35-36 degrees). The guide said that people who fall in become
hypothermic in about two minutes.
I absolutely believe that......and it's based on evidence. :-)