This appears to be yet another architect or artist (in this case) indulging in the most self-indulgent type of superficial virtue-signalling common in our contemporary culture, our narcissistic, self-indulgent, self-obsessed, me me me society. Without the lights, the glacier would look natural, raw and genuine. It is necessary to take a long-term perspective. Contemporary history and the geological time-scale are necessary reference points before any conclusions can be drawn about the present. During the Holocene optimum, there was no ice anywhere in the Northern hemisphere excepting Greenland. Northern hemisphere glaciers are no older than 4500 years (which in geological terms is nothing). There was a general retreat of the glaciers between 1820 and 1970. The fastest rate of retreat was between 1920 and 1960, prior to any influence from any CO2 increase. There is no reason, or any written law of nature why the present day ice and glacial extent should return to any previous peak extent or regression, or to the Victorian state of ice advance (ca. 1850). Today’s inter-glacial temperatures are much lower than those during the Holocene era - as substantiated by studying cores from Greenland’s ice sheet. The artist's prognostications are completely unrelated to anything Trump decides. The so-called "Paris climate agreement" is a bureaucratic farce and irrelevant to the real issues, so Trump's decision is probably a very good one - for the USA. Smog and particulate pollution is a completely different issue to CO2 and that debate. Smog is manageable. CO2 is managed by the Earth and the oceans by the natural cycle, Henry's law etc etc. Remember that sometimes Porsches in LA or smog-laden alpine valleys take in dirtier air than they emit from their exhausts. The same can not be said about the numerous polluting 2CVs driven by "greens" across France. Alpine glaciers may well disappear completely. That does not prove anything - except natural climatic variability. Horses and palm trees used to be prevalent in Northern Greenland. And as for "street art" in the Amazonian rainforest - you could not invent a better form of pollution. A bit like artist junk hanging around the Lake District and the Eden valley. Nothing beats nature - leave it alone. DC
A interesting read and view point(s). Can you explain what you mean by Holocene Optimum, and when was this - are we not in the Holocene now? Many things are a question of scale I agree, so can you give a little more context and detail on what you mean by: 'there was no ice anywhere in the Northern hemisphere excepting Greenland. Northern hemisphere glaciers are no older than 4500 years' - the ice may not be older than 4500 years, but couldn't glaciers still be present from the end of the Younger Dryas to the current day (unless it has already gone). I may have mis-read your post, but no ice present anywhere in the Northern hemisphere exc. Greenland would imply everything melted between the end of the YD and 4,500ya?
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