What a snow job: Glacier Park changing signs warning of glacier meltdown

Lake McDonald in Montana's Glacier National Park (Pixabay)

More than a decade ago, officials at Glacier National Park in Montana put up signs warning visitors that the glaciers they came to see would be gone by 2020.

They they're still there, so the signs are being changed.

But don't think the doomsayers are done.

"In several decades they will be mostly gone," Dan Fagre, a scientist who worked on a climate study, said as recently as 2017.

"They will grow so small they will disappear."

CNN reports the signs are being modified for now.

"The signs at Glacier National Park warning that its signature glaciers would be gone by 2020 are being changed. They were added more than a decade ago to reflect climate change forecasts at the time by the US Geological Survey, a park spokeswoman says," CNN said on Twitter.

The signs at Glacier National Park warning that its signature glaciers would be gone by 2020 are being changed. They were added more than a decade ago to reflect climate change forecasts at the time by the US Geological Survey, a park spokeswoman says. https://t.co/5NkzFc7xJR

— CNN (@CNN) January 8, 2020

"The signs in the Montana park were added more than a decade ago to reflect climate change forecasts at the time by the US Geological Survey," according to park spokeswoman Gina Kurzmen, the network said.

"In 2017, the park was told by the agency that the complete melting off of the glaciers was no longer expected to take place so quickly due to changes in the forecast model, Kurzmen said. But tight maintenance budgets made it impossible for the park to immediately change the signs. The most prominent placards, at St. Mary's Visitor Center, were changed last year. Kurzmen says that park is still waiting for budget authorization to update signs at two other locations," the report said.

The warning, however, will be replaced by another that is much more nebulous, the report said.

The signs will say: "When they will completely disappear depends on how and when we act. One thing is consistent: the glaciers in the park are shrinking."

Twitter news aggregator Twitchy pointed out "The settled science wasn't so settled after all."

Twitter user Physics Geek wrote: "Wait wait wait a second. You mean the climate change forecasts from only 10 years ago were abysmally wrong, much like the ones from 30+ years ago? Well, now I'm totally convinced that keeping my house at 70F is killing the planet in the next 12 months."

Wait wait wait a second. You mean the climate change forecasts from only 10 years ago were abysmally wrong, much like the ones from 30+ years ago? Well, now I'm totally convinced that keeping my house at 70F is killing the planet in the next 12 months. https://t.co/SoFfu0zq63

— Physics Geek (@physicsgeek) January 8, 2020

One Twitter user pointed out a Grist claim just nine years ago that poked fun at those who doubt the validity of climate alarmism.

The report said, "In the 19th century, there were 150 glaciers in Glacier National Park, and now there are just 25. By 2020, even those will be gone, says Daniel Fagre, coordinator of climate change and glacial geology studies in the park.

"In order to see some of the last glaciers left in the lower 48 before they're gone forever, Stephen P. Nash of The New York Times took to the trails of Glacier National Park, where he had hilarious encounters with the locals."

Nash reported: "I responded [to a group of hikers coming up the trail] in superlatives, and asked whether folks here talk much about what’s happening with the glaciers. There was a pause and the temperature seemed to decline a degree or two. 'God will take care of everything we need,' one said. 'I don’t think man has anything to do with that,' her friend put in."

Twitter user Rod said to CNN, "Keep moving the goal posts and eventually get it right."

Another Twitter user said: "That is a little bit awkward. Just make it 2030 and pretend you always meant that. That's the climate change prediction tradition."