Conservative leader David Cameron's trip to see a melting glacier on the Norwegian island of Svalbard is reminiscent of the discredited GreenPeace stunt of 2002. Then, as now, a melting glacier was selected for the focus of attention despite the fact there are dozens of advancing glaciers on the island. Professor Ole Humlum of the Norwegian research centre on Svalbard pointed out that glaciers there typically experience a rapid advance lasting 5 to 7 years, then retreat slowly for the next 80 to 100 years; an entirely natural phenomenon.
 
ABD Environment spokesman Ben Adams explained:

"Most of the glaciers in Svalbard are of the 'surge' type. It is therefore difficult to use the front position of a single glacier as a climate indicator, because the front will shrink and retreat in periods between surges. The front position therefore gives little information on whether the ice mass is growing or shrinking. The dynamics of surging and the relationship of surging to climatic factors are poorly understood."

ABD spokesman Paul Biggs added:

"The tenuous theory of man-made global warming is obviously in serious trouble if selective evidence has to be used by misguided politicians like Cameron in order to back up his King Canute climate policies, which will simply damage economic growth, jobs and mobility without making any difference to global temperatures. The current mild warming represents a recovery from the glacial advances of the Little Ice Age, which lasted from around 1300 to 1850. Cameron should concentrate his efforts on problems that are not controlled by eruptive solar cycles, such as pensions or the NHS. Conservatives 'vote blue' to get blue, not red."