Day: January 13, 2026

Melting ice reveals millennia-old forest buried in the Rocky Mountains

A remarkable discovery in the Rocky Mountains has captured attention worldwide: As alpine ice patches melt due to rising temperatures, researchers have uncovered the remarkably preserved remains of a whitebark pine forest that dates back nearly 6,000 years.
This ancient forest was found on the Beartooth Plateau in northwest Wyoming, part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The trees are located about 180 meters (around 600 feet) above the current tree line, at an elevation of roughly 3,091 meters (10,141 feet).

A barren landscape featuring lifeless soil and dry logs against a clear blue sky with a few clouds.

A remarkable discovery in the Rocky Mountains has captured attention worldwide: As alpine ice patches melt due to rising temperatures, researchers have uncovered the remarkably preserved remains of a whitebark pine forest that dates back nearly 6,000 years.

This ancient forest was found on the Beartooth Plateau in northwest Wyoming, part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The trees are located about 180 meters (around 600 feet) above the current tree line, at an elevation of roughly 3,091 meters (10,141 feet).

A rocky shoreline with a large piece of driftwood in the foreground, glacial remnants and barren landscape in the background under a cloudy sky.

The New Scientist reported:

Trees dating back almost 6000 years have come to scientists’ attention due to ice melting in the Rocky Mountains, offering a “time capsule” into the past

A 5900-year-old whitebark pine forest has been discovered due to the melting of alpine ice in the Rocky mountains. Scientists found more than 30 trees approximately 3100 metres above sea level – 180 metres higher than the present tree line – while carrying out an archaeological survey on the Beartooth plateau in Wyoming.

This “offers us a window into past conditions at high elevations”, says Cathy Whitlock at Montana State University. Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) doesn’t grow at this elevation now, so these ones had to grow at a time when the climate was warmer, she says.

Journal reference:

PNAS DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2412162121

Climate-driven changes in high-elevation forest distribution and reductions in snow and ice cover have major implications for ecosystems and global water security. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem of the Rocky Mountains (United States), recent melting of ahigh-elevation (3,091 m asl) ice patch exposed a mature stand of whitebark pine (Pinusalbicaulis) trees, located ~180 m in elevation above modern tree line, that date to themid-Holocene (c. 5,950 to 5,440 cal y BP). Here, we used this subfossil wood record to develop tree-ring-based temperature estimates for the upper-elevation climate conditions that resulted in ancient forest establishment and growth and the subsequent regional ice-patch growth and downslope shift of tree line. Results suggest that mid-Holoceneforest establishment and growth occurred under warm-season (May-Oct) mean temperatures of 6.2 °C (±0.2 °C), until a multi century cooling anomaly suppressed temperatures below 5.8 °C, resulting in stand mortality by c. 5,440 y BP. Transient climate model simulations indicate that regional cooling was driven by changes in summer insolation and Northern Hemisphere volcanism. The initial cooling event was followed centuries later (c. 5,100 y BP) by sustained Icelandic volcanic eruptions that forced a centennial-scale1.0 °C summer cooling anomaly and led to rapid ice-patch growth and preservation of the trees. With recent warming (c. 2000–2020 CE), warm-season temperatures now equal and will soon exceed those of the mid-Holocene period of high tree line. It is likely that perennial ice cover will again disappear from the region, and tree line may expand upslope so long as plant-available moisture and disturbance are not limiting.

pederson-et-al-2024-dynamic-treeline-and-cryosphere-response-to-pronounced-mid-holocene-climatic-variability-in-the-usHerunterladen

New Study: Greenland Was 3-7°C Warmer and Far Less Glaciated Than Today 6000-8000 Years Ago

Approximately 6000-8000 years ago, or when atmospheric CO2 was alleged to be ~260 ppm, PD had deglaciated completely, exposing the soil to sunlight.

A close-up view of a glacier with blue ice formations, surrounded by rocky terrain and some vegetation in the foreground.

From No Trick Zone

By Kenneth Richard

A panoramic view of a glacier descending from the mountains, with rugged terrain and a river at its base, under partly cloudy skies.

A large portion of the Greenland ice sheet that is today over 500 m thick did not exist during the Early to Mid Holocene.

Prudhoe Dome (PD), a 2500 km² section of northwestern Greenland’s ice sheet (GIS), is today 500 to 600 m thick (Walcott-George et al., 2026).

Approximately 6000-8000 years ago, or when atmospheric CO2 was alleged to be ~260 ppm, PD had deglaciated completely, exposing the soil to sunlight.

The primary mechanism for the PD deglaciation was the estimated 3-7°C warmer-than-present regional temperatures. This warming and the consequent ice cap minima was said to be  “Arctic-wide”.

Starting ~4000 years ago the GIS gradually began thickening until it recently reached its modern glaciated state, with glaciation peaking in the 1800s.

Scientific article discussing the deglaciation of the Prudhoe Dome in northwestern Greenland in response to Holocene warming, featuring maps, graphs, and data on ice cap regrowth and historical climate conditions.
Image Source: Walcott-George et al., 2026

Aerial view of a large glacier with ice formations and a turquoise glacial lake surrounded by rocky terrain and mountains under a cloudy sky.

Victory as Trump withdraws America from UN climate framework & IPCC!

Our long national nightmare of UN bureaucracies exploiting global warming as pretext for forever-increasing taxation, spending, redistribution, and control over Americans is winding down at last.

A man in a suit gestures while speaking at a podium during a speech, with a marbled green backdrop.

From CFACT

By Craig Rucker

Text design featuring the words 'Climate Victory' with a prominent 'V' against a dramatic cloud background.

We’re out!

Our long national nightmare of UN bureaucracies exploiting global warming as pretext for forever-increasing taxation, spending, redistribution, and control over Americans is winding down at last.

On January 7, President Trump issued a presidential order withdrawing the U.S. from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). America is also breaking free from a stinking pile of bureaucracies determined to be wasteful, ineffective, and harmful international organizations by the U.S. Department of State.

CFACT has been there for the entire wild ride. CFACT was there when the beast was born in 1992 at the UN’s Rio Earth Summit. We were there in 1997 when the UN adopted the Kyoto Protocol. We were there in 2009 for COP15 in Copenhagen, where the UN threw in everything it had, yet failed. CFACT was there in 2015 when Obama dropped America’s defenses and dragged us into the UN’s disastrous Paris Climate Agreement.

CFACT served as your eyes, ears, and voice at the most severe climate policy flashpoints and the seemingly interminable UN climate conferences in between and since.

For over three decades, CFACT has worked tirelessly to debunk climate exaggerations on everything from weather to sea level to polar bears. (The polar bears, by the way, took no notice of the scare, feasted on fish and seals, and thrived the entire time.)

CFACT laid out the cold hard facts on climate “solutions” such as intermittent, inefficient wind turbines, solar panels, and short-range electric vehicles that solved nothing, while enriching a well-connected few.

When climate computer models projected a warmer planet than real-world measurements revealed, CFACT called them on it and made sure you knew.

Never again dare we permit ruinously expensive public policy be made while evading genuine, clear-eyed cost-benefit analysis.

Marc Morano, editor of CFACT’s Climate Depot, said that President Trump “unleashed a long overdue POLITICAL CLIMATE EARTHQUAKE, by formally withdrawing the USA from the UN climate scam! Our long national nightmare began 36 years ago when President George H.W. Bush got the USA into this whole UN climate mess by signing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, aka, the Rio Earth Summit treaty. This treaty has served as the underlying basis for all of the climate nonsense foisted on the U.S. these many years.”

Marc compared Trump’s withdrawals on Fox and Friends to Jenga blocks. “Trump has pulled out the base of the blocks, and it’s collapsing,” moving the U.S. beyond climate policy “yin-yang.”

Team Climate, as you may have surmised, is apoplectic:

  • “By withdrawing from the IPCC, UNFCCC, and the other vital international partnerships, the Trump Administration is undoing decades of hard-won diplomacy, attempting to undermine climate science, and sowing distrust around the world.” –  Al Gore
  • “This is a colossal own goal for the United States. It will hurt their economy and their citizens. The science is clear: Climate change is a threat multiplier that affects every aspect of society, from health to security to prosperity.” – Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UNFCCC.
  • “As they take a machete to international laws, Trump’s withdrawal from dozens of conventions, treaties, & organizations should surprise no one. It’s a direct assault on global climate action.” – Friends of the Earth
  • “The U.S. will miss out on the global clean energy boom, costing jobs and economic growth.” – Ani Dasgupta, World Resources Institute CEO.
  • “Letting this lawless move stand could shut the U.S. out of climate diplomacy forever.” – Jean Su, Center for Biological Diversity
  • “This withdrawal from the UNFCCC and other bodies is a betrayal of future generations. President Trump claims these organizations promote ‘radical climate policies,’ but they’re essential for survival.” – 350
  • “The United States’ withdrawal from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will harm decades of progress on the climate crisis, threaten American jobs, and reduce economic opportunities as other countries increasingly look elsewhere for clean energy technologies and climate solutions.” – National Wildlife Federation

Nothing could be a greater tell of the true nature of the feckless, shameless climate campaign than that domestic and international Socialists adopted it as their own. The hard-Left crowd has never been right about anything, yet the harm they have done over the years can be measured in abandoned freedoms, squandered prosperity, human suffering, and countless lost lives.

Let us never again let anyone near the levers of power who expects us to believe that Marxist control of the means of production is an effective means for fine-tuning the thermostat of the Earth.

Though this is a momentous day, don’t expect Team Climate to graciously accept defeat and depart the field.

The media is not through amplifying the extreme pronouncements of global warming pressure groups without vetting.

The climate Left is already lying in wait for the chance to reverse President Trump’s reforms.

However, it took a two-thirds vote of the U.S. Senate to ratify America’s membership in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It only took a bold presidential action to withdraw. A future president will need a fresh two-thirds vote to drag America back in. That is a tall order indeed.

CFACT will stand guard.

Let’s Get Back to Building in America

We all know the value of affordable and reliable energy. From powering homes and businesses to supporting hundreds of thousands of good jobs for Ohioans, energy means jobs, growth, and opportunity. But demand for energy is surging.

American flag waving in front of colorful fireworks display at night

From Watts Up With That?

By Chris Zeigler

We all know the value of affordable and reliable energy. From powering homes and businesses to supporting hundreds of thousands of good jobs for Ohioans, energy means jobs, growth, and opportunity. But demand for energy is surging.

America’s electricity demand is projected to increase 35 to 50% by 2040, driven in large part by new AI data centers.

In the PJM Interconnection, which includes Ohio, 95% of new power demand through 2030 is expected to come from data centers, further straining a system that’s slow to bring new power sources online.

According to a report by the Ohio Business Roundtable, Ohio’s regional energy needs could surge 50% in nine years with the buildout of new data centers.

A broken federal permitting system

The rapid rise of technology and the race for America’s future brings new urgency to fixing a broken, inefficient permitting system where projects are often stuck in red tape and buried in endless reviews, thus blocking the critical infrastructure needed to keep pace with demand.

Infrastructure projects of all kinds – pipelines, power plants, transmission lines – even roads and bridges – face a myriad of federal approvals under a maze of outdated laws and regulations. Opponents regularly weaponize statutes like the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA) to block development at every stage of permitting.

In natural gas- and oil-rich Ohio and the Appalachian region, more takeaway capacity, including pipelines, is needed to move energy from the drilling field to the refinery and then to consumers.

Construction on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, for example, began in 2018, but after nearly six years of lawsuits and delays, it took an act of Congress to finish.

And to the north in Michigan, the shovel-ready Great Lakes Tunnel project is awaiting permits, which will house a dual oil and natural gas liquids pipeline that supplies regional refineries and serves most of the state’s propane needs. 

Other major pipelines projects were cancelled after years of permitting delays and court challenges.

When infrastructure lags behind demand, supply tightens. Building new infrastructure helps energy flow faster to consumers and could help keep costs affordable.

While the Trump administration and legislative leaders in Ohio have taken steps to stop harmful mandates and restrictive energy policies to help bolster American energy dominance, congressional action on permitting reform is urgently needed to unlock America’s potential and get back to building. Enacting commonsense deadlines and predictable permitting processes can help ensure projects are built in years, not decades.

Three key areas must be addressed: 1) set deadlines and enforce them, 2) stop lawsuits and start building and 3) enforce targeted reviews and swift decisions.

Ohio stands ready to build

Energy-rich Ohio can benefit from permitting reform being passed into law at the federal level. Sitting atop the Utica shale and the Marcellus, the largest natural gas formation in the U.S., Ohio is a leading natural gas and oil producer. In 2023, Ohio was the largest oil producer east of the Mississippi River and produced about 13 times more natural gas compared to 2013.

Ohio has the natural resources and skilled workforce to advance U.S. energy dominance and build a stronger economy. Permitting reform can help unleash Ohio energy to support innovation while creating good jobs and helping to keep energy costs affordable for consumers.

Without permit reform, Ohioans could face energy shortages, much like they do in California and New England, where policy roadblocks restrict energy access and infrastructure projects.

Ohioans shouldn’t have to pay the price for permitting delays, with fewer reliable energy options, because Washington can’t fix a broken permitting system. This doesn’t mean cutting corners on safety or the environment – it means using common sense, establishing clear deadlines and keeping critical projects moving forward – not trapped in red tape and litigation.

Congress must act on durable reforms that help ensure Americans have access to affordable, reliable and secure energy for decades to come while helping to power U.S. technology and innovation.

It’s time to fix permitting and get back to building – in Ohio, and across America.

Chris Zeigler is the executive director of American Petroleum Institute Ohio based in Columbus.

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.