factbat.com

In an article by Reuters reporter Tim Cocks, and posted on Yahoo News, titled “Africa’s lake Tanganyika warming fast, life dying” the sensationalists are once again seeking to bolster the audacious claim that anthropogenic Global Warming is more than the hoax it has been proven to be.

Now they are claiming that Lake Tanganyika, in East Africa, is suffering various maladies and threats to wildlife due to damaging levels of Green House Gases -- the main proponents alleged to be causing destructive climate change on the planet -- concordant with the theory that the planet is warming as a result of human activity.

However, the article fails to take into account many of the contradictory facts. Such as, their do not appear to be any other large bodies of water experiencing the identical effects, even ones near this geographical location. Or that the lake is one of the planet’s deepest fresh water bodies, and is situated within a volcanically volatile area. Or that its extreme depths and sedentary state contribute greatly to its inability to circulate water mass. Or that over-fishing, geological disturbances, water diversion and environmental factors are some of the main contributors to the adverse effects to Tanganyika, as highlighted by the article.

Furthermore, the author cites some “scientific paper” that alleges that Tanganyika has heated up sharply over the past 90 years, and it now warmer than at any time in the last 1,500 years.

The article goes on to state that “lead scientist on the project Jessica Tierney told Reuters the sharp rise in temperature coincided with rises in human emissions of Greenhouse Gasses seen in this past century, so the study added to evidence that emissions are warming the planet.” Oh, how nice, kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately there is no conclusive data to support these claims by the alleged scientist.

The article goes on to use volatile terms such as “INTENSE WARMING” (in all capitals). It also claims that the oceans, seas and lakes all absorb a huge amount of heat.

However, bodies of water are actually more effective at cooling the planet’s atmosphere than absorbing heat generated by it, and a more logical area of research would be that which sought to investigate how decreasing water resources, and availability, could affect global temperature. But then it is more difficult to devise strategies aimed at conserving water that would also generate large sums of revenue. Thus nobody is likely to see any such study on the front page any time soon.

The article also claims that “…Tanganyika has become warmer, increasingly stratified and less productive over the past 90 years” as quoted by the scientific paper. But there is not much data to support this claim either, since commercial fishing did not actually begin to proliferate in the region until the mid 1950’s. Whatever local fishing, or its sentiments, that did occur prior to this are not well documented, and thus cannot be relied upon for conclusive scientific papers expecting the level of influence this one is attempting to generate.

Another rather dubious assessment of by the “scientists” is that they are showing the alleged trend of Global Warming -- that by the way, is in complete contrast to exceedingly concrete proof that the planet is experiencing a cooling phase -- is affecting remote places in the tropics “in a very sever way,” as quoted by Tierney.

This assessment is actually more exculpatory to the argument presented by those who claim that Global Warming is a hoax. The fact is that if Global Warming were caused by human activity, then it would only influence temperatures in variances that reflected the atmospheric extremes in a particular region.

This means that those areas which are emitting the most Greenhouse Gasses, or which find themselves a focal point for the collection of such gasses, should be those most affected. However, Africa is not an area where such gasses are emitted in high concentrations, or where they would naturally collect, since CO2 generally gravitates away from heat. It would stand to reason that CO2 would concentrate in those areas which were most compatible with its basic propensity to fall within the atmosphere, and that would be colder regions. Also, one cannot ignore the likelihood that the Earth’s magnetic flux has some influence on the activities of CO2.

Tierney also goes on to state that “life has been harmed because in a lake as deep as Tanganyika, the nutrients form at the bottom but the algae needed to make use of them lives at the top.”

This statement makes very little sense at all, since most of the lake is naturally warm, and lakes do not typically mix waters on a large scale since they are smaller, land-locked bodies of water that are not greatly affected by planetary gravity and movement. As far as nutrients being unavailable to algae due to its being at the bottom of the lake, this also does not make much sense in light of the fact that the nutrients she is talking about are not propagated throughout the lake simply by the movements of water generated by temperature variations. Most nutrients are passed throughout various placid aquatic habitats by the activities of the creatures that call them home. Take away these creatures, and the balance it upset.

She also claims that “Higher temperatures mean less mixing of waters at the top and bottom, that’s why a warmer lake means less life.” However, as one will note later in the article, lake Malawi does not seem to have any problems of this nature. On the contrary, there are many extremely warm bodies of water, in various tropical and arid regions, which are literally teeming with life. Furthermore, there are various species of life which exist rather amiably in temperatures of over 400 degrees Fahrenheit in the deep ocean where they thrive in volcanic vents on the sea floor.

Strangely enough, the article actually squeaks out a small statement at the end of the article that completely discredits almost the entire piece when it say’s “But the paper admits that other factors, like over-fishing, may be doing more harm than any warming.”

But enough of the conjecture, here are some solid facts on the matter.

Lake Tanganyika is the third largest freshwater lake in the world, and the second deepest. Only Lake Baikal, in Siberia is deeper. It is bordered by Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia. Its waters flow, by way of the Lukuga River, into the Congo River system which eventually empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

Because of the lake’s extreme depths, a feature caused by its proximity within the Western Rift, the water at the bottom is anoxic, or “fossil water”, which means that it lacks available oxygen. This is naturally influenced by the tropical atmosphere in the region, and is alleged to prevent ‘turnover’ of water-masses. However, this phenomenon does not always occur in every case, and mixing of water masses is affected by many other atmospheric and environmental activities such as wind, barometric pressure and precipitation.

In complete contrast to this fact, the article claims that the lack of oxygen at Tanganyika’s lower depths is a direct result of Global Warming that is heating its surface area, and thereby preventing the natural cycles of disbursement of water throughout the lake, which are typically believed to be generated by ambient temperature differences at various depths.

The author appears to be eluding to the aquatic activity known as up-welling or down-welling. However, this phenomenon is only known to occur to any significant degree in the planet’s oceans, and is greatly affected by strong ocean currents and tidal fluctuations which do not exist in fresh water lakes and other intercontinental waters. There are some facsimiles of tidal movement in the larger lakes, but these are extremely small, and are merely created by changing weather patterns, rather than the overall effect of the Earth-Moon orbital relation.

Tanganyika has a surface elevation of 2,563 ft. It is categorized as a “rift lake”, and is the largest of its kind in Africa. This means that it was formed as a result of subsidence related movement on faults within a rift zone, an area of extensional tectonics in the continental crust (reference “Rift lake” Wikipedia.com). It is 673 kilometers long in a general north-south direction, and averages 50 kilometers in width. Its average depth is 570 meters (1,870 ft), with a maximum depth of 1,470 meters (4,820 ft). It holds approximately 4500 cubic miles of water and has an average surface temperature of 25 degrees Celsius, with a moderately alkaline pH that averages approximately 8.4.

At the bottom of this massive body of water, there is an estimated 4,500 meters of sediment which covers the rock floor, as a result of constant contributions from the quickly eroding highlands where three main rivers carry it into the lake -- the Ruzizi, Kalambo, and Malagarasi.

As far as the assertion that Greenhouse Gasses are adversely affecting the equilibrium of Tanganyika, and are the primary cause of decreasing fish populations and other aquatic species that call its waters home, there is no conclusive evidence whatsoever to even surmise such a position, let alone prove it. There has been no evidence that its alkalinity has significantly reduced in any way, and this is a precursor that so many scientists claim is the main injury to bodies of water allegedly adversely affected by CO2 emissions.

What is a likely the primary factor causing decreased fish populations in Tanganyika are the over 1,000,000 people living around the lake who get 25-40% of their daily protein from fish caught there, and the over 100,000 people directly involved in the operation of fisheries from almost 800 sites serving the 10 million people who live in that basin.

Furthermore, the main biomass of fish is found in the pelagic zone (open waters) and consists primarily of six species: two species of Tanganyika sardine and four species of predatory lates (predatory fish related to the Nile perch, which are known to have devastated Lake Victoria’s cichlids). What is most likely is that over-fishing has directly decreased fish populations, and also indirectly affect the natural order of the food chain that many of the species rely upon, and thus upset the balance between predator and prey. This creates a secondary resource crisis that first affects the fish, and then the humans that rely on them for food and jobs, since the predator population is decreased, or forced to adapt its diet, in direct proportion to the lack of available food. As the effects of this secondary impact begin to increase, it infringes on other less suspecting resources such as aquatic propensities, plant life, and available habitats.

Commercial fishing of Tanganyika has been a staple and booming business throughout East Africa since the 1950’s, and is well documented to have had a major impact on the pelagic fish species. Many industrial fisheries created during the 1980’s boom have since collapsed, but there is no evidence to support that it was due to Global Warming.

Lake Tanganyika is also home to various species of endemic cichlid fishes which are highly sought after for their bright color, and support a burgeoning market which supply’s a vast portion of popular aquarium fish to many regions.

The lake is also home to many endemic species of invertebrates such as mollusks, crabs, shrimps, copepods, jellyfishes and leeches, among others.

What is striking, is that the article say’s noting about the fact that many scientists have claimed in major main stream media outlets (ie, “Acid Oceans; Climate Changes Evil Twin” released by Associated Press) that excess CO2 in the atmosphere, and its expected contribution to increased levels in the water due to carbon sink activities, are debasing (acidifying) the planet’s oceans and other large bodies of water, and damaging the shells of such invertebrates. The article also conveniently neglects to mention any evidence that this phenomenon may be occurring in Tanganyika.

What is notable, is the that Tanganyika has been a focal point of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) massive Water and Nature initiative since 2004, where the United States has invested more than $27 million into attempting to monitor the resources and state of the lake, and create a bench mark for acceptable levels of sediments, pollution, and overall water quality, to be governed by a lake basin management authority established by the IUCN.

The Tanganyika project was initially slated to be a five year engagement, and is therefore up for review in 2010. When one considers the state of the nation’s economy, it is easy to assume that the IUCN, and its counterparts, are seeking to continue the project -- and its proposed establishment of regulatory bureaucracies -- by attempting to tap into the revenues which are expected to be generated by the Global Warming money train, and resulting cap and trade legislation so many politicians are getting prepared to force through.

This is likely a necessary strategy proposed as an alternate source to government funding, since the political atmosphere is currently, at best, inhospitable to further financing of these types of foreign projects, in light of huge budget shortfalls across the board in America. Furthermore, in this current global economic decline, congress would likely not be willing to chance further financing of the project with tax dollars, as they prepare for the growing political storm that is sure to blow in this November.

If it is found that over-fishing and local contamination alone are the cause of the alleged degradation of Tanganyika’s aquatic environment, then it will require various local resources and investments by East Africa which would, of course, affect proposed profit margins for the project creators, as well as seats on any board of directors. This proposed sharing of the bureaucracy, and its revenue generating capacities, certainly would not be a first move by those who are invested in the project, and so comes the scare tactics and demand for ecologic ransom from an already languishing private sector.

This presents as quite an incentive for the IUCN to enlist the assistance of dubious scientists who will back a finding of environmental hazard, for which the preventing of such, can then be financed by expected revenues that many governments intend to strong-arm from the private sectors of any nation willing to participate in the charade of anthropogenic Global Warming; a bombastically publicized lie by Al Gore and his discredited fantasy crockumentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”

However, I am in favor of Gore making more nature films. But only if they are of an up-close and personal interview with the infamous man-eating crocodile Gustave, which is known to inhabit the lake and has killed many humans over the years.

There is every reason to believe that if, and only if, the temperature of Tanganyika is actually increasing, like the article claims, then it could easily be as a result of increased geothermal activity beneath the floor of the lake. The region that it inhabits is well known to be an active area of plate shifts that appear to be expanding the basin that creates Tanganyika.

Tanganyika is part of the Great Rift Valley, where the divergent plate boundary -- created by the Nubian and Somali plate -- which extends from the Afar Triple Junction southward across East Africa, is in the process of splitting the African Plate into two separate plates.

It should also be noted that the Dead Sea is in close proximity to Tanganyika, and was dead long before any chance of anthropogenic activities could have affected it in any manner whatsoever.

Lake Malawi, another of Africa’s great lakes and third largest, is situated south of Tanganyika, and between Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the second deepest lake in Africa, and its tropical waters are reportedly the habitat to more species of fish than any other body of water on Earth.

What is remarkable is that Malawi’s average temperature ranges between 75 and 84 degrees Fahrenheit, with a deep water temperature of 72 degrees year around. However, the article claiming that Global Warming is destroying the water chemistry of Tanganyika mentions nothing about this conflicting data. And although preservation and environmental factors are a critical area of research in preventing the destabilization of the world’s resources, over-fishing and water pollution still does not appear to have created an unmanageable crisis in Malawi as it has in Tanganyika.

Many of the facts concerning the dimensions of Lake Tanganyika were taken from the Wikipedia website article on the region.