"The radiocarbon ages of tree fragments and peat discs found on proglacial forefields indicate 12 phases of glacier recessions during the Holocene. Locations an

"The radiocarbon ages of tree fragments and peat discs found on proglacial forefields indicate 12 phases of glacier recessions during the Holocene. Locations and type of occurrence of the dated samples show that trees and mires grew where glaciers exist at present and, therefore, glaciers were smaller at that time. ... their pattern changed from long recessions (/500 yr) interrupted by short advances (B/200 yr) during the early Holocene to the opposite pattern with relatively short recessions and prolonged advances during the late Holocene (after 3.3 cal. kyr BP). It is important to recognize that this natural variability of glacier extent, which occurs on a centennial timescale, is superimposed on a much longer term, multimillennial-scale trend towards increased glacier extent culminating in the ‘Little Ice Age’." http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.483.4597&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.483... Glaciers in the alps have been advancing and receding for the last 10,000 years, with the last few thousand years primarily advancing through the little ice age. They are now retreating.