Sea ice at Antarctica is up over 43% since 1980 and we hear nothing in the news, yet Arctic ice is down less than 7% and they're all over it! We've been waiting for the main stream media to pick up on the increase of Antarctic ice but so far they're been totally absent. Guess its doesn't fit the plan.
From the National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado
Still no sign of the national media on the extraordinary growth of sea ice at the antarctic. They sure haven't missed a chance to point out the relatively small loss of ice at the arctic. Did did it ever occur to them that perhaps there is a natural process at work that has shifted ice growth from one pole to the other? Do they not want to admit that there are things man doesn't yet understand about how this planet works?
Remember that some of the “models” predicted increased antarctic ice, but they predicted increased “interior ice” due to increased snow fall. None of the models predicted increased sea ice around the antarctic. Yet that is what we have, and not just a little increase but a 43% increase since 1980!. This is highly significant yet hardly anyone in the main stream media (MSM) is talking about it.
Sea ice is much different than interior ice. Some of the models predicted increased ice over the interior of antarctic. If you've ever lived in the extreme cold temperature regions you already understand this. When it gets very cold the air become drier and it snows less, as the temperature warms towards freezing it actually snows more. Since the antarctic rarely even gets close to freezing its understandable that warming would cause more snow fall. Over time compacted snow would lead to more ice. But that is not what is happening here. We're seeing a dramatic increase in “sea ice”, this ice is over the ocean. Sea ice is caused by colder temperatures, not by increased snow fall. An increase of 43% is highly significant, but we hear nothing from either the MSM or the scientific community. Especially compared to the out 6%-7% decrease at the arctic (this isn't year over year, this is a 6% decline since 1980!).
Antarctic Sea Ice for March
Extent Concentration
2009 5.0 million sq km 2.9 million sq km 1997 3.8 million sq km 2.2 million sq km 1980 3.5 million sq km 2.0 million sq km
This is an increase of 45% for ice concentration since 1980. This continues a long trend that has been noted here for several months..
Interior ice is also increasing but not due to warming as the models have predicted. According to NOAA GISS data winter temperatures in the antarctic have actually fallen by 1°F since 1957, with the coldest year being 2004. All the while global CO2 levels have gone up and the main stream media has been reporting near catastrophic warming conditions. They regularly show Antarctic sea ice shelves breaking apart, which is an entirely normal process (though they never tell you that part). The main stream media and certain segments of the scientific community truly must have no shame.
If you have doubts about the increase in ice you can run the numbers yourself at the National Snow and Ice Data Center's website (part of the University of Colorado and funded by the National Science Foundation).
And if you want to read something really amusing take a gander at Michael Asher Blog about climate modelers trying to explain antarctic warming.... agh .. cooling....agh... warming it's delightful.
The left believes they've caught one of their arch enemies in a gross factual mistake. Nationally syndicated columnist George Will recently wrote that global sea ice was at the exact same levels as it was in 1979. The left went bonkers believing him to be incorrect. Was he?
Discover Magazine's blog is one of those that went off on George Will accusing him of gross inaccuracy and saying that the Washington Post had poor fact checking “You Call That Fact-Checking?”.
Even the University of Illinois’ Arctic Climate Research Center got in to the fray saying this on their website:
We do not know where George Will is getting his information, but our data shows that on February 15, 1979, global sea ice area was 16.79 million sq. km and on February 15, 2009, global sea ice area was 15.45 million sq. km. Therefore, global sea ice levels are 1.34 million sq. km less in February 2009 than in February 1979. This decrease in sea ice area is roughly equal to the area of Texas, California, and Oklahoma combined.
So was George Will wrong? It turns out George Will was quoting a source that later corrected its data, not George's fault. Turns out for that particular day in February 1979 it did indeed have more ice than on that day in 2009. But is that a big deal?
We decided to take a look at the total month end numbers for January 1980 and January 2009. In case you've noticed a little slight of hand we did indeed change the year to one year later. Let it show that we did this to prove that it you can use this data just about any way you want (because frankly any global changes are not very dramatic), and if we had satellites up back in the 1930's we probably would have seen far less sea ice than what we're looking at now. So how does today compare to 1980?
1980 Southern Hemisphere = 4.7 million sq km 1980 Northern Hemisphere = 15.0 million sq km Total = 19.7 million sq km 2009 Southern Hemisphere = 5.8 million sq km 2009 Northern Hemisphere = 14.1 million sq km Total = 19.9 million sq km
January in the year 2009 showed 200,000 sq km more sea ice than 1980.
From the National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado
So what did George Will say?
George Will's point remains, there is as much sea ice today as there was in
“As global levels of sea ice declined last year, many experts said this was evidence of man-made global warming. Since September, however, the increase in sea ice has been the fastest change, either up or down, since 1979, when satellite record-keeping began. According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979.”
