Arctic Sees Massive Gain in Ice Coverage

[Northern Rider]

It is always nice to cut through the bull$hit and actually study the facts:


DailyTech - Arctic Sees Massive Gain in Ice Coverage


Increase twice the size of Germany: "colder weather" to blame.


Data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has indicated a dramatic increase in sea ice extent in the Arctic regions. The growth over the past year covers an area of 700,000 square kilometers: an amount twice the size the nation of Germany.



A map of the Arctic ice compared to last year

With the Arctic melting season over for 2008, ice cover will continue to increase until melting begins anew next spring.

The data is for August 2008 and indicates a total sea ice area of six million square kilometers. Ice extent for the same month in 2007 covered 5.3 million square kilometers, a historic low. Earlier this year, media accounts were rife with predictions that this year would again see a new record. Instead, the Arctic has seen a gain of about thirteen percent.

William Chapman, a researcher with the Arctic Climate Research Center at the University of Illinois, tells DailyTech that this year the Arctic was "definitely colder" than 2007. Chapman also says part of the reason for the large ice loss in 2007 was strong winds from Siberia, which affect both ice formation and drift, forcing ice into warmer waters where it melts.

Earlier predictions were also wrong because researchers thought thinner ice would melt faster in subsequent years. Instead, according to the NSIDC, the new ice had less snow coverage to insulate it from the bitterly cold air, resulting in a faster rate of ice growth.

Most concern has focused on the Arctic regions, rather than Antarctica. Recent research has indicated Antarctica is on a long-term cooling trend, for reasons which remain unclear.

Earlier this year, concerns over global warming led the US to officially list the polar bear a threatened species, over objections from experts who claimed the animal's numbers were increasing.

[robaustin]

Amen, and you will see big spreads in the media when a little crumb of ice breaks off an ice shelf in the Arctic but have you seen anywhere in the mainstream media, the news that this year the extent of Antarctic ice set a new maximum record since satellite measurements began in 1979. Concerning Arctic ice extent, they shout about how 2007 set a "historic" record low for Arctic ice extent but neglect to mention that the history only goes back to 1979. Anecdotal evidence prior to 1979 such as the RCMP schooner St. Roche sailing through the Northwest Passage in one season in the year 1944 don't rate mention. It would spoil the drama.

[stevesrt8]

Thanks to you, NR, for posting facts.

Gee, do you think the media has an agenda?

There was just a huge headline about the ice shelf cracking off a big piece!

Funny how there was no coverage on this.

[Northern Rider]

Yep. There's "junk science", media hype, and people with their own financial agendas . . .

I am so glad Al Gore "invented" the internet .

I pay no attention to mainstream media for facts any more. I go after good journalistic reporting on the net and will only pay attention on tech and science issues from respected experts with hard data to back up their claims.

I also was a student and teacher of environmental science many moons ago and it is painful to see the majority of people being sucked in by the manipulations of a few.

[Hemi57]

Originally Posted by stevesrt8

Gee, do you think the media has an agenda?

Absolutely, and our stupid Australian government has gone berserk talking about introducing mandatory carbon off-set taxes. Bloody idiots.

[bruno]

What?? You mean we have all been scammed regarding Global Warming? Well, that's good. At least we now know the polar bears and penguins are not going to be extinct.

Who is Al Bore? Yawn.....

[Northern Rider]

It's sad to think that a few people and corporations can manipulate public opinion to the point where our chinless politicians feel they can't get elected unless they pretend to also believe in these fairy tales . . .

At least it seems that many on this forum take the time to do a little of their own research to get at the data instead of swallowing the hype.

[bruno]

Originally Posted by Northern Rider

It's sad to think that a few people and corporations can manipulate public opinion to the point where our chinless politicians feel they can't get elected unless they pretend to also believe in these fairy tales . . .

At least it seems that many on this forum take the time to do a little of their own research to get at the data instead of swallowing the hype.

That is so very true. Maybe we should all run for political offices!

[robaustin]

Arctic warming and loss of ice cover is the last bastion of the AGW (anthropomorphic global warming) proponents.

Canadians MacIntyre and McKitrick drove a stake through the heart of the famous "hockey stick" graph which prominently figured in Al Gores "documentary" and was also front in centre in the third IPCC report (disappeared from the forth). This graph purported to show that global temperature was flat for the last thousand years and only recently has risen rapidly. Now it appears that the Medieval Warming Period was actually warmer than today so the present global temperature is not exceptional.

Global temperatures as measured by satellite have been flat to slightly declining since the turn of the century. This was not predicted by their vaunted computer models. Now they claim that natural climate variation is masking man's influence, but just you wait, the temperature will take off again, sometime. Meanwhile, keep giving us big research grants, human civilization depends on it.

Even important to their theory ice core data showing historic levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are suspect. The ice core supposition is that the atmospheric concentration of CO2 is perfectly preserved in bubbles in the ice.

It seems that the only avenue left is to become more shrill and increase the ad hominem attacks on anybody who dares question the science. I find the whole circus most entertaining. I just hope their house of cards hypothesis collapses before they destroy our economy.

[OoTLink]

Agreed totally on your sentiment, but the rich people don't care if it ruins the economy for the rest of us, because everyone flying once in their life, driving a prius very rarely, and walking most places - a liberalist's dream life, is also a rich person's dream life since it's less crap for them and more room/freedom.

EHheHEHEHEHEHE.