Jennifer Marohasy

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Politician Says Antarctica Melting, But

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Australian Antarctic Division glaciology program head Ian Allison said sea ice losses in west Antarctica over the past 30 years had been more than offset by increases in the Ross Sea region, just one sector of east Antarctica.  Read more here.

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  1. Larry says

    Here’s a hair-raising quote from Al Gore in The Guardian.
    Link. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/14/al-gore-climate-change1
    It’s in the context of his perception of a shift in view on the part of some business leaders.

    Gore proclaimed:
    “They’re seeing the writing on every wall they look at. They’re seeing the complete disappearance of the polar ice caps right before their eyes in just a few years.”

    However the available data does NOT support that conclusion. Here’s a link to a graph of global sea ice area over the past 30 years.
    http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/global.daily.ice.area.withtrend.jpg
    (Courtesy of the U. of Illinois.) The red part of the graph shows a rapid recovery from the lower-than-average sea ice area in recent years. At the moment, the sea ice area is at the 30-year average.

    Caveat. Sea ice area is NOT the same thing as sea ice VOLUME. Sea ice area is easier to measure. I wouldn’t be surprised if the sea ice volume is still below average. However the short-term trend is in the direction of recovery, rather than disappearance.

    It’ll be interesting to see how persistent the Arctic sea ice is this Summer. If its area doesn’t decrease by much, that will enhance the albedo of the Northern hemisphere somewhat. And that could be a small positive feedback for our current short-term global cooling trend.

    Note: Gore isn’t just talking about about the North polar region. His quote also predicts that the ENTIRE Antarctic ice cap will also be gone in just a few years. In Gorespeak, a few years means five years. What’s the trend in Antarctica? As the article points out, it’s definitely NOT what Gore is claiming.

    Commentary. The recent short-term trend is towards global COOLING. Understandably, the Anthropogenic Global Warming Disasterism cultists are getting desperate.

    Especially Al, who gets off on scaring children, when he emerges from his casket at night, dons his black cape, and launches into full-blown Goracle mode. Millions of innocent children are exposed to his climate doomsday propaganda in school. Gore is also making millions of dollars in the carbon-trading business. He stands to lose a lot in a spontaneously cooling world, where CO2 is no longer perceived as a bogeyman.

    It’s possible that Al Gore has tapped into the Cosmic Pipeline. It may even be the same Cosmic Pipeline that told George W Bush about all of the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Again, the evidence that’s available to us mortals does NOT support The Goracle’s claim that BOTH polar icecaps will be 100% melted in five years, unless we take drastic action very soon.

    If you want to buy a used car from Al Gore, that’s your decision. But Psychic Larry advises that if Gore ever goes into the kool-aid biz, don’t even think about drinking it!