Antarctic sea ice has expanded in 2012 to record levels since satellite monitoring began in 1979. [See: ‘Antarctica has quietly set a new record for the greatest sea ice extent ever measured at either pole’]
The New York Times has finally decided to report on the record South Pole ice expansion. But Times global warming reporter Justin Gillis’ attempt downplay the South Pole sea ice record is being challenged by Climatologist Dr. Patrick Michaels.
Gillis, in a October 3, 2012 New York Times article titled “Running the Numbers on Antarctic Sea Ice”, claimed that Arctic sea ice was being lost 25 times faster than Antarctic sea ice was being expanded. Gillis is now under fire for his polar ice claims.
Climatologist Dr. Patrick Michaels told Climate Depot that Gillis was engaging “a ludicrous gaming of the cruel facts of geography, a total irrelevancy” in order to make the claim that Arctic ice was being lost “25 times” faster than Antarctic ice was being gained. Michaels corrects Gillis by noting ‘the Arctic net loss is about twice the gain in Antarctica.”
Gillis wrote: “Let’s average the first five years of the satellite record, from 1979 to 1983. In that period, the sea ice left at the end of the summer melt season covered about 13.8 percent of the surface of the Southern Ocean. In the most recent five years, the average rose to 14.6 percent of the ocean. So, expressed as a percentage of ocean cover, the decline going on in the Arctic is almost 25 times the increase going on in the Antarctic.”
Dr. Patrick Michaels full statement on NYT’s Justin Gillis: “Taking five year averages from the beginning and the end of the records is a joke. An actual scientist would regression-fit the linear increase in Antarctic ice anomalies (in square km) and second-order fit (because it is obviously a curve) the decline in Arctic ice using the similar metric (data are from Cryosphere Today). The trended gain in Antarctic ice is about 0.9 million square kilometers, while the (second order) trended decline in the Arctic is about 1.7. The Arctic net loss is about twice the gain in Antarctica.
Gillis’ ’25 times’ figure is a ludicrous gaming of the cruel facts of geography, a total irrelevancy.”
End Michaels statement.
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Gillis has been repeatedly under fire his global warming reporting from scientists on both sides of the climate change debate. See: ‘Gillis has officially reduced himself to the equivalent of a newsletter writer for climate pressure groups. Just when you thought his reporting cannot get any worse, he surprises us again’ – May 2012
Gillis holds the dishonor of being named the author of the ‘Worst NYT Story on Climate Ever?’
As for Gillis’ claims about Arctic sea ice, Climate Depot has reported extensively on warmist claims about the sea ice conditions. See:
Don’t Panic! Arctic Ice Hits ‘Record’ Low!? Climate Depot Explains Arctic melting hype — ‘Current Arctic ice shifts are not ‘proof’ of man-made global warming, nor are they unusual, unprecedented or cause for alarm, according to multiple peer-reviewed studies, data analyses and experts’
Flashback: NASA finally admits it Arctic cyclone in August ‘broke up’ and ‘wreaked havoc’ on sea ice
Related Links:
Reality Check: ‘The Arctic record was broken on the August 24th & NSIDC waited 3 days to call a news conference for the media…The Antarctic Extent record was broken on September 24th…Did NSIDC hold a new conference on September 27th? No. No news conference. Obviously there was a media advisory on the 27th. Nope…Antarctic Ice Extent record is not mentioned until October 2nd, 2012.’ — ‘Justin Gillis and the NY Times owes a lot of bloggers an apology’
Warmist Justin Gillis admits that the Antarctic sea ice trend is ‘definitely opposite to the Arctic trend’ — Gillis then claims: ‘Far from hiding anything, mainstream climate scientists are all over that issue, and have been for years’
NYT’s Justin Gillis weighs in on record high Antarctic sea ice: ‘What does the Antarctic summer minimum look like? Well, the trend there is definitely opposite to the Arctic trend’ — Antarctic ‘summer sea ice is growing through time. But not by that much. And this past summer melt season [in Antarctica ] did not set any record; it was only the sixth-highest minimum in the satellite era’
NYT warmist Justin Gillis: ‘Perhaps the biggest single question about climate change is whether people will have enough to eat in coming decades’ — Climatologist Dr. Tim Ball rebuts NYT’s Gillis, notes endless eco-scares: ‘Chronologically, it was overpopulation, environmental collapse, global warming, climate change, catastrophic climate change. Now they are back to collapse of the food supply’
Don’t Panic! Arctic Ice Hits ‘Record’ Low!? Climate Depot Explains Arctic melting hype — ‘Current Arctic ice shifts are not ‘proof’ of man-made global warming, nor are they unusual, unprecedented or cause for alarm, according to multiple peer-reviewed studies, data analyses and experts’
Flashback: NASA finally admits it Arctic cyclone in August ‘broke up’ and ‘wreaked havoc’ on sea ice
‘Horse sh*t!’ Declares Climatologist Dr. Patrick Michaels as he shreds claims made by some scientists that ‘Arctic Ice Melt Could Mean More Extreme Winters For U.S. And Europe.”
Meteorologist Joe Bastardi: ‘The antarctic increase is MORE IMPRESSIVE since energy changes of maritime air much harder than dry cold air over Northern Hemisphere’
Europe’s Media Goes Completely Silent When It Comes To Record High Antarctic Sea Ice — ‘When the Arctic set a record sea ice minimum back in August, the European mainstream media and government funded climate institutes howled in a deafening, days-long chorus of ‘global’ climate Armageddon’
Flashback 2007: Antarctic temperatures disagree with climate model predictions Study: ‘No increase in precipitation over Antarctica in the last 50 years’ — ‘Most models predict that both precipitation and temperature will increase over Antarctica with a warming of the planet. David Bromwich, researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State U.: ‘It’s hard to see a global warming signal from the mainland of Antarctica right now,” he said. “Part of the reason is that there is a lot of variability there.’
Flashback 2005: Warmist model study tried to explain Antarctic sea ice: ‘Warmer Air May Cause Increased Antarctic Sea Ice Cover’ — ‘We used computer-generated simulations to get this research result…Our goal as scientists is to collect hard data to verify what the model is telling us’
Climate Depot Response: Ice increasing due to humans or shrinking? Here is land-based ice claim: Flashback 2007: ‘Antarctic ice thawing faster than predicted’
Sets Record: Antarctic Sea Ice Grows By The Size Of Texas Since 1979
‘Antarctica has quietly set a new record for the greatest sea ice extent ever measured at either pole’ — ‘It’s interesting that climate scientists are so alarmed by declining Arctic ice. The Arctic Icecap is only 1 to 2% of Earth’s ice, while the elephant, the Antarctic Icecap, contains about 90% of Earth’s ice’
Cold Hard Fact: Antarctic Sea Ice is at Record High — ‘We have record low ice extent in the Arctic and record large ice extent surrounding Antarctica’ — Meteorologist Art Horn: ‘Even though the amount of sea ice in the Arctic was at a measured record low amount this summer, it was an unusually large storm that generated pounding waves that broke up the ice and helped set the record, not excessive melting…Antarctic sea ice is increasing. Antarctic temperature is not increasing’
Record Sea Ice in Antarctica — The Canary in the Coal Mine!? ‘This is most sea ice ever measured at either pole, & is about size of US & Europe combined, or 335,000 Manhattans’ — ‘Antarctic sea ice now covers 19,454,000 km²…’The ice extends more than 1,000 miles off the coast of Antarctica. Emperor Penguins have to walk across the ice to get to the sea.’ — ‘Most of the ice is located between 60 and 70S, which means that it reflects huge amounts of sunshine back into space, dramatically cooling the Earth.’ — ‘The sun is currently about 30 degrees above the horizon at the ice edge.’
NOAA: Antarctic sea ice extent set all time record high — ‘Day 265 set an all time record, and then day 266 broke that record. Days 265 through 270 are now the 6 highest Antarctic Sea Ice Extent’s of all time! 11 of the top 15 are now 2012. Anyone wonder why NOAA isn’t making a fuss about this?’
More data, studies and analysis on Antarctica:
Veteran Polar Scientist Heinrich Miller on Antarctica: ‘If anything over last 30 years we have a slight cooling trend’ — Miller: ‘Here almost nothing has changed. At least not near the surface. The average annual temperatures have remained the same. There are of course large fluctuations from year to year. If anything over last 30 years we have a slight cooling trend.
Inconvenient truth: Antarctica sea ice extent growing 1.43% per year — ‘A paper published today in Journal of Climate examines the trend of sea ice extent along the East Antarctic coast from 2000 to 2008 and finds a significant increase of 1.43% per year’
Antarctica sea ice shows accelerating increase over past 30 years: ‘Journal Climate Dynamics finds ‘Antarctic sea ice extent shows an increased trend during 1979–2009’ – ‘…with a trend rate of 1.36 ± 0.43% per decade. Ensemble empirical mode decomposition analysis shows that the rate of the increased trend has been accelerating in the past decade’
Rumors Of Antarctica’s Demise Were Exaggerated: ‘Turns out there hasn’t been any polar amplification after all…Scientist Franzisca Nehring ‘feels global warming hasn’t really affected the ice’— Nehring: ‘It’s too easy to say that Antarctica is warmed by 1-2 degrees but, I’d infer, that is not really true’
NASA Research Reveals Antarctica Ice Sheet Melt Just A Fraction of Climate Model Predictions
More Blows to Warmists! New Antarctica Research: The IPCC ‘Consensus’ Science Is Turned Topsy-Turvy — ‘Scientists have been caught completely unaware of the substantial ice growth occurring below Antarctica, in addition to the obvious massive cumulative ice growth on the surface’
Study finds West Antarctic Ice Sheet May Not Be Losing Ice As Fast As Once Thought
No Trend In Antarctic Temperatures Since 1979
Vostok, Antarctica Current Temperatures Still Significantly Below Roman & Medieval Peaks
Not Global Warming: Winds are Dominant Cause of Greenland and West Antarctic Ice Sheet Losses – October 3, 2008 — Excerpt: Two new studies summarized in a news article in Science magazine point to wind-induced circulation changes in the ocean as the dominant cause of the recent ice losses through the glaciers draining both the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, not ‘global warming.’
NSIDC Shows 2010 Antarctic Spring/Summer Sea Ice Above Normal For Two Straight Years
Where is the Media? ‘Southern Hemisphere Sea Ice Extent Anomaly for November was a record high’
2008 Senate Report: Media Hype on ‘Melting’ Antarctic Ignores Record Ice Growth
Branson Says 15 Degrees Below Normal Antarctic Temperatures Are Due To Global Warming
Flashback 1947: Antarctic Oasis, land free of ice
Who is in Antarctica with Al Gore? Here is the list: Maggie L. Fox; Jill Bolte-Taylor; James Hansen; Kevin Trenberth; Hasan Mahmud; Richard Branson; Holly Branson; Sam Branson; Joan Templeman; Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson; Dorrit Moussaieff; James Cameron; Ted Turner; Christiana Figures; Tokyo Sexwale; Yao Tandong; Rosina Bierbaum; Judith Rodin; Juanita Constible; Petter Stordalen; Gunhild A. Stordalen; Sven Lindblad;
For even more on Antarctica go here.