John Kerry lands in Antarctica, highest US official to visit
Update: ‘Bad weather’ cancels part of Antarctic tour – taken instead ‘to one of the few parts of Antarctica that are largely free of ice year-round’ Earlier, a planned visit to the South Pole was scrapped because of bad weather. Instead, Kerry and members of his entourage were taken on a helicopter tour of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, one of the few parts of Antarctica that are largely free of ice year-round.
State Department spokesman John Kirby on the cost to taxpayers of Secretary Kerry’s trip to the South Pole:
“I– I– will see if I can get you– uh– an estimate. I don’t have that, but– uh– uh– I think– you know– eh– any basic understanding or attempt to understand climate change you have to understand what’s going on in the Arctic and the Antarctic, especially with melting glaciers and ice and the sea level rise that can come from that. […] He wanted to go down there and see that for himself.”
Reporter asks if the trip is “basically that the Sec. wants to knock Antarctica off his bucket list and he is doing it sort of on the taxpayer.”
US State Department
November 4, 2016
Daily Caller: A reporter grilled Kerry’s staff on why the secretary of state was going to Antarctica if there was no “real technically diplomatic component” to the trip, and another asked how much it would cost taxpayers for him to “go look around” the continent. “I will see if I can get you an estimate,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters in a recent press conference. “I don’t have that, but I think any basic understanding or attempt to understand climate change you have to understand what’s going on in the Arctic and the Antarctic, especially with melting glaciers and ice and the sea level rise that can come from that.” “He wanted to go down there and see that for himself,” Kirby said. One reporter said there was concern this trip was simply for Kerry to “knock Antarctica off his bucket list” on the taxpayer’s dime.
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Climate Depot’s Scientific Round Up of Data & Studies On Antarctica:
NASA Study: ‘Antarctica is not currently contributing to sea level rise’ – ‘Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater than Losses’ – Zwally’s team calculated that the mass gain from the thickening of East Antarctica remained steady from 1992 to 2008 at 200 billion tons per year, while the ice losses from the coastal regions of West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula increased by 65 billion tons per year… – “The good news is that Antarctica is not currently contributing to sea level rise, but is taking 0.23 millimeters per year away,” Zwally said.
Ooops! New NASA study: Antarctica isn’t losing ice mass after all!
2014: Watch: WUSA 9 DC TV station on Antarctic melt fears features images of DC monuments underwater. ‘It’s our choice how fast the seas rise’ – We control sea level rise? Watch Now: Local DC News Schlock Report on Antarctica & Sea Level Rise
1979 NYT: “Boats could be launched from the bottom of the steps of the Capitol’ in DC –‘Experts Tell How Antarctic’s Ice Could Cause Widespread Floods – Mushy Ice Beneath Sheet’]
1922: ‘Mountain after mountain of [Antarctic] ice will fall into the sea, be swept northwards by the currents, and melt, thus bringing about, but at a much more rapid rate, the threatened inundation of the land by the rising of the sea to its ancient level.‘ – The Mail Adelaide, SA – April 29, 1922
1901: ‘London On The Border of Destruction’: ‘To Be Wiped Out By A Huge Wave’ – Queanbeyan Age – August 10, 1901 – Excerpt: ‘Geologists believe that this great ice sucker has reached the stage of perfection when it (Antarctica) will, break up again, letting loose all the waters of its auction over the two hemispheres, and completely flooding the low-lying lands of Europe, Asia, and North America.’
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Which is it? Climate change causes less ice — or MORE ice?!
Climate change causes Antarctica to lose land ice
Climate change causes Antarctica to gain land ice
Flashback 1947: Warming in Arctic, Antarctic & Greenland to cause sea level ‘rise in catastrophic proportions’ – Flashback 1947: ‘Danger seen in mysterious warning of Arctic Climate’ – May 31, 1947 – Warwick Daily News – “A mysterious warming of the climate is slowly manifesting itself in the Arctic, and if the Antarctica ice regions and the major Greenland ice caps should reduce at the same rate as the present rate of melting should reduce at the same rate as the present rate of melting oceanic surfaces would rise in catastrophic proportions and people living in lowlands along the shores would be inundated, said Dr. Hans Ahlmann, noted Swedish geophysicist, in a speech at the University of California Geophysical Institute.
