The Times Recycles Melting Ice Sheets Nonsense
This story goes around every few months:
(Also see this version in Wall Street Journal: WSJ: World’s Ice Is Melting Faster Than Ever, Climate Scientists Say )
It is all so predictable that it is barely worth rebutting – I might just as well dig out my response from last year.
The claim of course revolves around Greenland and Antarctica, but offers no perspective, either historically or quantitively. Instead all we get is stupidly scary soundbites about trillions of tonnes and the like, guaranteed to frighten the children.
As I reported just last week, Greenland’s ice mass loss is just a part of post Little Ice Age trend. It has actually decelerated in the last decade, and comparison with 1990s needs to acknowledge the fact that temperatures there fell sharply between the 1950s and 90s.
Most of all, the effect on sea level rise is tiny, just 10mm since 2000.
As for Antarctica, scientists still can’t agree whether the ice cap is increasing or getting smaller.
The proof of the pudding, of course, is in the sea level rise. And when we look at long running tidal gauge records, it is painfully obvious that nothing at all unusual is happening – merely a continuation of the slow rise which began in the late 19thC.
http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_station.shtml
One thing is certain though. I will be writing exactly the same article in a few months time. (Probably after a few days of sunshine over Greenland!)
