Why? Because shut up you
Does Antarctic sea ice growth negate climate change? Scientists say no
In the blue half-light of the Antarctic autumn, a thin film spreads across the continent’s coastal waters. It’s an embryonic form of sea ice: a mush of microscopic crystals that floats on the dense, salty water of the Southern Ocean.
As winter takes root, this proto-sea ice grows thicker and stronger until it encircles Antarctica in a vast frozen ring. The ice spans nearly 7 million square miles at its peak, an area roughly twice the size of the United States.
This year, Antarctic sea ice has expanded its frigid reach with unprecedented speed, setting records in June and July. By the time spring punctures the long Antarctic night, 2014 stands a decent chance of topping 2012 and 2013, which each broke records of maximum total ice extent.
In fact, since scientists started making satellite observations in the late 1970s, they have watched winter sea ice around Antarctica swell slowly but indisputably, despite predictions that it should shrink.
This poses a puzzle that climate scientists struggle to explain: How can sea ice grow in a warming world?
Climate skeptics have pounced on this apparent discrepancy, citing it as proof that climate change isn’t real, or at least that scientists don’t completely understand it. But those who study Antarctic sea ice say their curious observations shouldn’t shake anyone’s confidence. Dramatic changes in temperature, sea level and extreme weather around the world are proof enough the planet is warming, they say; the only question is how these changes affect the Antarctic as they ripple through the climate system.
“Climate is a complicated thing,” said Ted Maksym, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. “Understanding how these kinds of changes play out in different regions is tricky business.”
It’s so complicated that they can tell us exactly what will happen 40-90 years from now, but they want us to ignore what is happening in Antarctica. Because things are happening elsewhere. Because weather never happened before. Oh, and the resurgence of sea ice in the Arctic. And, of course, the almost 18 year pause in statistically significant temperature rise.
“Climate is a complicated thing”, says Ted Maksym..” Very true, Ted, and you don’t understand a thing about it. “Dramatic changes in temperature, sea level and extreme weather around the world are proof enough the world is warming.” Well, if you’re measuring the time period from, say, 1940 to the present, how could you say it’s “dramatic” unless you know what happened in all the other 70 year periods. The sea level rise/fall is well within the norm, and there is zero evidence GW has anything to do with extreme weather. Unless extreme weather never happened before. Other than that….