Why is it called "Global Warming" when the Southern Hemisphere is not warming?

Question

A new (2006) NASA satellite tropospheric temperature data reveals that the Southern Hemisphere has not warmed in the past 25 years contrary to a global warming theory.

Existing data shows that the Antarctic ice cap has remained relatively stable and has recently shown a tendency to expand.

Lets call it The Northern Hemisphere Warming "Theory".

17,200 american scientists to date have signed the global warming petition. They reject the Kyoto agreement and the hysteria that is out there.
http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p357.htm

The first Canadian Ph.D. in Climatology wrote an article today calling global warming theory "the greatest deception in the history of science".

http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/global-warming020507.htm

I don't work for an oil company or any big corporation. I am not a right winger. I think anyone who says they are openminded should not close their mind to the idea that this may all be a lie.

Answer 1

I was interested to read this, so I went online to find the source. What I found was this link to a political blog:
http://dawgonthelawn.blogspot.com/2007/01/fun-reading-for-global-warming-folks.html
... which in turn links to another political blog:
http://motls.blogspot.com/2006/09/southern-hemisphere-ignores-global.html
... which finally links to some real data:
http://www.atmos.uah.edu/data/msu/t2lt/

After downloading the data and going thru the readme files, I dropped the data into a spreadsheet. The dataset contains satellite-derived temperature data for every day (with a few missing) since late 1978. This is lower troposphere data, NOT surface data.

And guess what? The data shows that the southern hemisphere lower troposphere is getting warmer, just like everywhere else. The southern hemisphere lower troposphere was basically static prior to 1990, and since then has been warming at a rate of .02° C per year -- almost exactly the same rate as in the northern hemisphere. The lag in warming is probably due to the fact that there's a lot more ocean down there.

Next time, consider getting your information from a scientist instead of a blogger.

Answer 2

The reason there may not be "warming" in the southern hemisphere is because there is quite a bit less land in the southern hemisphere and so there really isn't quite the same amount of site-to-site data as is available in the northern hemisphere.

Also, the globe will not warm equally, the equatorial regions and the temperate regions may not really increase in temperature averages much at all, it's quite possible that temperatures could average lower in certain regions.

A serious "problem" global-warming scientists couldn't figure out until a couple of years ago was this. In the last period similar to this one, with heating of the planet by 2-3 degress (so far we've only increased 1-2 degrees) large sections of the poles melted but for some at that time unknown reason, both North America and Western Europe became both colder and alot drier becoming more like a semi-arid dessert.

Well, a few years ago someone proposed a "theory" that the Gulf Stream which warms and wets the North American eastern seaboard and the eastern plains states to a lesser degree, essentially "could" shut-down if the density of polar water changed by X percentage points.

The problem was he couldn't prove how that happened so it was just another theory. Well, not so much anymore. Recently other scientists figured out where all that fresh water could come from - Greenland's icesheet. WHEN that set of glaciers melts (most scientists say it's so volatile and rapidly changing they won't even speculate as to what's going on but it's melting and fast, the question is just whether it's months, years or maybe decades away from flowing into the seas. Nobody is guessing centuries any more. (Most will speculate that in 30-100 years it will be mostly all GONE) the question is not if but when the gulf stream could get slower or even stop.

It would get colder and dryer in North America and we can still have global warming, because if the poles go, we could still be hosed.

The real problem for people comes into play when you consider what happens when Europe, Canada and the United States no longer can produce vast quantities of food, whom exactly should produce that food? How should we produce that food.

Global warming itself isn't so much the problem. It's that we have really no economic or political room to adapt to it, our entire system of global balance is based on food production surpluses from the North American continent and more importantly that the weather is more or less constantly able to provide for those foodstuffs. If suddenly the US has to import food, bad bad things could happen.

As far as Antarctic glaciers "growing" well, the number of icebergs at sea is growing that certainly true. The glaciers on the main islands of Antarctica have all increased in speed for the most part. And speed is bad, speed means they're getting to the ocean faster and calving into iceburgs more frequently.

It's as simple as that.

And as far as Anarctica's Ice sheets, well, that's when it stops being a reasonable problem and starts to look a lot like the end of our civilization.

Speedy Glaciers! http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/oldissues2002-2003/Sun102702/icetimeline.html
Ross Ice Shelf Moving! : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3686600.stm
Ross Ice Shelf : http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20840754-23109,00.html

Antarctia Cooling : http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0118/p02s01-usgn.html

Greenland - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0216_060216_warming.html

Answer 3

Both hemispheres are warming.

You hear more about things in the Northern Hemisphere because that is where you are.

If you live in Australia you must not be paying attention. They are having severe water and rainfall problems, wildfires, cyclones.

Antarctica is melting more slowly because the bulk of the ice is on land instead of in the ocean. However, the greatest change there is in the ocean ice and glacier mouths or slopes. The latter are moving more speedily.

The cold water from polar regions is of vital importance to fish stocks in the oceans everywhere. Let's hope the polar oceans do not get too hot, especially in Antarctica.

Ocean heating is producing unusually rough weather all over the globe periodically. This is also true for the Southern Hemisphere.

If you want further clues as to the future, check out Nunitak's Blog:

http://360.yahoo.com/ki_te_moana

Click on Blog, then List View, start at the beginning and read very carefully with your thinking cap on.

Be sure to check out urls.

Only the ignorant and science illiterate think there will not be drastic changes or that global warming cannot produce a New Ice Age eventually.

In fact, the evidence we already have is quite convincing to the thoughtful.

You need to know about the large scale movements of air and the specific heat of water, salt water, ocean heating patterns, currents, weather and climate history and related topics in order to start getting The Big Picture for Climate Change.

If you are one of those people who talk about "Global Warming Nazis" and think it is OBVIOUS that 'heat' cannot lead to an Ice Age, then you are not only not a thinker, but you are a lazy and ignorant weather student, i.e. an exceedingly POOR thinker.

Once should limit one's commentary to areas in which one has done some careful study and work.

Wise people always defer to greater expertise.

The experts are not always the 'official experts.' Often they do not call themselves expert.

Some of the 'experts' are lost in complex detailed analysis of the trees, but have a poor understanding of the forest, meaning The Big Picture.

Everyone is better off by having different levels of focus.

It appears there is more agreement now than in the recent past though.

If you are interested in weather and climate, please pursue your interests and keep clicking things off. Weather knowledge is of considerable value to farmers, sailors, pilots, explorers, divers, and many other types of people.

Sometimes it is a life saver.

Answer 4

It is warming. However, if you look at the northern hemisphere vs the southern hemisphere, you'll notice the north has more landmass. This means the warming isn't "absorbed" by the oceans, which store it for a while, but it gradually warms up the entire ocean.

Thats why the temperature difference is more apparent in the northern hemisphere. However, the globe, as a whole, is warming.

Its similar to a person who hides his fat well. They may look OK outwardly, but they are still clogging their arteries and moving towards heart disease.

Answer 5

Here are just two pieces for warming in the Southern Hemisphere that I have encountered in the last week or so:

Ocean temperatures off Tasmania have increased by 2.5 degrees (Celcius) in the past 60 years, allowing pest species to prosper where they couldn't previously and impacting on the fishing industry. http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2007/s1839414.htm

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology says that Australian annual mean temperatures have risen by 0.9 degrees since 1910. Spring 2006 was Australia's warmest spring season on record.
http://www.bom.gov.au/announcements/media_releases/climate/change/20070103.shtml

Answer 6

I am in the Southern Hemisphere and I can assure you that it is warming. Most cities in Australia are experiencing the hottest weather on record, there are bushfires, floods and more cyclones. There have even been icebergs found near New Zealand.

Antarctica is melting too - huge sections are melting away every day.

Answer 7

The southern hemisphere is warming. I realize its tough to keep up on the latest findings--that's only been knownfor about 10-15 years.

Answer 8

Not sure where your data comes from, but Antarctica is warming:
http://www.climatehotmap.org/antarctica.html