Why is it not in the media that Antarctica set a record for the maximum amount of sea ice?

Question

Since record keeping began in 1979, Antarctica shows the largest surface area of sea ice. It is currently at 16.2 million square kilometers of sea ice, and it's winter is now 0.6 C. cooler than in 1957. Don't tell me that's because of global warming.

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/current.area.south.jpg

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Trevor:

You are wrong, I have seen numerous articles about the record loss of sea ice in the North Pole. And almost nothing about the fact that the Southern Hemisphere in general does not exhibit an AGW signature, with the exception of the Antarctic peninsula.

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Answer 1

Good luck with all that.

Keep in mind that you are trying to convince folks that the oceans are significantly warmed by the atmosphere and not the other way around. And they counter that the media has covered it and then bring up references from last year or older. To me, the drop in temperature by 0.6 C is even more impressive.

It should be no surprise then , why the IPCC AR4 conveniently excludes Antarctica from their anthropogenic correlation:
http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/AR4WG1_Print_SPM.pdf

And it's not just the sea ice. Antarctica's continental ice is also thickening:
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/308/5730/1898

It certainly makes you wonder why we consistently hear less about the global warming effects in the Southern hemisphere: How often do we hear about the current effects of eccentricity on the climate differences between the poles. We are in a low eccentricity period (orbit is more circular), but Spring and Summer are still about 7 days longer than Fall and Winter here in the North with perihelion coming in Winter. The effect are relatively milder seasons - again curiously what the IPCC reports: less cold Winter days. Of course, this also corresponds to longer and colder Winters in the Southern hemisphere when they are at aphelion.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/milankovitch.html
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/EarthSeasons.php
http://members.aol.com/gregbenson/iceage.htm

Is this contributing to this increase of Antarctic ice? Heck if I know...but it sure would be nice to have a scientific atmosphere that is less agenda and politics driven where these kinds of ideas are thoroughly explored (eg one in which you don't get called a "Bush appointee" for simply bringing up a valid question.)

Keep up your sound inquiry...

Answer 2

It has been reported. Badly.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/02/04/MN159039.DTL

The reason it's not a big deal is because global warming means that, on average, the whole Earth is heating up. That doesn't mean some local areas might not be cooling right now.

The reason that the area nearest the South Pole is cooling and accumulating snow is the ozone hole. But the Antarctic Peninsula is losing ice at a record pace.

The scientist who did the work on Antarctica has expressed outrage that his work is being misused by deniers.

http://tigger.uic.edu/~pdoran/antarctic_cooling.html

"I'm an earth sciences professor who has spent 20 years doing research in the Polar Regions. I'm also the lead author of a January 2002 article in the journal Nature that, much to my dismay, continues to be misused in arguments against global warming by people who frankly should be sitting this dance out."

"I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who oppose global warming theory. I believe my co-authors would as well."

The whole article is a good read.

Here's the temperature chart for the whole Earth, including Antarctica.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/new_Fig.A.lrg.gif

More here:

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=18
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11648

Answer 3

Presumably for the same reason that it's not in the media that the Arctic / Northern Hemisphere has just set a record for the minimum amount of sea ice. It's on the same page that you got your graph from - http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/

It's always better to look at the whole picture and not to select just a single graph. When you look at the rest of the data it's evident that the concentration of sea ice in the southern hemisphere (not Antarctica) has diminished, in short there's less ice but it's spread over a larger area and it's the VOLUME of ice which is important.

Looking at the global picture we see a continuing decline in both extent, formation and concentration of sea ice. All the graphs etc are on the page linked above.

As for the temp, it's of little significance as it's just one figure for one area for one month. Similarly it's true to say that the current average global temperature for the year to date is the highest it's ever been since humans appeared on the planet. This at least has more relevance as it's a global figure and is based on 8 months of temps but all the same, taken out of context it means very little.

Answer 4

I assume you're a Bush appointee. Here's an exerpt from NASA's own website which contradicts yours:

"In Antarctica, these observations tell us that the West Antarctic ice sheet is currently shrinking substantially, and has been for the last decade. They also tell a story of a second much larger ice sheet in East Antarctica that has been growing slowly. The net result in Antarctica is that the ice sheet as a whole has been shrinking, contributing to rising sea levels, and probably much more so in recent years."

Nice try

Answer 5

It is not reported because it doesn't fit in with this global warming rubbish that is being pushed down our throats. It doesn't sell newspapers when the planet does what it is supposed to do.

Answer 6

Maybe it's very warm ice. The kind of ice caused by GLOBAL WARMING!!!

Answer 7

cold place