Arctic Ice // Current

Climate changing 'faster, stronger, sooner'

ONDON, England (CNN) -- Climate change is happening faster than previously predicted according to a new World Wildlife Fund... more

zman14u
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Arctic sea ice melting slows down, for now

Arctic sea ice has melted at a slower rate compared to last year, but scientists warn it still shows a downward trend towards... more

starr111
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Polar bears 'could become extinct' because of melting ice

Polar bears and other rare species are in danger of dying out, scientists fear, as latest figures show the Artic sea ice is at... more

julesrs007
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Arctic shrinks by an Alaska and 3 Arizonas in August

Another week, another record in Arctic ice loss announced by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC): Following a... more

MeganMcKenzie
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Artic ice cap shrinks to second lowest level on record

The Arctic ice cap keeps melting under the effects of global warming and in August saw its second largest summer shrinkage since satellite observations began 30 years ago, US scientists said.

Measurements on August 26 showed an ice cap of 5.26 million square kilometers (2.03 million square miles), just below the 5.32 million square kilometers (2.05 million square miles) observed on 21 September 2005, making it the second biggest summer Arctic ice-cap melt in history, said the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

Since the start of August, the Boulder, Colorado-based center said, the Arctic polar cap shrank by 2.06 million square kilometers (0.8 million square miles).

The melting is so fast and extensive it could shrink the ice cap to below the 4.25 million square kilometers (1.64 million square miles) reached in the summer of 2007, the smallest it has ever been observed by satellites, the center said.

Since the end of the Arctic summer and the start of the freezing autumn is several weeks away, it said, the ice cap could dwindle even more than it did in 2007.

At the end of northern hemisphere summer 2007, the Arctic ice cap was 40 percent smaller than the average 7.23 million square kilometers (2.8 million square miles) observed in 1979-2000, the NSIDC said.

The North Pole melting season begins in mid-June. The ice cap shrinks to its smallest area by mid-September and grows the most in winter by mid-March.

"The bottom line, however, is that the strong negative trend in summertime ice extent characterizing the past decade continues," the Center said in a report.

The North Pole itself could even become free of ice by September for the first time in modern history, setting a new milestone in the effects of global warming on the Arctic ice shelf, NSIDC glaciologist Mark Serreze told AFP in late June.

"We could have no ice at the North Pole at the end of this summer. And the reason here is that the North Pole area right now is covered with very thin ice, and this ice we call 'first-year ice,' the ice that tends to melt out in the summer," he explained.

Serrreze said the possibility the ice cap could vanish stood at 50 percent.
The Arctic ice cap keeps melting under the effects of global warming and in August saw its second largest summer shrinkage since... more

bansheewail
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20 responses

3 months ago

A new Olympic record for retraction of a denier talking point

The gold medal goes to Steven Goddard of The Register. On Friday August 15, he published a scathing article, “Arctic ice refuses to melt as ordered: There’s something rotten north of Denmark” attacking the National Snow and Ice Data Center plot of Arctic Sea Ice Extent (below) that I and pretty much everyone else on the planet use.

Based on some (mis)analysis too obscure for mortal men and women to follow, he concluded “The problem is that this graph does not appear to be correct”:

The Arctic did not experience the meltdowns forecast by NSIDC and the Norwegian Polar Year Secretariat. It didn’t even come close. Additionally, some current graphs and press releases from NSIDC seem less than conservative. There appears to be a consistent pattern of overstatement related to Arctic ice loss….

Unless you are a denier, you may not be surprised to learn the amateur denier was wrong and the country’s leading cryosphere scientists were right. But you might be surprised that Goddard issued an unequivocal retraction within days at the site of the original article:

Steven Goddard writes: “Dr. Walt Meier at NSIDC has convinced me this week that their ice extent numbers are solid…. It is clear that the NSIDC graph is correct, and that 2008 Arctic ice is barely 10% above last year - just as NSIDC had stated.”

In the words of Rosanne Rosanna Danna, “Never Mind.”

Kudos to Walt Meier of NSIDC for the rapidity with which NSIDC handled this. As he posted on Real Climate last Friday

NSIDC has worked with Mr. Goddard to get to the bottom of the issue … and as has been mentioned in the comments above, he has posted a correction. I thank Mr. Goddard for his cooperation in this matter.

Unfortunately, this disinformation has raced around the world, with more than 70 blog reactions as of today according to Technorati, including headlines and comments such as:

* Arctic Ice Grows 30 Per Cent In a Year
* The Global Warming Theory takes a hit
* Fishy Data From the Government
* Here’s another installment about the silliness of “global warming” as posited by politicians and “environmentalists”.
* Cooking the Books to Cook the Ice
* Global Warming is about global government and depopulation
The gold medal goes to Steven Goddard of The Register. On Friday August 15, he published a scathing article, “Arctic ice... more