The doom and gloom headline goes:
Arctic Sea Ice Extent is Third Lowest on Record
Wow! Third lowest! Incredible! But, wait…
Arctic sea ice reached its minimum extent around September 12… According to scientists affiliated with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), sea ice coverage dropped to 5.10 million square kilometers (1.97 million square miles) at its minimum. The ice cover was 970,000 square kilometers (370,000 square miles) greater than the record low of 2007 and 580,000 square kilometers (220,000 square miles) greater than 2008…
…The four lowest ice extents on record have occurred between 2005 and 2009, with the record minimum reached during a dramatic drop in ice cover in 2007 that was exacerbated by unusual polar winds.
So, the ice cover hit nadir in 2007 and has increased substantially in 2008 and 2009 – and the worst year was partially caused by unusual winds. Anyone sense a trend here? Now, if you go in to the story you’ll see that the claim is that ice cover is 34% lower than it was 30 years ago…but, then again, we were in a warming trend during that time and it does make a bit of sense that ice would recede…meanwhile, for the past decade we’ve been in a cooling trend, and now we see the ice sheet expanding, again. Anyone want to bet me that in 15 years or so it will be back where it was 30 years ago?
Meanwhile, the zealots are still at it, asserting that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within 20 years(the article has a picture of people sun bathing in the Arctic…so that you liberals out there can understand)…nice of them to put it out that far, long after a presumptive passing of “cap and trade” and other screwball enviro-fascist bills…
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