Report: Global Sea Ice at 'Unprecedented' Levels
Don’t expect to hear this reported on the your evening newscast, but according to new data, sea ice levels in the Southern Hemisphere are at 25-year highs.
“On a global basis, world sea ice in April 2008 reached levels that were ‘unprecedented’ for the month of April in over 25 years,” Steve McIntyre wrote on Climateaudit.org on May 4. “Levels are the third highest (for April) since the commencement of records in 1979, exceeded only by levels in 1979 and 1982.”
McIntyre, along with Ross McKitrick, debunked the validity of the “hockey stick” graph used in a journal article by Michael Mann, which described the increase in Northern Hemisphere mean temperature. The two claimed Mann’s graph was based on flawed calculations and data defects.
That data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) suggests the effects of global warming aren’t as dire as some media reports would have you believe. A segment on ABC’s March 28 “Good Morning America” warned melting sea ice is endangering the global warming alarmists’ favorite mascot, the polar bear.
“[I] realize what I need to do is try and tell these stories through National Geographic magazine by using animals such as polar bears to hang this campaign on, to say that if we lose sea ice in the Arctic, and projections are to lose sea ice in the next 20 to 50 years, we ultimately are going to lose polar bears as well,” National Geographic magazine photographer Paul Milkin said to ABC’s Sam Champion.
According to the NSIDC data, sea ice had declined in 2007 to record lows, but showed a rebound in 2008, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere.
An Aug. 19, 2007 CBS “60 Minutes” segment warned melting sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere was endangering the penguin, another species often trotted out by global warming alarmists.
“Getting manhandled may ruffle their feathers, but it was key to discovering their fate,” “60 Minutes” contributor Scott Pelley said. “These are grown penguin chicks chasing their mothers for food, which she delivers beak to beak. Soon, the chicks will go to sea to hunt for a shrimp-like crustacean called krill. The krill grow beneath the sea ice, but in the warming ocean, the sea ice is melting away.”
“So the penguins have been going to sea and starving to death?” Pelley asked Sue Trivelpiece of NOAA’s Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division.
“The chicks are declining and we think they just can’t find the krill,” Trivelpiece replied.
Although sea ice has actually increased, it isn’t clear if the penguins’ food supply will increase and the species native to the polar regions of the Southern Hemisphere will once again thrive.
Related Links:
A Special Report from BMI: Global Warming Censored
BMI's Special Report "Fire & Ice: Journalists have warned of climate change for 100 years, but can't decide weather we face an ice or warming"
Climate of Bias: BMI's page devoted entirely to global warming and climate change in the media.
