Has Growth in Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Suddenly Halted?

Antarctic sea ice extent has barely increased so far this month. In a typical year, Antarctic sea ice extent would have increased by over a million square kilometers during the first half of August. There is no telling whether the results of the last few weeks is just an aberration or the start of a trend.

However, the minimal growth of Antarctic sea ice extent makes a mockery of claims being made by climate science deniers as recently as last month. A favorite tactic of climate science deniers is to claim that the growth in Antarctic sea ice extent offsets the decline in Arctic sea ice extent. And while this type of comparison was misleading even when the Antarctic sea ice extent was expanding, it is downright absurd this month in which the Antarctic sea ice extent has returned back to it average extent during 1981-2010.

While Antarctic sea ice extent has been flat lining during a winter period when it usually expands, Arctic sea ice extent has been melting faster during the past few weeks than it did during the most recent couple of years.

It seem ludicrous that Christopher Booker of The Telegraph was claiming "How Arctic ice has made fools of all those poor warmists" back on  July 25, 2015. In his article, Booker made of point of indicating Arctic sea ice extent was higher in 2015 than in 2013 and 2014. Well, as one can see from the image below, Arctic sea ice in 2015 has been both above and below that of the previous two years over the course of this year. However, on the date Booker published his article, Arctic sea ice extent was already trending lower than the previous two years, and has stayed lower throughout August. In fact, based on the current trend, it seems likely that 2015 Arctic sea ice extent summer melt minimum will be the 5th lowest in recorded history, and well below the levels of 2013 and 2014. He also made the spurious argument that Antarctic sea ice growth counterbalanced Arctic sea ice declines. Well, that claim goes up in smoke due the sudden halt in expansion of Antarctic sea ice extent this month.

Time will tell whether the increase in Antarctic sea ice extent has come to a halt. It would not be surprising if there is some increase of the ice extent during September or early October, the period when Antarctic sea ice extent reaches it's annual winter maximum. However, it is not unreasonable to speculate that Antarctic sea ice extent may have returned back to its average range. 

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The Revised Republican Presidential Candidate Message on Climate Change - "It's natural"

During mid-January, 2016, it will be announced by NASA, NOAA, and the Japan Meteorological Agency that 2015 was the hottest year in recorded history (Given that 5 of the first 7 months during 2015 have been the hottest for their respective history, it is not so much a question of will 2015 be the hottest year in recorded history, but one of "by how much will it be the warmest?"). At this point, it will become pretty difficult for any political candidate to continue to claim that "global warming is a hoax" without losing credibility among all except those that are in deepest denial. A few Republicans, including Donald Trump, James Inhofe and Rick Santorum, may continue to spout the "hoax" myth, but any candidate that wishes to appeal to a mainstream audience will lose credibility if they deny that we live on a warming planet.

A logical mantra for a presidential candidate that wants to appeal both to the Republican base during the 2016 primaries and also to a mainstream audience during the general election, is to indicate the warming of the planet is "natural". This claim that the warmth of 2015 is "natural" can be supported by indicating that it is part of a trend that has been going on in the short term since the end of "the little ice age" and in the long term since the end of the "ice age".

Given that most of the 2016 Republican primaries will be held during winter, the seasonally cold weather will probably dampen the attention drawn by "global warming" and thus make it easier to down play this issue.

Joining the consensus of climate scientists, and agreeing that mankind is contributing to climate change is going to be challenging for any Republican candidate. The problem is that American voters are unlikely to accept a position of indicating that there is a problem, but not recommending taking any action in regard to the problem. And the various solutions proposed to combat climate change are antithetical to conservative Republicans. New and/or stricter regulations that limit carbon emissions are a non-starter. Supporting a carbon tax would almost certainly be political suicide for a Republican candidate in the primaries. According to a Rasmussen Reports poll, 65% of voters would be opposed to actions that cost them more than $100 a year,

Forty-one percent (41%) say they’re not willing to pay anything more in taxes and utility costs to generate cleaner energy and fight global warming. Another 24% are willing to spend only $100 more per year.

Conclusion

Here are some of the positions Republican presidential candidates can espouse on global warming:

1. It's a hoax
2. I'm not a scientist
3. The data is inconclusive
4. Climate change is natural
5. Mankind is contributing to climate change

Of the above, the first (hoax) would be damaging in the general election. The fifth (anthropogenic climate change) would be a vote killer during the primaries. The second and third claims above come across as awfully lame. Thus, the most logical position for a Republican presidential candidate on climate change is the fourth above, that climate change/global warming is natural. It's instructive that Lindsay Graham, the only Republican candidate that suggests climate change denial will be a problem for the party in 2016, is barely registering in the polls

Additional Information

For reference here are links to a couple of sites that:1) explain why the rise in global temperatures is not simply a continuation of a trend, and 2) another site that makes the case that recent "global warming" is natural

1. http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2012/05/is-climate-change-all-just-a-recovery-from-a-little-ice-age/

2. http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html

Sea Ice - Another Climate Science Denier Claim Melts Away

Climate science deniers are notorious for trying to dismiss climate change by cherry picking dates and massaging data in attempts to obfuscate signs that our planet is warming. In particular, science deniers attempt to downplay the shrinking of Arctic sea ice. They have two tactics for doing so:

1. claiming that the decline in Arctic sea ice is counterbalanced by growth in Antarctic sea ice. Not only is this claim of  equivalence extremely misleading, currently Antarctic sea ice extent is not showing any increase versus the 1981-2010 average, thus even the misleading equivalence claim goes away (at least for this month)
2. utilizing the variability of sea ice melt on a year by year basis by making comparisons of a year with extremely low extent to the current year. The clearly downward trend in Arctic sea ice extent can be obfuscated via cherry picking dates due to annual variability.

Arctic Versus Antarctic Sea Ice Extent

As shown in the images below, as of August 2015, Arctic sea ice is well below average extent, while Antarctic sea ice extent is about average. However, even in years when Antarctic sea ice is of above average extent, claims that they are offsetting are incorrect, as explained in posts from The National Snow & Ice Data Center and Skeptical Science. And a critical reason why they are not counterbalancing is the impact the warming arctic is having on the weather in the Northern Hemisphere. A number of researchers are conducting studies to determine if the weird winter weather in recent years resulting from the unusually wavy jet stream is due to reduced ice extent in the Arctic.

As illustrated in the above image, currently Arctic sea ice extent is more than 1.5 million kilometers below the average during 1981-2010. (Although not as low as during the record setting year of 2012).

The above image shows that as of August 2015, Antarctic sea ice has returned to average levels. Thus, the claims of climate science deniers that the sea ice extent at the two poles are offsetting have completely melted away.

Here is an example of the sea ice myth propagated by climate science deniers:

Arctic sea ice loss is matched by Antarctic sea ice gain. In fact, the global sea-ice record shows virtually no change throughout the past 30 years, because the quite rapid loss of Arctic sea ice since the satellites were watching has been matched by a near-equally rapid gain of Antarctic sea ice. Indeed, when the summer extent of Arctic sea ice reached its lowest point in the 30-year record in mid-September 2007, just three weeks later the Antarctic sea extent reached a 30-year record high. (Chris Monckton) 

Another prime example of a climate science denier mangling facts is provided by James Taylor of the Heartland Institute. In particular, note his use of the word "modest" in the quote provided below. Sorry, Mr. Taylor, but the loss of over a million square miles of Arctic sea ice is anything but "modest".

The alarmist assertion that polar ice sheets are melting is simply false. Although alarmists frequently point to a modest recent shrinkage in the Arctic ice sheet, that decline has been completely offset by ice sheet expansion in the Antarctic. Cumulatively, polar ice sheets have not declined at all since NASA satellite instruments began precisely measuring them 35 years ago.

 As shown in the above images, the claims by climate science deniers that Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extents are counterbalancing or that the decline is Arctic sea ice is "modest" are false.

Cherry Picking Data

In 2013, it was widely reported by climate science deniers that Arctic sea ice extent had increased by 29%. This was indeed true. But what made reports of the recovery of the Arctic sea ice extent misleading was that it was based on cherry picking a year with record low extent (2012) as the baseline year. 

A quick glance at the image below makes obvious that Arctic sea ice is not recovering, simply that the decline is variable from year to year. While the record low for Arctic sea ice extent in 2012 has not been matched during the last 3 years, based on the well established trend, a new record low is almost certain to be established within the next few years. Climate science deniers are notorious for comparing current year results to the data from record setting years, and thus trying to obfuscate the clearly established trends. Sadly, arctic sea ice is not recovering. In fact in 2015, it is likely that before the end of the melt season both the Northwest and Northeast passages through the Arctic will be ice free and navigable without the need for an icebreaker.

Conclusion

We live in a warming world. Climate science deniers go through all kinds of contortions to try to dispute this conclusion. But their clams that declining Arctic sea ice is "warmist" propaganda is currently completely invalid

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