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Sea Ice Extent Sinks To Record Lows At Both Poles (sciencedaily.com)

According to NASA, Arctic sea ice appears to have reached on March 7 a record low wintertime maximum extent. On the opposite side of the planet, Antartica ice hit its lowest extent ever recorded by satellites (since satellites began measuring sea ice in 1979) on March 3 at the end of summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Science Daily reports: Total polar sea ice covered 6.26 million square miles (16.21 million square kilometers), which is 790,000 square miles (2 million square kilometers) less than the average global minimum extent for 1981-2010 -- the equivalent of having lost a chunk of sea ice larger than Mexico. The ice floating on top of the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas shrinks in a seasonal cycle from mid-March until mid-September. As the Arctic temperatures drop in the autumn and winter, the ice cover grows again until it reaches its yearly maximum extent, typically in March. The ring of sea ice around the Antarctic continent behaves in a similar manner, with the calendar flipped: it usually reaches its maximum in September and its minimum in February. This winter, a combination of warmer-than-average temperatures, winds unfavorable to ice expansion, and a series of storms halted sea ice growth in the Arctic. This year's maximum extent, reached on March 7 at 5.57 million square miles (14.42 million square kilometers), is 37,000 square miles (97,00 square kilometers) below the previous record low, which occurred in 2015, and 471,000 square miles (1.22 million square kilometers) smaller than the average maximum extent for 1981-2010.

3 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. FACT: Global Warming is bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Ivar Giaever (nobel prize winner in physics):

    Nobel Laureate Ivar Giaever Quits Physics Group over Stand on Global Warming

    The claim (how can you measure the average temperature of the whole earth for a whole year?) is that the temperature has changed from ~288.0 to ~288.8 degree Kelvin in about 150 years, which (if true) means to me is that the temperature has been amazingly stable, and both human health and happiness have definitely improved in this 'warming' period.

    I resigned from the society in 2011. First: nothing in science is incontrovertible. Second: the âoemeasuredâ average temperature increase in 100 years or so, is 0.8 Kelvin. Third: since the Physical Society claim it has become warmer, why is everything better than before? Forth: the maximum average temperature ever measured was in 1998, 17 years ago. When will we stop wasting money on alternative energy?

  2. Re:Similar by microbox · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Climate science is "systems science". It is very much a hard science; however, there'll always be uncertainties for political ideologues to talk up. We've got about a 10% of creating a disaster, and no second planet earth yo move to, and that alone means we should be talking about appropriate actions, and not *if* there's a problem. It's very easy for the oil industry to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt over the science, which is just a tried and true political game. The scientists themselves will not (by and large) explain what to do -- that's not their expertise -- but they are convinced that there is a problem, and their reasons are clearly explained. Skepticalscience.com has a summary of "skeptic arguments" and what scientists say. You can always read the peer reviewed literature yourself. But somehow I think you'll just retreat back to your blog and news sites, which give you the information you want to believe.

    --

    Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
  3. Re: Oh well by kenaaker · · Score: 4, Interesting
    In Jared Diamond's book "Collapse", he has a list of stages that all the societies that collapsed went through.

    They go something like this

    There's nothing going on that would negatively affect our society

    There might be something going on that would negatively affect our society, but nobody knows for certain. So, we shouldn't do anything different.

    There's probably something going on that would negatively affect our society, but it would cost too much to do anything about it.

    Our society is definitely in trouble, but it's too late for us to do anything about it. Everybody pray..

    Of course, there are also societies described that didn't collapse, but they had a different response at some stage before the last on.