GLOBAL WARMING IN ANTARCTICA

Cliff Harris is a world-renowned climatologist whose office is here in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.  This article appeared in the Coeur d’Alene Press on Monday, April 21, 2008, the second of three articles.

Media hype on 'melting' Antarctic ignores record ice growth

As mentioned last week in part I of our three-part global cooling series in Gems, the media is once again hyping an allegedly dire consequence of man-made global warming. This time the media is promoting the ice loss of one tiny fraction of the giant ice-covered continent and completely ignoring the current record ice growth overall on Antarctica. Contrary to media hype, the vast majority of Antarctica has cooled over the past 50 years and ice coverage has grown to record levels since Satellite monitoring began in the 1970s, according to peer-reviewed studies and scientists who study the area.

Former Weather Channel meteorologist Joe D'Aleo rejected the hype surrounding the recent Wilkins Ice Shelf collapse in western Antarctica. "The shattered part of the Wilkins ice sheet was 160 square miles in area, which is just 0.01 percent of the total current Antarctic ice cover, like an icicle falling from a snow and ice covered roof," D'Aleo wrote on March 25. "We are very likely going to exceed last year's record (for Southern Hemisphere ice extent). Yet the world is left with the false impression Antarctica's ice sheet is also starting to disappear," D'Aleo added.

Climate scientist Ben Herman, past director of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and former Head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona, stated, "It is interesting that all of the AGW (anthropogenic global warming) stories concerning Antarctica are always about what's happening around the (western) peninsula, which seems to be the only place on Antarctica that has shown warming. How about the net "no change" or "cooling" over the rest of the continent, which is probably about 95 percent of the land mass, not to mention the record sea ice coverage recently."

But the news media sadly tossed out objectivity and balance when it came to this new Antarctic story. Media headlines blared: Bye-bye, Antarctica? (Salon Magazine 3-26-'08); Massive ice shelf collapsing off Antarctica (C/Net News 3- 26-'08); Slab of Antarctic ice shelf collapses amid warming (Reuters 3-26-'08); Ice shelf hangs by a thread (Sydney Morning Herald 2-26-'08).

Other scientists and peer-reviewed studies have recently debunked the notion of a "melting" Antarctic as well. The following quotes were compiled by our friend and colleague, Paul Berenson, berenson@cox.net.

Former Virginia State Climatologist Dr. Patrick Michaels and Paul C. Knappenberger, a senior researcher with New Hope Environmental Services posted comments on Antarctica in February on their Web site WorldClimateReport.com. Michaels and Knappenberger wrote a Feb. 27, 2008, article titled "Antarctica Ain't Cooperating:" Another major article on temperature trends in the Antarctic has appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research by a team of scientists from Ohio State University, the University of Illinois, and the Goddard Space Flight Center; the research was funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs Glaciology Program. That is correct -- despite all you have heard elsewhere on the subject, the South Pole has been cooling over the past half century. The previous research team also reported that any warming in Antarctica has slowed and the cooling has accelerated in the more recent three decades. According to Monaghan et al., yet another team previously examined Antarctic temperatures and "noted that prior to 1965 the continent-wide annual trends (through 2002) are slightly positive, but after 1965 they are mainly negative (despite warming over the Antarctic Peninsula)." The truth from Antarctica is hard for the greenhouse crusade to accept, and in the long run, the truth from Antarctica might melt away the flimsy, well-publicized claims about global climate change -- especially the concerns of a rapid sea level rise."

In addition, the media's reporting on the alleged "melting" of Antarctica fails to take into account other factors. "Volcano, Not Global Warming Effects, May be Melting an Antarctic Glacier" read a headline in a January 21, 2008, article. The article read in part: Scientists have discovered a layer of volcanic ash and glass shards in Antarctica, evidence of an old eruption by a still active volcano that researchers believe may be contributing to the thinning of Antarctic glacial ice. Hugh F.J. Corr and David G. Vaughan, two scientists with the British Antarctic Survey, recently published their discovery of the volcanic layer in the journal Nature Geoscience. The discovery is unique, according to Dr. Vaughan. He said, "This is the first time we have seen a volcano beneath the ice sheet punch a hole through the ice sheet." The volcano's heat could possibly be melting and thinning the ice and raising the speed of the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica. (Other links on Antarctic Volcanoes: Map of volcanoes in Antarctica; and NASA Image of Antarctic Peninsula and Pacific "Ring of Fire" groups of volcanoes.)

Another inconvenient fact that the media likes to avoid is Antarctica ice extent GREW to record levels in 2007. A Sept. 11, 2007, article on IceCap.US explained: "While the news focus has been on the lowest ice extent since satellite monitoring began in 1979 for the Arctic, the Southern Hemisphere (Antarctica) has quietly set a new record for most ice extent since 1979. This can be seen on this graphic from this University of Illinois site, The Cryosphere Today, which updated snow and ice extent for both hemispheres daily. The Southern Hemispheric areal coverage is the highest in the satellite record, just beating out 1995, 2001, 2005 and 2006. Since 1979, the trend has been up for the total Antarctic ice extent."

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