Antarctic Sea Ice Reaches Record High

Extreme Views About Extreme Events

By Guest Column Dr. Benny Peiser (Bio and Archives)  Thursday, September 20, 2012 | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us

Better climate models are needed before exceptional events can be reliably linked to global warming.—Nature, 20 September 2012

In March 2012 the IPCC issued a report on extreme climatic events and climate change attribution and was sure there was good evidence for a link. It said: “Evidence suggests that climate change has led to changes in climate extremes such as heat waves, record high temperatures and, in many regions, heavy precipitation in the past half century…” The main message from the report is that we know enough to make good decisions about managing the risks of climate-related disasters. Today’s issue of the journal Nature contains a landmark editorial that reigns back from such extreme talk. Contradicting the IPCC it says that the science is too immature to attribute individual events to climate change. In essence the Nature Editorial says that the standard of proof accepted by some scientists would not be good enough for the courts. —David Whitehouse, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, 20 September 2012

Recent data show a historical and dramatic decline in the Arctic summer sea ice extent. This is believed to be bad news for marine organisms living under the ice. But new research show that perhaps some of the species actually have adapted to minimal ice cover in summer. The scientists call their hypothesis the “Nemo hypothesis”.—The University Centre in Svalbard, 14 September 2012

When Arctic ice is strongly negative, Antarctic ice is strongly positive, and vice-versa.—Steven Goddard, Real Science, 16 September 2012

A recent paper in the Journal of Climate finds that most climate models erroneously predict that Antarctic sea ice extent decreased over the past 30 years, which “differs markedly from that observed.”  As noted in the abstract, Antarctic sea ice has confounded the models by instead increasing over the satellite era. In fact, it is currently at a record extent that is more than 2 standard deviations above the 1979-2000 average.—The Hockey Schtick, 18 September 2012

There has been a wave of triumphal announcements by climate change proponents recently, almost giddy over the summer shrinkage of the Arctic ice sheet. “Lowest level ever!” they proclaim, thought that is not quite true. Nonetheless, the Arctic pack ice has been receding over the last decade or so, but that is only natural. During the Holocene Climate Optimum, around 6,000 years ago, temperatures in the Arctic were 4°C higher than today and the Arctic Ocean may have been totally ice free during the summer. That this happened before makes the melting of the Arctic sea ice not a particularly bothersome thing; even the “endangered” polar bears managed to live through this balmy period in the high Arctic. –Doug Hoffman, The Resilient Earth, 19 September 2012

Chester could become the Dallas of England’s north after a large natural gas field was discovered on the outskirts of the city. Drilling firm IGas Energy says test results indicate more than nine trillion cubic feet of shale gas at its Ince Marshes site near Elton and other North West sites – the equivalent of 1,600 million barrels of oil.—Chester Chronicle, 20 September 2012