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 April 2008 had the third highest recorded amount since records were started in 1979, contradicting media coverage of diminishing sea ice.
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.
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. Source
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