Antarctic Cooling

Max Dunn — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 19:31:00 -0800

In my son’s 7th grade social studies class today, he was given an article that discussed how the warming of the Antarctic was melting ice sheets and reducing the population of some penguin colonies. However, while the breakup of the Larsen B ice shelf was unexpectedly rapid, the Antarctic as a whole has actually had stable or decreasing temperatures and the overall ice pack has probably been growing. Even the IPCC recognizes this by stating:

“Antarctic sea ice extent continues to show interannual variability and localised changes but no statistically significant average trends, consistent with the lack of warming refl ected in atmospheric temperatures averaged across the region.” [1]

Another source confirms that:

“it is also clear from satellite data that surface temperatures decreased during the years 1982 through 2002” and “the Antarctic ice sheet had gained enough mass between 1992 and 2003 to slow sea level rise at a rate of about 1 cm/century” [2]

And one source states:

“over the past four decades, and during the time of the greatest build-up of greenhouse gases, Antarctica has been cooling!” [3]

These observations in no way disprove global warming in general. However, they do clearly show is that climate change is very complex science and that you can’t draw simple or universal conclusions based on it.

[1] IPCC AR4 Summary for Policymakers (Page 9)

[2] Is Antarctic climate changing?

[3] Antarctica: Warming, Cooling, or Both?

Eschew Obfuscation: Antarctic Cooling

Antarctic Cooling