Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Sea Ice is Shrinking at the North Pole, But Growing at the South Pole

Sea ice has been shrinking in the Arctic, at the "North Pole". See this side-by-side comparison of different years to get a sense of the shrinkage. For example, between September 1979 and September 2007, it shrunk from 7.2 to 4.3 million square kilometers.

But at the South Pole (Antarctic), sea ice has been expanding. For example, if you select the appropriate dates in this side-by-side comparison, you will see that the area covered by sea ice grew from 18.4 to 19.2 million square kilometers between September 1979 and September 2007.

Note: I wrote this article to attempt to understand for myself competing claims that ice at the poles was growing or shrinking.

This essay isn't trying to argue or interpret. Rather, it is just presenting facts. It also obviously provides a comparison solely of September 1979 to September 2007 ice coverage, and makes no claims as to any other years. Please analyze other years and other sources of data for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
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5 comments:

  1. Edson PoderosoDecember 18, 2008 at 3:52 AM

    If you really check that right you may also see that there is some kind of fluctuation. It's actually not getting any bigger. Check out year by year next time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Copernicus KiddDecember 18, 2008 at 7:47 AM

    The ice expansion was less than one million square kilometers, while the reduction at the north pole was nearly a full 3 million square kilometers. This is a significant difference.

    ReplyDelete
  3. EdDecember 18, 2008 at 9:48 AM

    I love how all of the reports of North Pole Ice shrinking use the 2007 metric.

    Look at the numbers for 2009 before posting more climate change BS.

    I love your blog, but really, try to stay current.

    ReplyDelete
  4. GreywolfDecember 23, 2008 at 5:48 AM

    George,

    http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=12&fd=22&fy=2007&sm=12&sd=22&sy=2008

    Please try this one, from the Cryosphere Today.
    You can have hours of fun with this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. IanDecember 25, 2008 at 10:30 PM

    I don't have links but i have read that the environmental changes are not only occurring on this planet but on every planet in our milky way galaxy.

    ReplyDelete

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