Arctic ice melt third-largest on record

I suppose I should say something about the nonsense below. Assuming that the figures given are accurate and not "massaged" (which is by no means certain given chronic Warmist secrecy about their raw data), how does the report jibe with the COOLING in central Greenland? Easy. Central Greenland is on land. The report below concerns floating ice. And it is known that ocean currents and sub-surface vulcanism affect sea-ice extent. So it is clearly influences such as those which are at work in the data below: NOT "global warming". The fact that there has in fact been no global warming for the last 10 years renders that conclusion a certainty. NOTE: The subarctic Gakkel ridge mapped below is the most active volcanic region known on earth. You'd melt if you had a volcano under you too -- JR



The Arctic's sea ice pack thawed to its third-lowest summer level on record, continuing an overall decline symptomatic of climate change, US scientists said. The melt was up slightly from the seasonal melt of the past two years, but still some 20 per cent below the minmum cover for the Arctic summer since satellites began measuring it in 1979.

The range of ocean remaining frozen over the northern polar region reached its minimum extent for 2009 on September 12, when it covered 5.1 million square km, and now appeared to be growing again as the Arctic starts its annual cool-down, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported. That level was 24 per cent less than the 1979-2000 average, the Colorado-based government agency said.

This summer's minimum represented a loss about about two-thirds of the sea ice measured at the height of Arctic winter in March. By comparison, the Arctic ice shelf typically shrank by a little more than half each summer during the 1980s and 1990s, ice scientist Walt Meier said. The lowest point on record was reached in September 2007 and the 2009 minimum ranks as the third-smallest behind last year's level.

But scientists said they do not consider the slight upward fluctuation again this summer to be a recovery. The difference was attributed to relatively cooler temperatures this summer compared with the two previous years. Winds also tended to disperse the ice pack over a larger region, scientists said. "The long-term decline in summer extent is expected to continue in future years," the report said.

Scientists regard the Arctic and its sea ice as among the most sensitive barometers of global warming because even small temperature changes made a huge difference. "If you go from a degree below freezing to two degrees above freezing, that's a completely different environment in the polar region," Mr Meier said. "You're going from ice skating to swimming. Whereas if you're on a tropical beach and it's three degrees warmer, you probably wouldn't even notice it."

World leaders will meet at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday to discuss a climate treaty due to be agreed on in December.

SOURCE

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