Climate Denial Crock of the Week

We continue to move toward the annual northern sea ice minimum, increasingly a subject of compulsively glum fascination for climate wonks.  I’m gathering material for this year’s video on the subject. Meanwhile, will update here.

One of the most consistently bone-headed canards you’ll hear for climate deniers is that, though they will grudgingly, sometimes, allow that, ok, the satellite pictures are pretty clear – northern polar ice is decreasing – BUT, they quickly add, sea ice around antarctica is increasing, therefore, globally, sea ice is a wash, or increasing, or something.

The best online rebuttal is the global sea ice anomaly graph at the University of Illinois’ Cryosphere Today.  Unfortunately the graph is scaled so as to be difficult to reproduce on a page like this. So I’ve focused on the most relevant portion, which shows quite clearly the condition and trend of global sea ice. That is, downward. (click the image to see the large scale complete graph)

Northern polar ice has been decreasing at a rate of 11 percent per decade, while southern ice has been, (at least until this year, when it has been kind of stagnant) increasing at a measly 0.7 % per decade. The net is, globally declining sea ice.

Current NSIDC northern ice graph below.

As always, you may click for the larger image.