Recently there has been much clamor about the shrinking of the Northern Ice cap. You can even view the ice sheet coverage over the last 28 years. Indeed I was suprised to see that post summer ice coverage steadily decreased across the late 80's and nineties. (See for yourself here)
But then I discovered that the Southern ice cap which covers Antarctica has steadily been growing over the same time period while also reaching record low temperatures.
Now I'm no earth climate scientist but something's a little funny here.
The proposition of Global Warming posits that the atmosphere of the earth is warming due to increased emission of green house gases like CO2, methane, NO2, water vapor etc.
This may help (if Gobal Warming theory could show that increased atmospheric temperatures directly result in increased land temperatures) to explain why the North Pole is shrinking. It could also explain melting glaciers.
However, the Antarctic growth seems a rather large piece of evidence to the contrary. Global Warming theory does also posit that as a result of increased atmospheric temperature, water retention in the atmosphere is also increased. Perhaps there is an increase in snow fall over the Antarctic continent. But then why isn't the Northern ice cap increasing as well?
I hate to be pessimistic, but perhaps either the global part of the proposition is lacking...or perhaps something else is going on.
Perhaps it's as simple as natural variation in weather and solar output. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that increased particulate output from industry worldwide has shifted weather patterns across the globe, bringing snow to the Antarctic and dry air to the Arctic. In fact, maybe a shrinking Arctic ice cap has nothing to do with Global Temperatures.
Whatever the explanation for the melting/growing ice cap phenomenon, it's important to keep in mind that there are other humanitarian struggles in the world. Going green is not the solution to the world's problems, though it may alleviate some of them. (I still like being green though...it's a good hobby)
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Theo, great find. I had always wondered about whether or not the southern cap was melting at the same rate if at all as the northern cap.
Santa might have to shift his headquarters by 2100.
-specialk
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I am glad you are blogging about this. More people need to hear about this. Why isn't this reported in the media? Record Antarctic Ice cap? That sounds like really big news to me(pun intended).
Maybe it is because they(liberal media types) would have to admit to the fact that it is not proven that global warming is not necessarily man made, and that it may be a part of naturally occurring cycles. They would also have to own up to brown-nosing Al Gore.
To get a glimpse into the mindset of the environmental doomsdayers, watch some of the special features on the movie "Children of Men"(a movie that I rather enjoyed). The all humans are bad, and we must be culled to save the planet retoric is scary.
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An interesting study (which would border on the conspiracy theoretic) would be to look at the major news items over 6 months and then the major governmental/industrial decisions that happen in the same time period.
My theory is that everytime a major piece like Global Warming pops up it's merely a misdirection so that more important and world altering events don't get noticed as much.
Who's doing the misdirecting and policy changing? Not sure...
But hey if it were so easy to pick out the bad guys then it wouldn't be a conspiracy would it?
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The real reasomn for globalwarming (one word) hysteria:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7203514.stm
The EU to OUR rescue...For 3 euros/week/person
Or 3 euros x $1.45 = $4.35/week/person, times 52 weeks = $226.20/year/person.
Times 350 Million Europeans = $79.17 BBBBillions a year!!
Now we're talking some real money and just think of the EUROPEAN bureaucracy they will create and the possibilities of some "lost" millions here and there. I only hope Algore (one word) will manage all that money, for a small stipend!
And that the whole story - watch your wallets, the globalwarmers want YOUR money!
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