Climate Change Skepticism - Another Reason
Whilst the media repeatedly talks about the Arctic ice sheet melting (and it is!), the public is almost never told that the Antarctic ice is increasing in size. From the graphic at University of Illinois website 'The Cryosphere Today', the increasing trend can be seen. In fact, since the 1970s, it appears that the amount of ice has increased by 10%)

Considering that the Antarctic contains 90% of the worlds ice (yes, you read that correctly...90%), this is especially significant. (Note that Wikipedia says 90%, however, The Cryosphere Today lists the Arctic as containing 2.92 Million square and the Antarctic containing 16.26 million sq. km. However, this is surface area and not volume - The Antarctic ice has an average depth of 1.6km!)

So really, is the amount of ice actually decreasing or isn't it? I certainly seems like the increase in ice from the Antarctic is more than enough to offset the loss of ice from the Arctic....but that just isn't useful information if you are a scaremongering warmenist.

(HT: Hot Air)
- posted by Alan Grey @ Sunday, September 16, 2007