Actual Good News: Ice at Arctic and Antarctic poles "much more stable" than climate scientists once predicted

Al Gore hardest hit...

Via Express:

In fact, the poles are "much more stable" than climate scientists once predicted and could even be much thicker than previously thought.
For years, scientists have suggested that both poles are melting at an alarming rate because of warming temperatures - dangerously raising the Earth's sea levels while threatening the homes of Arctic and Antarctic animals.
But the uncertainty surrounding climate change and the polar ice caps reached a new level this month when research suggested the ice in the Antarctic is actually growing.
And there could even be evidence to suggest the polar bear population is not under threat.
Ted Maksym, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, conducted a study in which he sent an underwater robot into the depths of the Antarctic sea to measure the ice.
His results contradicted previous assumptions made by scientists and showed that the ice is actually much thicker than has been predicted over the last 20 years.[...]

The data from the European Space Agency CryoSat-2 satellite suggests that Arctic sea ice volumes in the autumn of 2014 were above the average set over the last five years, and sharply up on the lows recorded in 2011 and 2012.
According to this research, Arctic sea ice volumes in October and November this year averaged at 10,200 cubic kilometres. Keep on reading...

Russia discovers huge new oilfield in Arctic...

You can be sure they won't let environmental concerns keep them from developing it.

Via Bloomberg:

Russia, viewed by the Obama administration as hostile to U.S. interests, has discovered what may prove to be a vast pool of oil in one of the world’s most remote places with the help of America’s largest energy company.
Russia’s state-run OAO Rosneft said a well drilled in the Kara Sea region of the Arctic Ocean with Exxon Mobil Corp. struck oil, showing the region has the potential to become one of the world’s most important crude-producing areas.
The announcement was made by Igor Sechin, Rosneft’s chief executive officer, who spent two days sailing on a Russian research ship to the drilling rig where the find was unveiled today. The well found about 1 billion barrels of oil and similar geology nearby means the surrounding area may hold more than the U.S. part of the Gulf or Mexico, he said.
“It exceeded our expectations,” Sechin said in an interview. This discovery is of “exceptional significance in showing the presence of hydrocarbons in the Arctic.”

Checking Al Gore’s prediction Arctic would be ICE-FREE by now.

Uh, no.

Via MailOnline:

Arctic Ice recovers 29% in 2013

In all fairness, 2012 was a record low.

Via The Daily Mail:

A chilly Arctic summer has left 533,000 more square miles of ocean covered with ice than at the same time last year – an increase of 29 per cent.

The rebound from 2012’s record low comes six years after the BBC reported that global warming would leave the Arctic ice-free in summer by 2013.

Instead, days before the annual autumn re-freeze is due to begin, an unbroken ice sheet more than half the size of Europe already stretches from the Canadian islands to Russia’s northern shores.

The Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has remained blocked by pack-ice all year. More than 20 yachts that had planned to sail it have been left ice-bound and a cruise ship attempting the route was forced to turn back.

Some eminent scientists now believe the world is heading for a period of cooling that will not end until the middle of this century – a process that would expose computer forecasts of imminent catastrophic warming as dangerously misleading.

Flashback Video: In 2007, Al Gore predicted Arctic could be ice free by now....

The actual situation is there has been record growth in Arctic ice this year.



Well, Al Gore did get a "D" in Natural Science at Harvard...

Global Cooling Alert: Arctic Ice increases 60% over the same time last year

In all fairness, last year Arctic Ice did retreat to a low level, but this is quite a rebound in Ice.

A chilly Arctic summer has left nearly a million more square miles of ocean covered with ice than at the same time last year – an increase of 60 per cent.

The rebound from 2012’s record low comes six years after the BBC reported that global warming would leave the Arctic ice-free in summer by 2013.

Instead, days before the annual autumn re-freeze is due to begin, an unbroken ice sheet more than half the size of Europe already stretches from the Canadian islands to Russia’s northern shores.

The Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has remained blocked by pack-ice all year. More than 20 yachts that had planned to sail it have been left ice-bound and a cruise ship attempting the route was forced to turn back.

Some eminent scientists now believe the world is heading for a period of cooling that will not end until the middle of this century – a process that would expose computer forecasts of imminent catastrophic warming as dangerously misleading.

Read more here...

Chart of the Day: Arctic Sees Shortest Summer On Record

Via Climate Depot:

Unprecedented July Cold – Arctic Sees Shortest Summer On Record
http://iceagenow.info/2013/08/unprecedented-july-cold-arctic-sees-shortest-summer-record/
“Normally the high Arctic has about 90 days above freezing. This year there was less than half that,”  says Steven Goddard website.

Will this make Al Gore's head explode? Extraordinarily cold winter temperatures at the North Pole is causing an ozone hole.

Extraordinarily cold winter temperatures at the North Pole is causing an ozone hole.

(Daily Mail) — The first ozone hole above the North Pole has been aggravated by extraordinarily cold winter temperatures, say scientists.

Cooling of the ozone layer enhances the effect of ozone-destroying substances such as chlorofluorocarbons — CFC.

A repeated ozone hole above the Arctic is to be expected, say scientists from the KIT Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research.

About a year ago, the scientists detected that ozone degradation above the Arctic for the first time reached an extent comparable to that of the ozone hole above the South Pole.

At a level of around 13 miles above the ground, 80 per cent of the ozone was lost, potentially exposing people on Earth’s surface to harmful ultraviolet-B rays from the sun, which can cause sunburn and skin cancer.

According to the study, occurrence of the Arctic ozone hole was mainly due to the extraordinarily cold temperatures in the ozone layer that is located at about 18 km height in the stratosphere, i.e. the second layer of the earth’s atmosphere.

Read more here…

Whatever happened to the Arctic ice tipping point?

Image by Leonie Scholosser

Do you remember the claims Arctic ice had reached a tipping point and would disappear in the near future?

Joey Comiso reports that this year’s large Arctic sea ice decline may be the tipping point for perennial ice and a recovery may no longer [be] possible in the foreseeable future.

Just like many of the anthropogenic global warming crowds claims, it was false.

Scientists say current concerns over a tipping point in the disappearance of Arctic sea ice may be misplaced.

Danish researchers analysed ancient pieces of driftwood in north Greenland which they say is an accurate way to measure the extent of ancient ice loss.
Writing in the journal Science, the team found evidence that ice levels were about 50% lower 5,000 years ago.

They say changes to wind systems can slow down the rate of melting.
They argue, therefore, that a tipping point under current scenarios is unlikely.

Too Good to Make Up: Global Warming Alarmist Rescued From North Pole Before Freezing To Death

From Smitheringale expedition album day six.

You just can't make up stuff this good. TOM Smitheringale had to be rescued from his trek to the North Pole to highlight global warming. This is the fourth year in a row global warming alarmists have needed rescue.

The Herald Sun Reported:

TOM Smitheringale wanted to prove the world was warming. Now he’s another alarmist with frostbite....

And last week he had to be rescued by Canadian soldiers after falling through the ice sheet.

“(I) came very close to the grave,” he said, on being flown out.

This is actually now the fourth year running that warming alarmists have had to be rescued...

Polar bears are drowning due to ice loss or Arctic ice has returned to normal. Care to guess which?

Polar bears are pretty good swimmers, so the likelihood of them drowning is slight, but that is not the correct answer. Arctic ice has returned to normal levels for the first time since 2001. Predictions that Arctic ice would completely melt were hyperbole.

IF you thought it was cold in Britain for the time of year, you should see what is happening around the North Pole. Scientists have discovered that the size of the Arctic ice cap has increased sharply to levels not seen since 2001.

A shift in the chilly winds across the Bering Sea over the past few months has caused thousands of square miles of ocean to freeze.

The same phenomenon, known as the Arctic Oscillation...

Over at Watts Up With That, they have constructed a time-line of media reporting on Arctic ice loss.

A timeline for the “breathtakingly ignorant” follows.

2007: record Arctic ice minimum in 2007 – big news, unprecedented, shocking, Navy postgraduate school scientist says Arctic summers to be ice-free ‘by 2013′

2008: ditto, this year’s ice recovery is just a blip, it’s really caught in a “death spiral”

2009: ditto, this recovery for a second year means nothing – Arctic continues death spiral, you people are breathtakingly ignorant

2010: Arctic sea ice approaches normal for this time of year, first time since 2001 – “…reactions to the 2007 melt were overstated…we must be more careful in not reading too much into one event”

This information is hard to square with the NASA GISS claim 2009 was the second hottest year on record. The instrumental temperature record is highly suspect.

Al Gore Spits Shoe leather in Copenhagen

Al Gore got caught making things up. He claimed new research indicated the Arctic could be ice free in five to seven years. However, the climatologist, whose work Al Gore referenced, indicated Al Gore is a big fat liar.

The Times reported:

In his speech, Mr Gore told the conference: "These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years."

However, the climatologist whose work Mr Gore was relying upon dropped the former Vice-President in the water with an icy blast.

"It's unclear to me how this figure was arrived at," Dr Maslowski said. "I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this."

Are the Polar Caps Really Melting Due To Global Warming?

No. We came out of a 'little ice age' around 1850 and the temperature has increased slightly due to this, but nothing abnormal is happening. Global warming alarmists will tell you the polar caps are melting. This isn't exactly true. The University of Illinois keeps the sea ice data. As you can see from the chart below, Arctic ice is decreasing.

However, Antarctic ice is currently increasing.

When you combine the two charts into a global sea ice chart, you can see sea ice has been very stable for the last 150 years.

(Click charts for larger view)