North Pole Could be Ice-Free This Summer

i know i'm always stressing that the environment takes precedent over most issues, only because we can live without money, or gasoline but we cannot live without oxygen or food

Here we go again. Panic stations everyone, the ice is declining in the Arctic. Hansen himself told us why, it is not CO2 but soot on the ice which is doing it.

But never fear, the ice in the Antarctic is increasing, so all is well. The total ice is not changing.

Some interesting stuff has been posted here. Have a look at the map of ice area now and 20 years ago. Also have a look at the graph showing how the IPCCs predictions of global warming have never been met.

There is good material here also, in particular the graph showing that temperature in the atmosphere has been declining for the last few years. http://www.warwickhughes.com/agri/Solar_Arch_NY_Mar2_08.pdf

Yes, it is funny. Not easy to get a laugh these days. At that time Hansen was of the opinion that CO2 was not a very powerful influence but soot on the ice was. Not sure why he now thinks CO2 is the culprit. It seems to conflict with a great many scientific studies.

The greatest weakness of the IPCC position appears to hinge on whether the climate is unstable. They assert that if the temperature reaches a certain threshold level there will be a runaway catastrophic effect due to positive feedback. This seems unlikely as the temperature was considerably higher during the medieval warming but no catastrophe occurred. It was also pretty warm in the 1930s as Hansen said.

It has been a difficult area to study. Here is some recent work which has provided a pretty convincing hypothesis that the climate is not unstable.

As time goes by we can expect other researchers to support or refute this argument. Let us hope we don't spend all our resources on carbon capture, while millions starve, before we know the truth.

SuperUnspecial, you didn't check the atmospheric temperature graph apparently, cooling this decade and now down to 1979 level, and certainly not unusual.

And you didn't check the data on ice. While the ice in the arctic may have declined a little, in the antarctic it has increased. No change overall. Sea levels were once rising but appear to have stopped.

If you look at this data with a true scientist's eye you cannot make a case for global warming. It could just as easily be cooling or just hanging about.

If you look at the sunspot data, or rather the lack of sunspots, there is a good case that we are in for cooling.

It is foolish to be preparing for global warming when global cooling is just as likely or more likely. We should obviously be preparing for both.

To be investing in the horribly expensive and untested carbon capture is clearly folly.

It's not just "anyone's" graph. It comes from UAH where they have been studying the data ever since the satellite method was developed. They are the world experts.

And if you stick to the IPCC scientists you will be with the minority. 30000 scientists have signed a petition protesting that the CO2 theory is wrong.