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sea ice extent this year has improved tremendously.
Not according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. It's better than last year but it's still nearly 2 standard deviations below the 1981-2010 mean.
Not according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. It's better than last year but it's still nearly 2 standard deviations below the 1981-2010 mean.
Yes - their "light at the end of the tunnel" is still an oncoming train - not that they'll recognise it until it hits them.
One thing we should bear in mind is melting sea ice does nothing to our sea levels. Even if the entire Arctic Ocean remained ice free year round, we would not see a sea level rise.
So this doesn't really mean much. The worry climate scientists have over a melting North Pole is what ever it takes to melt Arctic sea ice will very like do the same to the Greenland ice cap and all those glaciers on Baffin Island.
If all that melts, there is only one place it can go and the question one would ask of residents in coastal areas worldwide would be:
"How long....can you....tread water?"
Apparently the cardinal rule of climate science is that the best sea ice extent in 12 years means nothing, but the worst in 12 years means we're all doomed. You can look it up: in the earlier part of the melt season it was the best in 12 years, but if you don't want to accept any facts that are contrary to your agenda there's nothing I can do about it.
Not according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. It's better than last year but it's still nearly 2 standard deviations below the 1981-2010 mean.
If it keeps tracking as it is, it could match the 2004 minimum. It is all a gamble though, you never know what will happen. For instance, last year, the extreme minimum was due to a storm that came in and broke up all of the ice late in the season.
You are correct though, this is not evidence of a recovery back to norm (it is still trending below average), but... nor has the loss been evidence of the contrary (evidence of a progression to complete loss as Mark Serreze at the NSIDC has claimed in the past).
Overall, global sea ice is "average" currently, obviously not due to the Arctic, but due to the well above average Antarctic.
One thing we should bear in mind is melting sea ice does nothing to our sea levels. Even if the entire Arctic Ocean remained ice free year round, we would not see a sea level rise.
So this doesn't really mean much. The worry climate scientists have over a melting North Pole is what ever it takes to melt Arctic sea ice will very like do the same to the Greenland ice cap and all those glaciers on Baffin Island.
If all that melts, there is only one place it can go and the question one would ask of residents in coastal areas worldwide would be:
"How long....can you....tread water?"
Greenland ice melt has its own issues. For instance, the previous surface loss was attributed to a 150 year trend that apparently Greenland goes through. Also, the year they reported the melt, shortly after it froze back over. This year, it had a late july storm that provided a solid snow pack over it.
In the end, much of this is politicized and attempting to draw any long term conclusions is advantageous to a point.
If it keeps tracking as it is, it could match the 2004 minimum.
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