Antartic Icesheet melting

[r22weiss]

Article from the Washington Post about the Antartic Icesheet melting more rapidly than thought.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22643132/

However, the icesheet reached a record maximum in recorded history this past winter.

http://icecap.us/images/uploads/current_anom_south.jpg
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/current_365_south.jpg


Thoughts?

[Extremeweatherguy]

yeah, they are doing a report on this right now on NBC. Seems bizarre to me. Melting on the west side but record size overall. NBC is definitely playing this as a global warming (only) caused event though, and they focused mainly on the melt on the west side and not the growth on the east side. Seems a bit biased to me, but then again, I am not really surprised. The media always seems to be more in favor of the doom and gloom scenarios and not the tamer (and probably more likely) possibilities.

[TxWxFrisco]

Never mind... (I don't want my post to be percieved as a political post...) Sorry...

[r22weiss]

Without going out of topic, I just don't understand why NBC is talking about the melting on one side, while just ignoring the growth on the other. Do they realize that on the internet you can find out information about anything? Look at what can be found buy doing a simple search for Artic and Antartic ice.

I have always found it interesting that the media only reports on Antartica during the winter here, when of course there is icemelt in the Southern Hemisphere. Apparently they think that most people don't realize that it's summer down there.

[x-y-no]

Article from the Washington Post about the Antartic Icesheet melting more rapidly than thought.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22643132/

However, the icesheet reached a record maximum in recorded history this past winter.

http://icecap.us/images/uploads/current_anom_south.jpg
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/current_365_south.jpg


Thoughts?

Those links are to sea ice anomaly - which is not the same as the volume of the ice sheets on land. In fact (although I'm not claiming definitively that this is the case here) a more rapid flow of the land ice sheets would increase the amount of sea ice.

[x-y-no]

Without going out of topic, I just don't understand why NBC is talking about the melting on one side, while just ignoring the growth on the other. Do they realize that on the internet you can find out information about anything? Look at what can be found buy doing a simple search for Artic and Antartic ice.

At least according to this latest research it's not true to claim "growth on the other." This study indicates the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is stable.

I have always found it interesting that the media only reports on Antartica during the winter here, when of course there is icemelt in the Southern Hemisphere. Apparently they think that most people don't realize that it's summer down there.

Well, since the interesting question is the trend in ice volume, I'm not sure why this would matter.

[r22weiss]

At least according to this latest research it's not true to claim "growth on the other." This study indicates the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is stable.

This study was also from 2006. 2007 showed growth on the East side and on the Icesheet over all.

Edit: how nice of NBC to pull the story off their site.

[x-y-no]

This study was also from 2006. 2007 showed growth on the East side and on the Icesheet over all.

Your source for this? I watch climate issues pretty closely and haven't seen any data showing a change in the volume of the East Antarctic ice sheet in 2007.

Edit: how nice of NBC to pull the story off their site.

Huh ... "expired" ... I agree that's kind of crappy. And all they offer is a link to the Post's front page.

[x-y-no]

Found the article on the Post's site HERE.

That's behind the (free) registration firewall, so if anyone prefers, I'll copy/paste it in this thread.

[Sanibel]

The averages, despite places where trends seem to be opposite, are all pointing to GW. You can't just ignore this while calling yourselves the victim of bias.