Good news for Arctic, as sea ice volume up by half
Arctic sea ice last month was around 50 percent higher in volume compared with a year earlier, following a recovery in area this summer, the European Space Agency (ESA) said Monday. ● This is some good news for the Arctic, but does not reverse a longer trend of decline, it said. Data from ESA’s high-tech ice-monitoring satellite CryoSat found that in October this year, there was about 9,000 cubic kilometres (2,100 cu. miles) of sea ice in the Arctic. A year earlier, the volume was 6,000 cu. kms (1,400 cu. miles). When measured over a timescale of several years, ice in October 2013 was about 30 centimetres (19 inches) thicker than last year’s — a rise of about 20 percent. Sea ice is ocean water that freezes in extremely low temperatures. In the Arctic, this ice goes through regular swings, contracting in the northern hemisphere’s summer and expanding in its winter. As a result, the changes are considered a bellwether of global warming, although experts also warn that only decades-long data can show whether something is a trend — meaning a man-made shift in climate — rather than a blip in the weather.
TruthSeeker, Comment — Dec 17, 2013 ■ Interesting how this story is being reported elsewhere in the corporate media. For example the Independent, long given to spouting N.W.O. party lines aimed at the liberal middle-class sometimes known as the “chattering classes”, reports that the increase in volume is “probably only a temporary respite“. That maybe but it it’s as well to recall that just 13-years-ago the very same Independent predicted that Flashback: Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past. Since then, of course, Britain has seen plenty of snow in some of its worst winters in decades. So one should be a little sceptical by any of the Independent’s claims about climate.