Antarctic sea ice: ABC get it wrong again

ABC gets the facts wrong on Antarctic sea ice in this report...

Arctic sea ice is smallest size on record over northern winter
At the other end of the planet, the NSIDC said earlier this month that sea ice around Antarctica was the fourth-smallest for summer. Climate scientists say the apparently contradictory trend may be tied to changing winds and currents.

What NSIDC actually said:

By sharp contrast, sea ice in Antarctica was at satellite-era record high daily levels for much of 2014. On September 22, 2014, Antarctic ice extent reached 20.11 million square kilometers (7.76 million square miles). This was the first year in the modern satellite record that Antarctic ice extent climbed above 20 million square kilometers (7.72 million square miles).

we pay for rubbish like this!

Arctic sea ice gone by 2013! Where's my update?

Back in 2007 ABC's alarmist current affairs program AM, lead by Tony Eastley (who was paid by the Climate Commission to MC one of its meetings) reported that the Arctic could be ice free by 2013 (see here). In its report ABC provided no critical questioning and did not ask for other opinions at the time. It ended with this dire warning from reporter Barbara Miller: "As the world meets in Bali, Al Gore went on to repeat his calls for tough action on climate change. The trouble is, it looks increasingly like it may already be too late."

The latest National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC) – click image to view at source  image of arctic ice extent showing that the summer melt for 2013 has turned the corner. The figures indicate the forecast ABC trumpeted was incorrect, only by about 5,000,000 square kilometers.

Perhaps we can have an update from Auntie, or would this be too embarrassing?

CC Tony Eastley
CC Barbara Miller
CC Alan Sunderland

Missing News: Arctic Sea Ice

According to a  BBC report: Scientists say current concerns over a tipping point in the disappearance of Arctic sea ice may be misplaced. See the rest of the story, missing from the ABC at the BBC. ABC's most recent report on Arctic Sea predictably promotes the opposite view: Arctic ice melting fast.

Missing News: Arctic sea ice loss not just reliant on temperature

Back in 2007 when Arctic Sea Ice hit its lowest level in the satellite era ABC reported:
"Sea ice in the northern hemisphere has plunged to the lowest levels ever measured, a US Arctic specialist says, adding that it is likely to be part of a long-term trend of polar ice melt driven by global warming."


Like many aspects of climate science it seems the real story is a little more complicated, as suggested by a new study currently under open review at the journal "The Cryosphere". The paper is titled Recent wind driven high sea ice export in the Fram Strait contributes to Arctic sea ice decline (Link HERE). 

Interesting ABC Science has failed to provide any information about the unique method of peer review at The Cryosphere that makes reviewers comments available for scrutiny.

The review process involves:

The Cryosphere has an innovative two-stage publication process which involves a scientific discussion forum and exploits the full potential of the Internet to:

• foster scientific discussion;
• enhance the effectiveness and transparency of scientific quality assurance;
• enable rapid publication;
• make scientific publications freely accessible.

In the first stage, papers that pass a rapid access-review by one of the editors are immediately published on the The Cryosphere Discussions (TCD) website. They are then subject to Interactive Public Discussion, during which the referee’s comments (anonymous or attributed), additional short comments by other members of the scientific community (attributed) and the author’s replies are also published in TCD. In the second stage, the peer-review process is completed and, if accepted, the final revised papers are published in TC. To ensure publication precedence for authors, and to provide a lasting record of scientific discussion, TCD and TC are both ISSN-registered, permanently archived and fully citable.