Melting Pole Ice threat to ports

In a story titled "Arctic sea ice predicted to disappear" ABC's World Today program reported on predictions by US Scientists that the Arctic will be ice free in summer in 20 to 30 years time. Of course it's not the first time such claims have been made, and we suspect it won't be the last. Here's a report from 1952 on the same theme, prior to the advent of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming.

The Mercury  Monday 18 February 1952

See also The Arctic is Melting says Scientist
The Argus 31 May 1947

"A mysterious warming of the Arctic climate is slowly manifesting itself"

Secrets of the North Sea

The Argus 5 February, 1949

"In Greenland, he said, increased temperatures had be-come particularly noticeable."

Warmer Arctic Climate May Raise Ocean Levels

The Sydney Morning Herald Saturday 31 May 1947

"The Arctic change is so serious that I hope an international agency can 

speedily be formed to study conditions on a global basis"

World Weather Hotter, Says Scientist

The Sunday Herald Sunday 21 May 1950

The director of the Museum of Technology and Applied Science, Mr. A. R. Penfold,said yesterday that Sydney was becoming a hotter place to live in.
"The whole world's weather is taking a turn for the better," he said.
"This has been going on for100 years, but the change has
been most marked in the last two decades.

Missing News: Arctic Ice Melt not unprecedented

Yet another story missing for over 2 years....

According to the Geological Survey of Norway.....

Less ice in the Arctic Ocean 6000-7000 years ago

Recent mapping of a number of raised beach ridges on the north coast of Greenland suggests that the ice cover in the Arctic Ocean was greatly reduced some 6000-7000 years ago. The Arctic Ocean may have been periodically ice free.

”The beach ridges which we have had dated to about 6000-7000 years ago were shaped by wave activity,” says Astrid Lyså. They are located at the mouth of Independence Fjord in North Greenland, on an open, flat plain facing directly onto the Arctic Ocean. Today, drift ice forms a continuous cover from the land here.
Astrid Lyså says that such old beach formations require that the sea all the way to the North Pole was periodically ice free for a long time.

Wonder if ABC Science will provide any coverage.

Missing News: Ice cap loss slashed

Waiting for ABC to run something on a study just published in Nature Geoscience...
From an AFP report Climate: New study slashes estimate of icecap loss

PARIS (AFP) - – Estimates of the rate of ice loss from Greenland and West Antarctica, one of the most worrying questions in the global warming debate, should be halved, according to Dutch and US scientists.

In the last two years, several teams have estimated Greenland is shedding roughly 230 gigatonnes of ice, or 230 billion tonnes, per year and West Antarctica around 132 gigatonnes annually.

Together, that would account for more than half of the annual three-millimetre (0.2 inch) yearly rise in sea levels, a pace that compares dramatically with 1.8mm (0.07 inches) annually in the early 1960s.

But, according to the new study, published in the September issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, the ice estimates fail to correct for a phenomenon known as glacial isostatic adjustment.

This is the term for the rebounding of Earth's crust following the last Ice Age.

Read the rest at the link, you're unlikely to read it on the ABC

Before the ABC: Ice islands

THE ARGUS Wednesday 8 February 1911

VILLAGE ON ICE FLOE STRANDED NEAR ISLAND
HELSINGFORS, Feb. 7.
The ice floe upon which an entire fishing village has been carried from the neighbourhood of Bjorko Sound has become stranded near the island of Seibkar.
There are 253 men and a number of horses on the floe. Despite the fact that the temperature is 18deg. below zero, the fishermen refuse to abandon their huts and horses and an extraordinary fine catch of fish which they had secured. Their position is not dangerous at the present time.

Inspired by: Giant ice island breaks away from Greenland

Before the ABC: an occasional snapshot of news in the days BABC

Update: Nothing "unprecedented" in melting ice

(British Antarctic Survey)

We questioned the ABC about the appropriateness of using the photo (shown above) to accompany ABC's report titled "Climategate scientists cleared by British inquiry". The photo shows ice shelves in the Antarctic? Surely a photo of Phil Jones would be more appropriate, or perhaps a shot of the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit? How about the cover of Andrew Montford's book The Hockey Stick Illusion: Climategate and the Corruption of Science. Especially given that recent research shows that current ice levels in Antarctica are not unprecedented (see "Reduced ice extent on the western Antarctic Peninsula at 700–970 cal. yr B.P." published in Geology. July 2010, v. 38, no. 7. referred to in our missing news post Nothing unprecedented in melting ice)  AND current sea ice levels around the Antarctic are at record high levels as confirmed by the graph below from the recent NOAA State of the Climate report. Surprisingly this fact was not covered in ABC's "extensive" coverage of this NOAA report. NOAA indicate: During June 2010, the Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent reached its largest extent on record for June, 8.3 percent above the 1979–2000 average. This is the eighth consecutive June with above-average Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent. Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent for June has increased at an average rate of 1.4 percent per decade.

Here's the guts of ABC's reply, received 29 July, 2010:

On review, Audience and Consumer Affairs do not agree the image was inappropriate. The image depicted ice shelves in Antarctica; one of the issues that have been raised as part of the ongoing debates around climate change. While noting your concerns, we believe the image was appropriate to accompany a story that reported on the outcome of an inquiry into the quality of research on climate change, prompted by the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit.

Accordingly, while noting your concerns, Audience and Consumer Affairs are satisfied the image accompanying the article was in keeping with section 5.2.2(c) of the ABC's Editorial Policies. Nonetheless, please be assured that your comments have been conveyed to ABC News management.

Missing News: Nothing "unprecedented" in melting ice

ABC are fond of using photos of melting ice packs to accompany reports of alarming man made global warming, perhaps to emphasise how "unprecedented" this appears to be. However a recent article titled "Reduced ice extent on the western Antarctic Peninsula at 700-970 cal. yr B.P." published in the prestigious journal "Geology" reports that melting ice in the Antarctic, particularly in the West Antarctica peninsula, is not unprecedented at all, but is quite a common natural occurrence happening regardless of human influence.
The abstract reads:
Rapid warming and consequent ice-shelf collapse have focused attention on the glacial record of the Antarctic Peninsula. Here, we present the first record of terrestrial organic material exposed by recently retreating ice that bears on past glacier extent and climate in this sensitive region. Radiocarbon dates show that ice on Anvers Island was at or behind its present position at 700–970 cal. yr B.P., coincident with ice reduction elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. Moreover, the data indicate that present reduced ice extent on the western Antarctic Peninsula is not unprecedented and is similar to that experienced during at least three periods in the last 5600 yr.

Perhaps the ABC will firstly report on this important new study, and secondly, perhaps it will now find more appropriate imagery to accompany articles on Dangerous Man Made Global Warming, we suggest the figure above is much more appropriate (from We're not scared anymore Mr Gore: SPecial edition - another victim of Totschweigtaktik).


UPDATE: ABC replied to our request for an more appropriate photo to accompany ABC's report Climategate scientists cleared by British inquiry linked to above.
Received 29 July 2010

Thank you for your email of 12 July concerning the image accompanying the ABC News Online article "Climategate scientists cleared by British inquiry" published on 8 July.

 

Your concerns have been investigated by Audience and Consumer Affairs, a unit which is separate to and independent of program making areas within the ABC. In light of your concerns, we have assessed the image associated with the article against the ABC's editorial requirements for accuracy in news and current affairs content, as outlined in section 5.2.2(c) of the ABC's Editorial Policies:http://www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/edpols.htm.

 

On review, Audience and Consumer Affairs do not agree the image was inappropriate. The image depicted ice shelves in Antarctica; one of the issues that have been raised as part of the ongoing debates around climate change. While noting your concerns, we believe the image was appropriate to accompany a story that reported on the outcome of an inquiry into the quality of research on climate change, prompted by the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit.

 

Accordingly, while noting your concerns, Audience and Consumer Affairs are satisfied the image accompanying the article was in keeping with section 5.2.2(c) of the ABC's Editorial Policies. Nonetheless, please be assured that your comments have been conveyed to ABC News management.

 

Thank you again for taking the time to write, and for your interest in the ABC. For your reference, a copy of the ABC Code of Practice is available at: http://www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/documents/200806_codeofpractice-revised_2008.pdf.

 

Yours sincerely

Audience & Consumer Affairs