Antarctic sea ice is undergoing dramatic long-term expansion despite a Newsweek article this week claiming the opposite. Newsweek’s false claim continues a long track record of global warming alarmists inventing false narratives to deceive the public on climate change.
On Monday afternoon, Newsweek published an article titled, “How Global Warming Threatens Antarctic Animals.” Newsweek’s Victoria Bekiempis begins the article by writing, “In Antarctica, the movement of icebergs is seasonal. When winter hits, the sea surface freezes, locking icebergs into place and preventing them from colliding on the seabed—where most Antarctic species live. For at least the last half century, however, global warming has led to a dramatic decline in this winter ice, meaning there are more glacial collisions, known as ‘scouring,’ on the Antarctic seabed.” Bekiempis spends the rest of the article claiming bottom-dwelling species off the Antarctic coast “cannot cope” with more frequent iceberg scouring associated with less sea ice and blaming global warming for less Antarctic sea ice.
Bekiempis’ article is preposterous on its face. Objective sea ice data reported by NASA satellites show Antarctic sea ice is undergoing a dramatic, long-term expansion. The expansion is so dramatic that global sea ice has been above the long-term average nearly continuously for the past year and a half despite the much-ballyhooed decline in Northern Hemisphere Arctic sea ice. In fact, Antarctic sea ice has already set several new records this year for most ice extent ever measured.
Adding some frosting to the alarmist cake, Bekiempis concludes her article by claiming, “two groups of scientists released reports that Antarctic ice melt had passed ‘the point of no return.’” Bekiempis’ claim reveals her ignorance and/or mendacity making false global warming claims. As I documented in a Forbes.com article last month, the studies referenced by Bekiempis address only a very small portion of ice on the Antarctic Peninsula, which is itself only a small portion of the Antarctic ice sheet; while the vast majority of the Antarctic ice sheet is expanding. Moreover, scientists earlier this month debunked Bekiempis’ assertion even regarding the small portion of Antarctica where sea ice is melting. Volcanoes on the sea floor are causing the modest decline in sea ice in the area, a team of scientists report in the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The lesson to be learned from Newsweek’s Antarctic sea ice shenanigans is global warming alarmists continue to believe truthfulness can and must be sacrificed to advance their “greater goal” of global warming activism. It is no wonder the public no longer pays attention to their unending litany of alarmist propaganda.
