Ice Caps Not In Tune With Paris Climate Talks

by Jack Dini

Have you heard about ice caps growing on both poles? Probably not since the media has chosen to downplay this information and ballyhoo the Paris climate talks.

NASA has published a study in the Journal of Glaciology showing that overall Antarctic ice increased by 112 billion tons per year between 1992 and 2001 and increased by 82 billion tons per year between 2003 and 2008. NASA scientists concluded that increasing Antarctic ice is decreasing world sea level. (1)

Previous 'scientific' reports of Antarctic ice loss apparently counted regions of the ice that were thinning as lost ice, but dismissed areas where the ice was thickening as snow.

The NASA report that Antarctic ice is increasing comes at an especially inopportune time because world leaders are meeting in Paris at a global warming conference and intend to write a treaty awarding UN agencies extensive control over sovereign nations. (1)

“The good news is that Antarctica is not currently contributing to sea level rise, but is taking 0.23 millimeters per year away,” said Jay Zwally, lead author of the paper. (2)

What about the Arctic? It turns out that the Arctic is far less ice free than many thought or expected just some years ago. A recent study has climate experts profoundly postponing yet another prediction: the Northwest Passage will not be available for another 40 years...let alone the Arctic becoming ice free. (3)

Then there's Greenland where the rate of ice accumulation is breaking new records. (4)

These studies show the fallibility of current measuring tools and challenges current theories about the causes of sea level rise.

As Klaus Kaiser notes, “In any event, regardless of who agrees to what at the meeting in Paris, nature doesn't care, the polar ice sheets will be waxing and waning per her dictate alone.” (4)

References

1. Arthur B. Robinson,, “Antarctic Ice,” Access to Energy, October 2015

2. “NASA study: mass gains of Antarctic ice sheet greater than losses,” nasa.gov, October 30, 2015

3. Hass et al., “Ice thickness in the Northwest Passage,” Geophysical Research Letters, 2015

4. Klaus L. E. Kaiser, “Just in time for Paris—ice galore,” Canada Free Press, November 7, 2015