Quote:
Originally Posted by stickyfingerz
READING COMPREHENSION
you don't have it.. |
Really? What didn't I comprehend?
Are you saying you dont want to discuss this calmly and reasonably?
I would like to see your side fund and organize real scientific method research to demonstrate your case. That's how science works, thru the shared collecting of measurements and peer review of theories, models, experiments, and measurements.
When I drop your quoted sentence in google, I get no scientific sources for the first few pages, all i get is opinion.
So I look for actual science websites referring to the source, the "US National Snow and Ice Data Centre"
The first approximately scientific page I come across is from nasa:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/fea...s_feature.html
Which comfirms the measurement, and says the following below:
( Summary in advance - yes the past few winters have been colder than average, leading to an increase in the growth of a thin surface ice, but this growth is a temporary winter phenomenon, and is considerably offset by a decline in the thicker permanent ice.
Colder winters, by the way, are included and predicted in the global warming models. This is caused by two major forces. The first is the increase in wator vapor that the on-average warmer global air can contain - this leads to increases in snow and cloud cover over cooler areas, producing unusually cold and snowy winters, like last winter. The second force has been called the "bathtub effect", that is, as the air on the summer hemisphere warms, its expansion forces the cold air collecting on the winter side of the globe to move in unusual patterns, which can also increase snow and clouds. )
Quote:
Using the latest satellite observations, NASA researchers and others report that the Arctic is still on “thin ice” when it comes to the condition of sea ice cover in the region. A colder-than-average winter in some regions of the Arctic this year has yielded an increase in the area of new sea ice, while the older sea ice that lasts for several years has continued to decline.
This ice concentration map dated March 9, 2008, indicates maximum ice extent in the Northern Hemisphere. The contour of the ice edge in 2006 is shown in red, while that for the 28-year average is shown in gold. Click image to enlarge. Credit: NASA On March 18 the scientists said they believe that the increased area of sea ice this winter is due to recent weather conditions, while the decline in perennial ice reflects the longer-term warming climate trend and is a result of increased melting during summer and greater movement of the older ice out of the Arctic.
Perennial sea ice is the long-lived, year-round layer of ice that remains even when the surrounding short-lived seasonal sea ice melts away in summer to its minimum extent. It is this perennial sea ice, left over from the summer melt period, that has been rapidly declining from year to year, and that has gained the attention and research focus of scientists. According to NASA-processed microwave data, whereas perennial ice used to cover 50-60 percent of the Arctic, this year it covers less than 30 percent. Very old ice that remains in the Arctic for at least six years comprised over 20 percent of the Arctic area in the mid to late 1980s, but this winter it decreased to just six percent.
According to Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder, as ice ages it continues to grow and thicken, so that older ice is generally also thicker ice. This winter the ice cover is much thinner overall and thus in a more vulnerable state heading into the summer melt season. NASA’s ICESat satellite has contributed to understanding of the changes in ice thickness. To get a better understanding of the behavior of sea ice, NASA is planning a follow-on satellite mission, ICESat II, to launch in 2015.
Arctic sea ice grows and declines seasonally, ranging from an average minimum extent in September of 2.5 million square miles to an average winter maximum extent of 5.9 million square miles in March. This March, instruments on NASA’s Aqua satellite and NOAA and U.S. Defense Department satellites showed the maximum sea ice extent slightly increased by 3.9 percent over that of the previous three years, but it is still below the long-term average by 2.2 percent. Increases in ice extent occurred in areas where surface temperatures were colder than the historical averages. At the same time, as a result of the export of ice from the Arctic, the area of perennial ice decreased to an all-time minimum.
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Now, just because this opinion is from NASA does not make it science - but now that I do this little bit of research I recall other debates I've read about the question of thin surface ice, even tho I did not at first recognize your quote, which it looks like you took from some opinion page; and all of the conclusions I recall took this form - yes, cold winters caused more thin surface ice, but the thin surface ice melted unusually quickly in the summer, leading to an overall net loss of surface ice.