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Awkward way to break the ice

26 Apr 2023 | OP ED Watch

Courtesy of Tony Heller we want to pass along a very good way not to start a conversation at COP28 or whatever cool climate gab-fest you’re planning to attend in the near future. It’s safe enough to open with the remark that Arctic ice has been in decline “since satellite observations started in 1979”. You’ll have them shifting nervously if you note that 2022 is “Tied for 10th-Lowest on Record” since the record only contains 45 years and it should be shrinking relentlessly. But you’ll quickly be all alone at the bar if you point out that the IPCC put out a report back in 1990 that not only scandalously included something called the “Medieval warm period” and made it warmer than most of the 20th century, but also showed that northern hemisphere sea ice had been much lower in the early 1970s then surged to a peak in… what’s this? 1979. It then declined but, as of 1990, was nowhere near as low as in 1974. As for southern hemisphere sea ice, it declined from the early 1970s to a low in 1980 then rebounded. OK, that one just brought security to escort you from the premises.

As with those infamous charts where the rate of sea-level rise changes abruptly just when one data set substitutes for another, real scientists would be exceptionally wary of any sort of discontinuity in sea ice right at such a point and would carefully examine the possibility that it was a measurement artefact. But if they looked into the data, they’d find something even worse.

Arctic ice probably did peak in 1979 and then decline until around 2010 since when it has been rebounding. And those twin peaks alone are an insurmountable problem since with global warming rampaging since [pick whatever date is polemically convenient] the temperature increase since 1850 ought to have had Arctic ice in decline since it put the Titanic in decline if not earlier. And if you look deeper and find that it had actually been much lower around 1940 then increased to 1979, absolutely unlike atmospheric CO2, you’d really be unpopular at COP28. If you also discovered that it had been much lower around 1900, then increased, then decreased, then increased, then decreased, then increased again, well, they’d throw you in the cooler.

Your research grant would also melt faster than the ice in your beach highball in Sharm el-Sheik or Dubai. Because climate alarmists, like the ones at AFP who just hit us with a second misleading “Fact Check”, just know there’s an accelerating crisis and asking skeptical questions just isn’t cool.

3 comments on “Awkward way to break the ice”

  1. Lies are sexier, more exciting, more profitable, more life affirming. What!? What do I mean? Well, for a polity that hasn't had to fight for it's life for 80 plus years, the creation of an 'enemy' (corporations, white men, straight white men, Karens....insert as appropriate) gives the average non thinker something to pour their unfulfilled lives into. And those pulling in the big bucks, or big power, play right along.

  2. Interesting how the AFP "Fact Check" accuses CDN of cherry-picking data, and is headlined with a picture of the coast of Bargny, Senegal and a subtitle about decades of rising sea level there. Apparently, cherry-picking is bad if you're CDN, not bad if you are an alarmist rag doing a "Fact Check".
    I did a little research on Bargny, Senegal and found the following article about it, with that same photo:
    https://theconversation.com/rising-sea-levels-are-driving-faster-erosion-along-senegals-coast-182571
    The article delves into a lot of the human-caused erosion due to seawalls and sand harvesting. Then it blithely blames climate change for all of the rest without mentioning any other possible causes, such as tectonic movement. At least it attributed some to humans, which is better than you can say about most such articles.

  3. I read the AFP “fact check”. Aside from the gratuitous comments about misinformation and panic stricken predictions about the suburbs being swallowed by inclement weather, the article supports your case!

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