The Gorical cannot be reached for comment
Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close. [...]Earlier this year, predictions were rife that the North Pole could melt entirely in 2008. Instead, the Arctic ice saw a substantial recovery. Bill Chapman, a researcher with the UIUC’s Arctic Center, tells DailyTech this was due in part to colder temperatures in the region. Chapman says wind patterns have also been weaker this year. Strong winds can slow ice formation as well as forcing ice into warmer waters where it will melt.
Why were predictions so wrong? Researchers had expected the newer sea ice, which is thinner, to be less resilient and melt easier. Instead, the thinner ice had less snow cover to insulate it from the bitterly cold air, and therefore grew much faster than expected, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Comment by Dan Collins on 1/11 @ 10:02 pm #
Cool. I was worried about the Bumbles.
Comment by McGehee on 1/11 @ 10:02 pm #
…in the subzero cold, which is notorious for making ice melt.
In fairness, deep cold can cause ice to sublimate, but that occurs because the air is so dry it sucks the water right out of the ice.
In the middle of the ocean — yes, even the Arctic Ocean — not so much.
Comment by K on 1/11 @ 10:06 pm #
Baring the commencement of a full fledged ice age, this isn’t going to slow the single issue fanatics of AGW. The data will be revised, the computer models tweeked, the scare stories re-vised. We’re in a solar minimum now so there will be natural warming over the next decade, and lots more Gorical too.
Comment by Bob Reed on 1/11 @ 10:11 pm #
B-B-But…THE WARMING!!1!1!
AL GORE TOLD ME AND HE DOESN’T LIE!1!!1!!HE INVENTED THE INTERNET!1!!1!!
I BLAME BOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
Comment by Bob Reed on 1/11 @ 10:14 pm #
K, you make a good point. Although I’m not sure if it will happen immediately; it’s probably getting cooler before it’s starts to get warmer again…
But you’re right that the Goracle and his minions will exploit every micro-degree increase as being another step in the long march to the fiery inferno our mere presencde hath wrought…
That is, unless a whole lot of do the, you know, right thing and just go ahead and off ourself in the name of preserving gaia…
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 1/11 @ 10:17 pm #
Since the Gore compound has approximately the same carbon footprint as a Chinese steel mill, I vote we start with him.
Comment by Ric Locke on 1/11 @ 10:24 pm #
True enough, K, but 2008 is also the year when AGW fanatics beclowned themselves because they could not let it alone. 2008 was the year everything was due to global warming. If it was hot, it was obviously global warming. If it was cold, you could find dozens of earnest, Government-funded boffins earnestly explaining to the teevee cams that it was actually because of warming. If there were storms, global warming. If your sailboat was becalmed, global warming. If your favorite sports team lost, clearly it was because of the global warming caused by you going to the stadium in your SUV…
It just got to be too much. The whole Narrative depends on people not paying much attention, and it may still be working on the kids; I just hope we don’t wind up needing firing squads for a bunch of ugly twentysomething women. But for most people, 2008 is the year the AGW fanatics got desperate, overreached, and confused the Narrative.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by Diana on 1/11 @ 10:35 pm #
But … but … they’re the true believers, Ric. Surely, you remember the the great ice age of the ’70’s. Everything was imminently imminent.
Comment by Sdferr on 1/11 @ 10:46 pm #
Santa is saved but the Dwarf was not. Pliers handed off by HotAir.
Comment by Bob Reed on 1/11 @ 10:55 pm #
I second SBP’s motion; but we’re gonna spare Tipper, right? Although her taste in men is questionable, she’s not too far out in left field…
Comment by daleyrocks on 1/11 @ 11:01 pm #
K – You’re right. Cold does cause global warming. I’m scared about what’s going to happen when that sea ice finally melts. At least Al Gore has a humongous freaking boat to retreat to, on an inland lake, while the rest of us proles have got……..
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 1/11 @ 11:16 pm #
Maybe Al will round up two of every animal and put them on his boat.
That’ll take care of lunch, anyway.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 1/11 @ 11:17 pm #
I’ve still got some issues with Tipper over the PMRC thing, Bob.
Comment by Bob Reed on 1/11 @ 11:22 pm #
You do have a point SBP,
Did she ever protest any of the vile rap lyrics, or was PMRC strictly reserved for Whitey?
Comment by Spiny Norman on 1/11 @ 11:24 pm #
Darleen,
In reference to a comment you made on the previous thread: when I worked at a small-town paper here in SoCal, we had a feature writer who wrote for the LA Examiner up until it merged with the Herald. He was a really funny guy, with a booming voice. One of many things I miss about that job.
Comment by maggie katzen on 1/11 @ 11:25 pm #
erm, I have a question. Is sea ice special somehow? It’s just, when the not-sea ice melts in my glass… my glass doesn’t overflow. maybe it’s a scale thing?
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 1/11 @ 11:44 pm #
IIRC, Bob, that was before rap had really hit the mainstream.
Comment by Ric Locke on 1/11 @ 11:53 pm #
Diana,
Oh, yes, I remember the Ice Age. Terrifying, it was. Likewise the Population Bomb, and the Silent Spring, and Nuclear Winter…
Modern parents are too Enlightened, too Modern, to tell the kids scare stories about ghosties and ghoulies and things tha’ gae bump i’ th’ night, and some of it’s obsolete anyway. Trolls under the bridge kept the kiddies in the village; we’re still groping around for the equivalent.
Jack Vance[1] once suggested the ‘Simic Principle’ after its (fictional) inventor: human beings evolved in an environment that included saber-toothed tigers or equivalent, and which they could not control in any way. As a consequence, we require more or less continuous low-grade fright and occasional sheer terror, for our (literally) physical health; some need it more, some less, women less than men in general, for evolutionarily plausible reasons. In a comfortable environment, such as modern industrial civilization, we don’t get it unless we make it for ourselves; thus, apocalypse tomorrow! Film at 11!
Vance, putting words in the mouth of his character “Simic”, suggested a corps of dedicated public servants, the Ferocifers or Public Frighteners, dedicated to seeing to it that each citizen is terrified out of his or her wits at least once a week, as their health requires. Perhaps it’s not such a bad idea, after all.
Regards,
Ric
[1] The science fiction writer, in one of his famous footnotes
Comment by Roland THTG on 1/12 @ 12:09 am #
Obama cured it already. Sheesh, didn’t you guys get the memo?
Comment by Randy on 1/12 @ 5:14 am #
Sdferr @ 9. That article is guaranteed to allow Dan to show what at sociopath he is by laughing.
Comment by Dan Collins on 1/12 @ 5:37 am #
Bwahahahahahahaha . . . haaaaaaaaaa!
Comment by Salt Lick on 1/12 @ 5:50 am #
And there you have it. More sea-kitten habitat destroyed by mankind’s selfish failure to keep the atmosphere warm.
Comment by Crimso on 1/12 @ 7:04 am #
It’s almost as though they don’t fully understand these systems that they’re studying. Imagine that.
Comment by JHoward on 1/12 @ 7:21 am #
And now comes this:
Comment by slackjawedyokel on 1/12 @ 7:59 am #
I for one am very relieved that the artic ice is returning this year. I was afraid that the polar bears would all have drowned before I could afford a trip up north to bag one of the bastards.
Comment by slackjawedyokel on 1/12 @ 8:00 am #
That’s “arctic”. I just pronounce it “artic.”
Comment by MarkD on 1/12 @ 8:03 am #
I was afraid of that melting ice because the Polar Bears would have to take over Canada and there’s not even talk about building a northern fence. If you think illegal Mexican immigrants are bad, just imagine a herd of hungry Polar Bears outside Home Depot, or crowding our emergency rooms.
Comment by Salt Lick on 1/12 @ 8:11 am #
Is opposition to global warming racist because of its implied hostility to sun people?
Comment by Mikey NTH on 1/12 @ 8:16 am #
The thought of a bunch of polar bears wandering through Seattle or San Francisco brings a smile to my lips and warms a cockle of my most evil heart.
Comment by Slartibartfast on 1/12 @ 8:29 am #
Shocker of the century: the predictions of AGW proponents have turned out to be wrong again. Maybe their models suck?
Computer models, you idiots.
Comment by DarthRove on 1/12 @ 8:56 am #
Speaking of the photo of the polar bears that were “stranded” on that ice floe 30 miles from nowhere …
… where was the photographer standing?
Comment by SDN on 1/12 @ 8:57 am #
Oh, I dunno, MarkD, I’ve long concluded we needed something to eat the idiots. Since no one seems interested in my initiative to bring back the sabre-tooth for that purpose.
Of course, we’d lose a few polar bears; thor and snippy are poisonous to anything they touch. But hey, omelets, eggs….
Why, yes, I am a misanthrope; what was the first clue? 8-)
Comment by PCachu on 1/12 @ 9:27 am #
AGW is the modern world equivalent of the Volcano God Sacrifice. Though that’s probably unfair to the credibility and scientific rigor supporting volcano gods.
Comment by mojo on 1/12 @ 10:38 am #
Are we starting to get the feeling that the prognosticators are talking out of their asses? Hmmmmm?
Comment by DarthRove on 1/12 @ 10:49 am #
Are we starting to get the feeling that the prognosticators are talking out of their asses?
That’s bad. All that methane, ya know.
Comment by daleyrocks on 1/12 @ 10:55 am #
“It’s just, when the not-sea ice melts in my glass… my glass doesn’t overflow. maybe it’s a scale thing?”
maggie – My glasses don’t overflow either when the ice melts, but the AGW alarmists have told me to be worried so I am complying. I think it’s a progressive thing, something about controlling as many aspects of our lives as they can.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 1/12 @ 10:59 am #
Sea ice is no problem. The land ice on Greenland and (especially) Antarctica would be a big problem if it were to melt.
Unfortunately for AGW hysterics, the ice cap in Antarctica is growing, and has been for two decades.
I’m sure there’s a perfectly honest reason why that’s never mentioned, though.
Comment by Matt, Esq. on 1/12 @ 11:30 am #
Its almost like the man-made climate change people are not being completely honest…
Comment by Sdferr on 1/12 @ 11:42 am #
The goofy dwarf eaten by hippo story I linked yesterday is debunked at Snopes and apparently not for the first time either. It first appeared on the internet in 1994.
Comment by Dan Collins on 1/12 @ 11:45 am #
Yeah, but I’m STILL laughing. How sick is THAT?
Comment by DarthRove on 1/12 @ 11:46 am #
Dan, you are clearly a sociopath that should be set on Permanent Double-Secret Denounce.
Comment by Sdferr on 1/12 @ 11:49 am #
Considering that Hippos prefer to eat plants as opposed to animals, pretty sick Dan.
Comment by SDN on 1/12 @ 12:51 pm #
Believe it or not, Sdferr, hippos kill a lot of people in their range. To be the #1 herbivore people killer in a range that includes Cape Buffalo and African Elephant is indicative of talent.
Usually this is because they are extremely territorial, and people will insist on coming down to the water….
Comment by Sdferr on 1/12 @ 12:57 pm #
As it happens I was aware of that SDN but couldn’t resist an attempt at a lame-o jest at Dan. (On the other hand though, I don’t think killing people indicates that they then proceed to eat them just for the spite of it.)
Comment by McGehee on 1/12 @ 1:52 pm #
Hippos kill more people than buffalo or elephants because people know that a Cape buffalo or an African elephant is dangerous.
No one ever suspects the hippo.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 1/12 @ 1:54 pm #
The same is true of moose, as I understand it.
They take out more people than bears.
Comment by DarthRove on 1/12 @ 1:57 pm #
So a moose-hippo hybrid would be frickin’ devastating!!
I’m sure some eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil frankenfood corporation is even now engineering a killer Bullwinkle-Henrietta monster. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Comment by McGehee on 1/12 @ 2:06 pm #
The next time you happen on a bloody crime scene, and the only ones present are a Cape Buffalo, an African elephant, and a hippo, you know you’ll detain and question the buffalo and the elephant. The hippo, you’ll just ask if she saw which one of the other two did it.
Don’t deny it.
Haters.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 1/12 @ 2:30 pm #
Related: BarryO’s new warmening czar is a member of Socialist International.
Comment by SDN on 1/12 @ 3:30 pm #
Personally, McGehee, I always look at something large enough for Liberian registry as dangerous….