Jody...you need to stop getting your science from CNN!
Ice normally flows under pressure to the sea and breaks off in chunks...some big...some small. What counts in proving or disproving global warming is the extent of the total ice...over a long period of time. Of course, even if the ice were retreating...this does not prove
man made global warming...only that the climate is changing as it always does.
Now...as to meaningful data for THIS year.... Here is the reality:
Increase twice the size of Germany: "colder weather" to blame.
The
data is for August 2008 and indicates a total sea ice area of six million square kilometers. Ice extent for the same month in 2007 covered 5.3 million square kilometers, a historic low. Earlier this year, media accounts were rife with
predictions that this year would again see a new record. Instead, the Arctic has seen a gain of about thirteen percent. Data from the National Snow and Ice
Data Center (NSIDC) has indicated a dramatic increase in sea ice extent in the Arctic regions.
The growth over the past year covers an area of 700,000 square kilometers: an amount twice the size the nation of Germany.
With the Arctic melting season over for 2008, ice cover will continue to increase until melting begins anew next spring.
The
data is for August 2008 and indicates a total sea ice area of six million square kilometers. Ice extent for the same month in 2007 covered 5.3 million square kilometers, a historic low. Earlier this year, media accounts were rife with
predictions that this year would again see a new record. Instead, the Arctic has seen a gain of about thirteen percent.
*****Full Article:
DailyTech - Arctic Sees Massive Gain in Ice Coverage
So we gain ice the size of Germany and CNN chooses to report that a 26 mile chunk has fallen off. Do you think there is a reason CNN has not reported the TOTAL ice numbers??
In fairness, last year was the lowest Arctic ice year in the thirty years or so we've had satellites monitoring it. (But that was mostly attributed to a shift in ocean currents that is a multi-decadel occurence). Antarctica however in the same year registered record ice levels...something that wouldn't happen if the warming were indeed global.
My main point here is that the media are hopelessly biased since a good scare story is good for ratings and they love bad news of any kind. You have to work hard to get the real story.