Antarctica Not Immune From Global Warming

(AP)  Antarctica, the only place that had oddly seemed immune from climate change, is warming after all, according to a new study.

For years, Antarctica was an enigma to scientists who track the effects of global warming. Temperatures on much of the continent at the bottom of the world were staying the same or slightly cooling, previous research indicated.

The new study went back further than earlier work and filled in a massive gap in data with satellite information to find that Antarctica too is getting warmer, like the Earth's other six continents.

The findings were published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

"Contrarians have sometime grabbed on to this idea that the entire continent of Antarctica is cooling, so how could we be talking about global warming?," said study co-author Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. "Now we can say: no, it's not true ... It is not bucking the trend."

The study does not point to man-made climate change as the cause of the Antarctic warming - doing so is a highly intricate scientific process - but a different and smaller study out late last year did make that connection.

"We can't pin it down, but it certainly is consistent with the influence of greenhouse gases," said NASA scientist Drew Shindell, another study co-author. Some of the effects also could be natural variability, he said.

The study showed that Antarctica - about one-and-a-half times bigger than the United States - remains a complicated weather picture, especially with only a handful of monitoring stations in its vast interior.

The researchers used satellite data and mathematical formulas to fill in missing information. That made outside scientists queasy about making large conclusions with such sparse information.

"This looks like a pretty good analysis, but I have to say I remain somewhat skeptical," Kevin Trenberth, climate analysis chief at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said in an e-mail. "It is hard to make data where none exist."

Shindell said it was more comprehensive than past studies and jibed with computer models.

The research found that since 1957, the annual temperature for the entire continent of Antarctica has warmed by about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.55 degrees Celsius) but still is 50 degrees below zero (-46 Celsius). West Antarctica, which is about 20 degrees (11 degrees Celsius) warmer than the east, has warmed nearly twice as fast, said study lead author Eric Steig of the University of Washington.

East Antarctica, which scientists had long thought to be cooling, is warming slightly when yearly averages are looked at over the past 50 years, said Steig.

However, autumn temperatures in east Antarctica are cooling over the long term. And east Antarctica from the late 1970s through the 1990s, cooled slightly, Steig said.

Some researchers skeptical about the magnitude of global warming overall said that the new study didn't match their measurements from satellites and that there appears to be no warming in Antarctica since 1980.

"It overstates what they have obtained from their analysis," said Roger Pielke Sr., a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado.

Steig said a different and independent study using ice cores drilled in west Antarctica found the same thing as his paper. And recent satellite data also confirms what this paper has found, Steig added.

The study has major ramifications for sea level rise, said Andrew Weaver at the University of Victoria in Canada. Most major sea level rise projections for the future counted on a cooling - not warming - Antarctica. This will make sea level rise much worse, Weaver said.

[on_alert247]

Since the Obama administration is on the verge of regulating CO2 as a pollutant, its only a matter of time before we are taxed for breathing. I don''t know how many tonnes of CO2 I emit annually, but I think cease and desist orders are imminent. I''ll pay good dollar for anyone willing to expire to trade their carbon credits.

[louiville2]

Try reading objectively. All the statements say human involvement is part of climate change. Just because the term "AGW" may not be used does not exclude it.

Posted by ibzjem at 04:42 PM

LOL like most AGW self loathing enthusiast''s you haven''t "Try reading objectively" like this article did you read it? The ONLY one in this article that try''s to pin it on humans is Mann a tree ring (alleged) expert now suddenly a Antarctica expert, in fact the article states "The study does not point to man-made climate change as the cause of the Antarctic warming ". The article also states that most of the data was fabricated in those elusive but somehow magical "Computer models" that the researchers who made them will not disclose the math algorithms used.

Mann when exposed as a fraud by two Canadian mathematicians over the "Hockey Stick Graph" refused to reveal the equations, and now seems to have been used to massage the data here! BTW Mann''s Hockey stick computer model was found to produce the Hockey stick graph irregardless of the data inserted. In other words if you inserted that the temp 200 years ago was 3000 deg warmer then now it would still produce the same graph and disregard any and ALL information to the contrary.

[ausus-2009]

Those who advocate for global warming have closed minds and will not accept alternative explanations or alternative data.

Many years ago King Gillette was told to make a blade as sharp as a safety razor dedied the laws of physics. He went ahead and produced it. Obeying the science fraternity at the time would have condemned generations of men to cut-throat razors.

More recently I was told that the laws of physics meant I could not receive MW broadcasts over 12,000 miles. Repeated recordings proved this was wrong.

Climate fundamentalists are worse that religious fundamentalists. Ultimately climate fundamentalists could cause mass starvation, wars and grinding poverty if their beliefs are imposed on the general populace.

[dannyeller]

FACT: Mars, Pluto, Jupiter along with several other planets and moons in our solar system have warmed at the same rate as Earth.

So how does Man-Made Global Warming do that?

So far, no one has responded to that fact. The Reason, because that fact alone proves that their Man-Made Global Warming position is wrong, period. So if irrefutable facts do not support their cause then what is their real motive?

Man-Made Global Warming has more to do with acquiring a world wide socialist government than it does in saving polar bears, or in saving anything else.

Several on this post keep ranting about doing "Objective Research" and that such research will convince us that Man-Made Global Warming is real.

I suggest that the Man-Made Global Warming Zealots research the term "Useful Idiots". They need to find out who coined the term and why.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html

[ibzjem]

AAAS
"AAAS Board of Directors Statement on Climate Change: "The scientific evidence is CLEAR," the AAAS Board says in a new statement. "Global climate change caused by human activities...is a growing threat to society."

National Academy
"The panel will focus on actions to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions and other HUMAN DRIVERS of climate change, such as changes in land use, but will also consider the international dimensions of climate stabilization. ..."

DOE
"The research is focused on understanding the physical, chemical, and biological processes affecting the Earth%u2019s atmosphere, land, and oceans and how these processes may be affected, either directly or indirectly, by energy production and use, primarily the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion."

APS -- The link is fine. You copied incorrectly.
"Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth''s climate. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide as well as methane, nitrous oxide and other gases. They are emitted from fossil fuel combustion and a range of industrial and agricultural processes."

Try reading objectively. All the statements say human involvement is part of climate change. Just because the term "AGW" may not be used does not exclude it.

[louiville2]

The American Association for the Advancement of Science
AAAS Mission
AAAS seeks to "advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world"--what better way to advance pay for these people but with a good scare.

The National Academy of Sciences
Not one word about AGW but more babble about how they will look into it (as long as they are paid by NOAA).

The Department of Energy---
Again nothing about AGW more babble about greenhouse gasses and what they are doing to spend your money to quell your unfounded fears. BTW they do not do climate they control energy.

APS----
APS forum, editor Jeffrey Marque explains,%u201D There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution."
enough said your boogey man isn''t there. PS and your link is broken for this site.

[ibzjem]

These organizations DO accept AGW.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science
http://www.aaas.org/news/press_room/climate_change/

The National Academy of Sciences
http://dels.nas.edu/basc/climate-change/

The Department of Energy
http://www.energy.gov/sciencetech/climatechange.htm

The American Physical Society
http://www.aps.org/policy/statements/07_1.cfm

[louiville2]

Over 1500 people surveyed over landlines and cellular phones told the Pew organization that global warming ranked least in importance, way below the economy and even moral decline and helping the poor.

http://people-press.org/report/485/economy-top-policy-priority

[louiville2]

Additionally, every single scientific agency of the U.S. Govt has clear statements on their websites about the reality of AGW. Even under the Bush administration, the most anti-science administration in our nations history!





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Posted by troutfisher5 at 10:38 AM


LOL
It''s GW not AGW and it has to do with winning FUNDING, they would tell you earth is flat is it would illicit more funding.

See below NOAA statement is as clear as MUD but with a nice twist of a funding request. What does unresolved mean to you?

NOAA One of the most vigorously debated topics on Earth is the issue of climate change, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) data centers are central to answering some of the most pressing global change questions that remain unresolved.

[louiville2]

Another deep and insightful analysis. Thank you.





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Posted by troutfisher5 at 10:40 AM

Considering the rabid rhetoric from the AGW side anything coming out of Mann should be taken with a grain of salt. His opinion is worthless, anyone who develops a computer model that wipes out known proven facts. Will not shown the workings of the computer model is a clown so.... he''s a Bozo in my estimation and should be treated as such.

The disservice/damage to the rest of the honest scientific community is massive. The long term damage for scientific fraud will resonate for decades just like the 1970%u2019s %u201CIce Age%u201D still resonates today. For what, funding/notoriety-greed these small minded insecure people seem to possess.