A new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters reconstructs sea-ice area in the Ross Sea, Antarctica from a 130 year coastal ice-core record. The authors find the "data show prevailing stable SIA from the 1880s until the 1950s, a 2 - 5% reduction from the mid-1950s to the early-1990s, and a
5% increase after 1993."
Thus, the overall trend in the Ross Sea, Antarctica over the past 130 years would be stable to increasing.
๏ปฟ๏ปฟKate E. Sinclair et al
We present the first proxy record of sea-ice area (SIA) in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, from a 130โyear coastal ice-core record. High-resolution deuterium excess data show prevailing stable SIA from the 1880s until the 1950s, a 2 - 5% reduction from the mid-1950s to the early-1990s, and a 5% increase after 1993. Additional support for this reconstruction is derived from ice-core methanesulphonic acid concentrations and whaling records. While SIA has continued to decline around much of the West Antarctic coastline since the 1950s, concurrent with increasing air and ocean temperatures, the underlying trend is masked in the Ross Sea by a switch to positive SIA anomalies since the early-1990s. This increase is associated with a strengthening of southerly winds and the enhanced northward advection of sea ice.๏ปฟ
Twentieth century sea-ice trends in the Ross Sea from a high-resolution, coastal ice-core record
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It's not just Antarctica bucking the trend, but the whole globe. In the last 17 years there has been no 'global warming'. As IPCC lead author Kevin Trenberth said: "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment, and it is a travesty that we can't."
Yes, it is a travesty! Climate models are only as good as the assumptions they're based on. The authors of climate papers are trained to frame everything in terms of one factor: a carbon dioxide increase they attribute to human activity, which obscures awareness of being part of a much larger system that surely has multiple influences acting on the planet's complex climate.
Antarctica, is it melting or not? Man-made global warming can't explain this climate paradox
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