That short term trend isn't meaningful, except in the context of the Catlin Expedition and the cold they are experiencing.
Note in the graph below, the huge drop in temperatures since the Catlin expedition started two months ago. Is this another example of The Gore Effect? Or, perhaps it is the "observer effect'? Humor aside, the graph below tells the story of the cold the Catlin Expedition must be experiencing.
This cooling is reflected in increasing amounts of winter ice since 2005. Not surprisingly, as the temperature gets colder, the amount of ice increases.
Below is a longer term view of Arctic temperatures, as measured by Dr. Hansen's GISS at Godthab, Greenland. The warmest years were the 1920s through 1940s.
How long before we start seeing stories like this one from Time Magazine again?
Another Ice Age?
Monday, Jun. 24, 1974
In Africa, drought continues for the sixth consecutive year, adding terribly to the toll of famine victims. During 1972 record rains in parts of the U.S., Pakistan and Japan caused some of the worst flooding in centuries. In Canada's wheat belt, a particularly chilly and rainy spring has delayed planting and may well bring a disappointingly small harvest. Rainy Britain, on the other hand, has suffered from uncharacteristic dry spells the past few springs. A series of unusually cold winters has gripped the American Far West, while New England and northern Europe have recently experienced the mildest winters within anyone's recollection.
As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval. However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.
Reader Comments
to our Newsletter