Climate Change Cancelled! (Whew!)

Good News! Climate change is all a big mistake! This remarkable finding was revealed by Michael Asher in Daily Tech – a publication more focused on iPhones than atmospheric science.

Asher’s piece Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979 confidently states that “Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago…”

Strange. That’s not what scientists are saying. Just last month NASA released a chilling report showing that between 1.5 trillion and 2 trillion tons of ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted at an accelerating rate since 2003 – enough to fill Chesapeake Bay 21 times.

The satellite survey of global ice loss showed that in the past five years, Greenland has lost between 150 gigatons and 160 gigatons each year. One gigaton equals one billion tons or enough to raise global sea levels about .5 mm per year

"It's not getting better; it's continuing to show strong signs of warming and amplification," said NASA ice scientist Jay Zwally. "There's no reversal taking place."

Scientists studying sea ice announced that parts of the Arctic north of Alaska were 9 to 10 degrees warmer this past fall, a strong early indication of what researchers call the Arctic amplification effect.

Positive feedback loops and accelerating climate change occur when reflective sea ice melts and allows sunlight to be instead absorbed by open water. Melting permafrost can also release massive amounts of CO2 and dangerous methane. Playing with the thermostat of the planet is deadly serious and extremely worrying to researchers.

"The pace of change is starting to outstrip our ability to keep up with it, in terms of our understanding of it," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., a co-author of the Arctic amplification study.

So what about the bold dismissal of climate change by Michael Asher in the electronic gadget blog? Nothing new there. He seems like just another off-the-shelf climate denier with no apparent scientific credentials.

Asher has made a monotonous habit of slagging climate science. Have a look at the titles of some of his past posts:

• Climate Report Downgrades Ice Loss; Media Reports Opposite
• Princeton Physicist Calls Global Warming Science "Mistaken"
• Defying Predictions, Sea Level Rise Begins to Slow
• Glaciers in Norway Growing Again
• Electric Car Sales in Freefall; Industry Risks Collapse
• How to Reduce Pollution by Drilling for Oil
• Study Finds Health Problems from Wind Farms
• Oxygen Depletion: The Next Great Environmental Scare

You get the idea.

There is certainly nothing new about hacks like Asher holding forth with irresponsible, baseless and boring claims of how the entire scientific community has got it wrong on climate science.

I look forward to the day when they will be treated with the same deference as people who wear tin foil hats so space aliens won’t read their brain waves.