http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover.uk.php
In mid-August, the winds kicked up in the Arctic and pushed the ice edge to the north – causing great joy amongst people wanting to claim Arctic Armageddon.
The joy was so great that someone at NOAA rushed to press the incorrect claim that ice was second lowest on record, along with a bogus map. (The map has since been corrected.)
What they apparently didn’t realize is the the late movement of the ice edge left a lot of cold water where the edge had been in mid-August. Thus it didn’t take much for the water in that region to freeze once the wind stopped. Now we are seeing a very rapid increase back towards 2005 levels. Ice extent has grown 30% since this date in 2007.
The bad news is that the PR damage has been done. The press is full of stories again that the Arctic has nearly all melted at -15C. Yet another example of CO2 changing the fundamental properties of water.
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/map/images/fnl/sfctmp_01.fnl.gif
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the the universe.” — Albert Einstein
“The bad news is that the PR damage has been done.”
I’m not sure that’s true. The messages about the ice have become background noise for people on both sides of the AGW divide. Those people who believe still believe and those who don’t, don’t. It’s a poor technique on the part of the alarmists because second place (even when it’s really third) isn’t newsworthy. I suspect that one of the worst crimes you can now commit in our celeb obsessed culture is to be found guilty of being boring.
It’s why global warming became so popular in the first place. People actually get excited at catastrophe. Not their own, of course. When each year turns out very similar to the last, people have lost interest in CO2. As CO2 reduction cost begin to bite they are becoming resentful.
The first real hit for ages will come if 2010 turns out to be the warmest on instrumental record. One can hope that La Nina will save us but I fear the effects will come too late. Alternatively another long cold winter (especially in Europe) might make climate scientists and the media wary of crowing about record global warming.
TinyCO2 I see and feel the effects of La Nina already. I refer to it as stepping through a doorway, since when September hit in Minnesota it went from above average temps to below average temps in two days. It was extremely noticable.
La Nina, as I understand, (and seeing temp reports of lower temperatures already in the US) should keep 2010 from being a record year . . .
. . . that is, until GISS ‘adjusts’ the temperatures to claim it was ‘ the hottest year evah . . . ! ! !
The Arctic, a gigantic ice machine working perfectly.
There was similar post at WUWT in 2008 when there was a low extent minima. It’s like a dummy for sceptics to suck on to make them feel better I am sure.
Andy
I thought we were supposed to be hitting a record minimum around now.
‘Slips of the tongue’ like the one by NOAA referred to here are very telling, since they are evidence for a prevailing attitude-belief system and its attendant expectations. Among other things, they are consistent with the idea that the temperature adjustments, etc. are not being made in good faith, no matter how impressively these activities are buttressed by “peer-reviewed” papers.
At the same time, I still find it surreal that the mistakes in question were made, not in some breathless newspaper article, but in a release put out by a highly respected scientific agency.