By the end of the annual summer melting season Sept. 17, Arctic ice covered 1.94 million square miles – about the same span last year, but far below the 2.4-million-square-mile average set between 1981 and 2010.
It has receded by about two-thirds since NASA began monitoring the Arctic ice by satellite in 1978.
Alan Neuhauser is an energy, environment and STEM reporter for U.S. News & World Report. You can follow him on Twitter or reach him at [email protected].
NASA: Global Warming Shrinks Arctic Ice to 6th-Lowest Level on Record – US News
This genius thinks that a 20% reduction means the ice has receded by two thirds. He also forgot to mention this part.
Meanwhile, sea ice in the Antarctic has surpassed the previous record maximum extent set in 2013 and is now more than 20 million square kilometers (7.72 million square miles) for the first time in the past thirty-five years.
Alan appears to be propagandist, not a journalist.
They are churnalists, not journalists. You need to get the terminology correct.
http://churnalism.com/
I used to remember that a fifth was four fifths, but that was quite a different matter.
You can understand why he a journalist instead of a scientist, no math or logic skill only a word smith and a lazy one at that. It get tiresome but we all have to remember most journalist are journalist because they were not to smart so the only way the could influence the world it to publish propaganda. Those of us who are smart enough change the world but producing something the human race needs. The unfortunate part if we did have honest and hard working journalist we would have a better world. If only we had people whom would publish just the facts, the world would be a better place, instead we get propaganda. and the world is heading downward at an accelerated rate because the stupid read the propaganda and think it the truth!
Proof that the American educational system is substandard in math! The dominant political party will be in deep doo-doo when enough Americans connect Democratic domination of the educational system with poor education of Americans–especially the elite of the mainstream news media and “climate scientists”–and hold the DNC accountable.
“….. Alan Neuhauser is an energy, environment and STEM reporter …..”
If I were his managing editor, I’d fire him for flagrant innumeracy.
1. You can ‘follow him’ on Twitter…really…he’s a reporter, for a large news organization. Why would you need to ‘follow’ him? (or even want to, for that matter…) Isn’t it enough to see him in print all the time? Is his ego that fragile, it needs some stroking by all the ‘followers’ (mind dead zombie sheeple Twits)?
2. He’s a what reporter? Isn’t Math one of the items that makes up the acronym STEM (science, technology, engineering, MATH)? Maybe he’s really a leaf or bud reporter?
The 2/3ds reference point refers to 1978; the 20% to an average set between 1981 and 2010. Two different calculations?
That would imply that the summer minimum in 1978 was greater than the winter maximum. ROFL
Hey BallBounces! You could actually get a roughly 2/3 reduction if you compare the 1979 maximum with the 2014 minimum. Of course no honest journalist, or competent scientist would compare apples and oranges just to get a good headline… On the other hand, honest journalists (and editors) are hard to find.
I thought the same, but none of the links the author used report the 1978 level.
If you picked a 1974 starting point rather than 1978, the difference over 40 years would be insignificant.
Obviously the guy is and idiot writing a quick summery from a press release (similar to 311k and 400k estimates of crowd size for NYC Climate March from organizers “reported” when more like 170-150k people is science based on people per square meter on street as opposed to organizer’s self(ie)-estimate). His 2/3s melt mistake seems obviously mixing up this year’s annual Arctic sea ice extent melt of 2/3 from max of about 15 sq. km in March to about 5 million sq. miles min last week which is almost exact.
If he was really a good propagandist instead of an idiot not knowing what he was writing about, he would of used sea ice area measurement instead of extent for error since former gets melt ponds on top of ice incorrectly measured as water by satellite and would have a 3/4 lower sea ice figure instead of 2/3 on (annual) melt or -74% forgetting was annual and normal. Scream, 2/3 of ice at Arctic has melted for read and forget it is just annual variation. If you use 1978 minimum and 2014, still do not get “It has receded by about two-thirds since NASA began monitoring the Arctic ice by satellite in 1978” error – this year’s annual melt fits better at “2/3” error.
There is a huge amount of polar warming from winter to summer and similar to from night to day because of solar irradiance changing from orbit, tilt, and spin of earth, but chalk reporter’s error to idiocy as opposed to purposeful propaganda spin.
More at purposeful propaganda, official gov record keepers, NSIDC at website in “facts” chalks up Arctic sea ice below average but quickly recovering to mean to global warming, but says more dramatic Antarctic sea ice at all time satellite recorded high over 35 years is due to wind and ocean currents.
NSIDC in Quick “Facts”
“Sea ice near the Antarctic Peninsula, south of the tip of South America, has recently experienced a significant decline. The rest of Antarctica has experienced a small increase in Antarctic sea ice.”
– would not call a record high “a small” increase.
http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/quickfacts/seaice.html
and lets truncate or cherry pick the data game too
at NSIDC “All about Sea Ice, Arctic vs. Antarctic” page
http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/seaice/characteristics/difference.html
“Trend, 1979-2008
Arctic: Significant decrease of 4.1% (~500,000 km2; 193,000 mi2) per decade
Antarctic: Small increase of 0.9% (~100,000 km2; 39,000 mi2) per decade”
that page last modified September 16, 2014.
– odd since global sea ice now above average since 1979 over three and a half decades .
or more “facts” on their “News and Analysis: Frequently Asked Questions”
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/faq/#antarctic
page Saved 129 times between May 9, 2012 and and last updated July 23, 2014.
“Is wintertime Antarctic sea ice increasing or decreasing?
Wintertime Antarctic sea ice is increasing at a small rate”
– seems at all time high for increase???
“Even if wintertime Antarctic sea ice were to increase or decrease significantly in the future, it would not have a huge impact on the climate system. This is because during the Antarctic winter energy from the sun is at its weakest point; its ability or inability to reflect the sun’s energy back into space has little effect on regulating the planet’s temperature.”
– Albedo, did they forget the Antarctic works like a giant refrigerator sending cold water to bottom of ocean which gets circulated, or maybe just Arctic tells tale of global warming and Antarctic ignore if sea ice at record. – yikes, if sea ice not a problem, could lose gov funding and jobs studying it and “reporting” data and “facts.
same ice “facts” page
“Wintertime Antarctic sea ice is increasing at a small rate … the trends are statistically significant at the 95% level, … The dominant change in the climate pattern of Antarctica has been a gradual increase in the westerly circumpolar winds. Models suggest that both the loss of ozone (the ozone hole that occurs in September/October every year) and increases in greenhouse gases lead to an increase in this climate pattern.”
– would not call a 35 year record occurring over last few years a “gradual increase,” but ozone not much change recently, and restate greenhouse gasses cause winds which cause more ice, aka global warming causes global cooling if you flip poles, or flip again at WH and Holdren being “science” adviser to President said last winter global warming was causing cooling and century low record cold temp because polar vortex was more wavy, propaganda at best with bent media graphs at angles by experts to bend minds.
more “facts” same page
“Even if wintertime Antarctic sea ice were to increase or decrease significantly in the future, it would not have a huge impact on the climate system. This is because during the Antarctic winter energy from the sun is at its weakest point; its ability or inability to reflect the sun’s energy back into space has little effect on regulating the planet’s temperature. …
CAUSES OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AND ICE DECLINE
How do we know human activities cause climate change?
Fossil fuel burning is responsible for climate change because of the way in which an increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere alters the planet’s energy budget and makes the surface warmer.”
– hmm, odd “ice decline” because of CO2 (or is that CO for Colorado and high altitude smoking legal pot since temp at higher altitude in mountains at NSIDC?) when above average sea ice globally and at all time 35 year high at Antarctic.
I will give them Albedo in winters at poles when no radiation from sun hitting in shadow, but for summers at poles opposite, more winter sea ice surrounding Antarctic covering record 20 million square km about size of US and Canada combined lasts, yes will melt in cycle but more in summer and less ocean absorbing rays, and summer sea ice last Jan at all time record reflecting sun theoretically causing global cooling by less Albedo in summer. Odd how same rules for Arctic and Antarctic do not apply – summer sea ice at Antarctic at record high 6 months ago in Arctic closer to norm, and expect same in 6 months, so all that more exposed ocean or sea ice absorbing radiation or reflecting it when each pole closest to sun says says less net absorption in summer and more reflection in combined summers if balance ignoring winters since Albedo.
Will give USNews a score of D for idiocy and reporting bad facts, with propaganda factor 2/3s unknown.
Will give NSIDC 100% propaganda factor, F for “facts” in words, B for facts in numbers reported off satellite data, took off points for truncating in other facts.
Will give all news media an F for facts on crowd size at Climate March in NYC, just block copied press release from organizers which is not fact but political over estimate now disproven but not reported in news, similar to GISS reporting land surface instrument temps due to “adjustments” and dropping rural stations with no UHI effect thus lowering past average temps record and creating man made warming in sense of manipulating data.
The Arctic is landbound. There is only so much it can grow before Ontario is under a glacial sheet. Antarctica however has a lot more room to grow. I suspect sea ice to continue to set records, even with the new math of the shysters.
The two-thirds figure may be due to his quickly scanning the NASA post for numbers and accidentally comparing kilometers and miles.
“sea ice extent dropped to 5.02 million square kilometers (1.94 million square miles)”
1.94 is 61.3% less than 5.02 if you ignore the units. Coincidence? I wouldn’t put it past a harried reporter who probably hasn’t taken a math class since tenth grade and who is already inclined to believe the worst about climate change to come up with that number and decide it seemed right rather than double-checking it.
“NASA: Global Warming Shrinks Arctic Ice to 6th-Lowest Level on Record”
Fun fact: at its greatest extent in any September “on Record” Arctic Ice shrank to 36th-lowest level.
This is fuzzy journalism and fuzzy math. The total mass of ice has receded. As ice melts it spreads out slowly freezing further out but still thinning. So the area it covers may increase but the volume of it decreases. That’s the issue. It’s like saying to your kid, “if you want more ice cream, just let it melt on your plate. See, it’s covering your plate more.” The total mass of the polar ice caps is extremely important to the regulation of the green house effect. The fact that you don’t understand that makes you severely under qualified to make a statement that “proves” global warming is a hoax.