Antarctic Ice Shelves Defying Alarmists

New studies affirm Antarctica has not been cooperating with either the global warming or 'polar amplification' narratives. ⁽¹⁾

The Antarctic continent has not warmed in the last seven decades despite a monotonic increase in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. ⁽²⁾

Mankind has emitted fully 65% of our total carbon emissions since the year 1980, and yet it has not done much at all to the melt rate of the ice shelves of Antarctica. Despite the dreaded 'polar amplification' and 1,000 new coal fired plants in China, the fragile Antarctic ice shelves have barely changed in the last 40 years. Indeed, instead of fragmenting, they are melting slightly slower now than they were in 1980. That's 1.1 trillion tons of man made CO2, and no catastrophe to show for it. ⁽³⁾

Antarctica is shivering through an extreme bout of cold

Note that a 'small but significant decrease' in melting gets headlined as 'a minor change.' Contrast this where significant warming trends are always reported as major changes.'

Remember climate change was supposed to hit Antarctica twice as hard as anywhere else. ⁽⁴⁾

Antarctica is shivering through an extreme bout of cold, even by South Pole standards. The Italian-French research station Concordia posted a reading of -83.2 C (-117.8 F) on July 25. This ranks as the fifth coldest value in the operational life of the station. ⁽⁵⁾

The temperature trend at the Japanese station Syowa, also called Showa, has been modestly downward since 1973. ⁽⁶⁾

The Alfred Wegner Institute reported that sea ice development in both polar regions was at normal levels. ⁽⁷⁾

A new model expects more snowfall in Antarctica and the Antarctic ice mass is even expected to remain unchanged and stable overall this century. In this respect, Antarctica will probably make no contribution at all to global sea level rise by 2100. This reduces the rise in sea level to be expected in this century by 25%. ⁽⁸⁾

Antarctica as a whole has been gaining mass since 2009

Here's a thought: the size of Antarctica- it is 5.4 million square miles, making it 1.5 times the size of the continental US. Think of the weather in Florida versus that in Maine, then multiply that distance by one and one-half and you end up way north in Canada. Not surprisingly, once in a while an ice shelf in Antarctica will fall but that is only one small part of the continent. Yet all we hear about are losses, not gains. An example: data show the mass gains from East Antarctica and the Ross and Ronne-Filchner ice shelves were larger on net than the mass losses in West Antarctica and the Peninsula. Consequently, Antarctica as a whole has been gaining mass since 2009. ⁽⁹⁾

Something else to ponder: how can Antarctica be melting when even the summer temperature is -25 C? And most of the continent is over 3,000 meters tall? And with a winter average of -50 C and a summer average of -25 C, one fails to see how a degree of global warming is going to start melting Antarctica any time soon. ⁽¹⁰⁾

References

1. Kenneth Richard, "Scientists: Antarctica has not warmed for over 70 years," notrickszone.com, January 5, 2023

2. Hansi A. Singh and Lorenzo M. Polvani, "Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography," Climate and Atmospheric Science, October 8, 2020

3. Alison F. Banwell etal., "Quantifying Antarctic wide ice shelf melt volume using microwave and Firn Model Data: 1980 to 2021," Geophysical Research Letters, 2023

4. Jo Nova, "2,000 gigatons of plant wrecking CO2 and icebergs around Antarctica are the same as the 1700s," joannenova.com.au, January 14, 2023

5. Cap Allon, "Antarctica plunges to -83.2C, earth's lowest temperature since 2017," principia-scientific.com, August 14, 2023

6. P. Gosselin,, "Japanese Antarctic Showa Station has been cooling over the past 40 years," notrickszone.om, August 2, 2023

7. P. Gosselin,, "Alfred Wegner Institute sea level extent: both polar regions at normal levels, Siberia 6-8 C colder," notrickszone.com, March 9, 2021

8. P. Gosselin, "Antarctica putting brakes on global sea level rise and: World Climate News makes debut," wattsupwiththat.com, January 24, 2023

9. Julia R. Andreasen et al., "Change in Antarctic ice shelf from 2009 to 2018," The Cryosphere, Volume 17, Issue 5, 2023

10. Jo Nova," Antarctic ice shelves ar melting slower than they were 40 years ago," joannenova.com.au, June 23, 2023

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