Come on now...

You know, once again, I was just going to post some light-hearted links or pictures, but then I came across this really big story of impending global warming!! (read: sarcasm). CNN's top headline for the day was "Antarctic Chunk Splinters; Huge Ice Shelf Threatened" and the BBC also reports the story as their number three headline. The stories detail how a 220 square mile chunk of ice has splintered off the main ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula and just guess what they attribute it to...dreaded Global Warming of course. I mean, after all, what else could it be, right? It's just purely pathetic. I'm continually amazed at the dishonesty of it all. You may have heard (although the media never reports it) that Antarctica is actually cooling and is currently experiencing record ice development. Neither one of these deceitful articles mentions this hugely important fact. Go figure. So, you may be wondering how this ice shelf is melting when Antarctica is getting colder. Well, this has everything to do with synoptic weather patterns and very little to do with climate. The cooling Antarctic continental landmass is actually causing stronger storms around the perimeter as the super cold land-based air mass collides with the warmer ocean air masses to the north. These storms have created local warming over the peninsula, which by the way is not climatically representative of the rest of the continent because of its northern (warmer) reach, the fact that it's thinner landmass is more closely surrounded by warmer water, and its constant exposure to maritime currents. In fact, the northern most (thus closest to warmer air) part of Antarctica is on the Antarctic Peninsula. What you probably didn't read or hear in the media is that Antarctica broke the record for ice development last year (summer just ended for the S. hemisphere). Here's an image from late last year showing the extent of that record ice from the University of Illinois:

See the snow covered peninsula that reaches out to the tip of South America? That is the location of the "ice chunk collapse". You can clearly see why this jetting piece of land would not be representative of the continental climate in general. You could also imagine the strong ocean current between the two continents. Also, here is a chart detailing the entire satellite record of the Antarctic ice extent. You can see the last peak being above all other previous peaks:

And one more thing. In 2003, the Argo Program was launched. The project consists of 3,000 buoys that drift in the oceans at a depth of 2,000 meters. They measure salinity, temperature and other things for scientific research. Well, much to the chagrin of the global warming alarmists, they have measured a slight cooling. This is significant because it is estimated that 80-90% of 'global warming' will come from the oceans as they can hold heat much better than the atmosphere. The official response of global warming scientists to this? "It may be that we are in a period of less rapid warming." Wow. Just picture the headlines if the buoys measured even a slight warming. Sadly, you will have to imagine the headlines for the slight cooling because you won't find them in the mainstream. It's no wonder why so many people think that the "debate is over", because the media simply refuses to report these counterpoints. Why is this? A variety of reasons. Some have political reasons, others monetary, but that's another topic for later.