A group of Korean polar scientists have made the astonishing discovery that summer temperatures in Antarctica plunged by a massive 1°C in just 20 years from 1979-1999 and have since been on pause. Perhaps discovery is too strong a word. The work, which was published recently in a Nature journal, confirms that warming has rather passed Antarctica by in the era of mass global heating psychosis. Other scientists have noted that Antarctica has show very little warming over the last 70 years of accurate recordings. All of these findings are ignored in the mainstream media, where a simplistic opinion that humans control the climate by using hydrocarbons is the main driver of panic designed to implement the evil Net Zero project. Plunging temperatures and inconvenient pauses in Antarctica over 45 years do not play well at a time when carbon dioxide atmospheric levels rose from near-denudation 337 parts per million to 420.
The Korean scientists provide two sets of data to back up their cooling discovery. Recordings from ground stations show cooling of 0.53C a decade between 1979-99 and -0.004C a decade from the turn of the century. ‘Reanalysis’ data is produced with the help of computer models and these frequently show greater warming. In this case the cooling trend is less, but both sets of data show a distinct cooling trend since 1979.
In the graph above, the dashed-dotted and black solid lines correspond to the results from 20 station observations and the ‘reanalysis’ data respectively. The two illustrations below the graph show clearly the degrees of cooling that were detected across the continent. The orange line refers to the stratospheric final warming onset data (SFWOD), which is one of a number of important natural climatic influences which the scientists examined in trying to explain the temperature changes. Meanwhile, the illustrations of temperature change correspond well with a similar one published by Singh and Polvani. It was noted in this 2021 paper that warming had been “nearly non-existent” over the last seven decades.
Singh and Polvani also observed that Antarctica sea ice has “modestly expanded” over the same period, and these findings have been confirmed in other scientific work. Last month, the Daily Sceptic reported on the work of four environmental scientists who found that sea ice around Antarctica has “slowly increased” since the start of continuous satellite recordings in 1979. That doesn’t of course mean that there aren’t short-term cyclical variations in the extent of the ice and these provide a field day for alarmists. A recent “mind-blowing” variation led the science editor of the Financial Times Clive Cookson to exclaim that the entire area “faces a catastrophic cascade of extreme environmental events… that will affect climate around the world”.
All is not lost in alarmists circles since they still have an area in western Antarctica they can point at to whip up their politicised climate fear mongering. The area is clearly seen in the maps above showing higher recent temperatures. But quite why a well-mixed atmospheric trace gas with warming properties should only affect one part of the massive ice-covered continent is not clear – no matter, it is the best evidence of ‘global warming’ available. Those who look for the more obvious natural causes of climate change note the presence of volcanoes. Following recent discoveries, there are now 138 identified volcanoes in the West Antarctica Rift System with heights ranging from 300 to 12,600 ft. In 2021, Dziadek et al noted that the “elevated geothermal heat flow band” is exerting a “profound influence on the flow dynamics of the Western Antarctica Ice Sheet”. The area is home to the Thwaites ‘Doomsday’ Glacier, a key poster alarm story with fears of imminent collapse and sea level rise. But scientists have shown that there are significant cycles of ice production in the area that stretch back thousands of years.
Other climatic influences on Antarctica were recently highlighted by a group of New Zealand scientists who noted that the ozone hole high above the continent was as large as ever, despite a 35-year ban on the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFU). UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres claimed that the world should be encouraged by an inspiring example of political will and apply the same will to healing the planet. The ozone CFU scare was considered a great triumph in Green alarmist circles – still is, just a shame about the facts. The opening of the ozone layer in the spring seems to be largely a natural phenomenon. The temperatures at this time along with wind patterns are said to greatly effect the event. Dynamic changes from the higher reaches of the atmosphere with the polar vortex affecting climatic conditions are also noted by both New Zealand and Korean scientists.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
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I was talking to a friend yesterday about all this and pointing out that climate seems to have an extremely low ratio of data to hypotheses. Take the great ozone hole. When it was discovered around 1980, a theory was quickly put out that it was CFC’s wot done it. So we banned CFC’s, and 50 years later the ozone hole is alive and well and seemingly causing little by the way of extinction level threat. The hole hasn’t existed since 1980. It may have been formed 10.000 years ago, or 10 million years ago. It may be a perfectly natural feature of our weather system. It may be essential to our survival. Who knows.
Now that we have scientists measuring all sorts of stuff and noticing ‘trends’ and correlations and other curiosities before coming up with some doom laden predictions and draconian solutions. It just makes the whole subject dismissible as both mumbo and jumbo. I think about the money getting spent on this and consider that it could have paid for clean water and sewage handling for everyone on the planet. I believe that plumbers have saved more lives than doctors and scientists. We need to change focus..
Scientific study once more like a hobby among clever, curious people, is now a multi-billion £ industry. It is essential that researchers keep finding more and more things to worry about requiring more research.
80% of research funding goes on salaries, expenses, office/lab space, trips to glamerous resorts to present papers, and other conventions and jamborees. The climate clowns do very nicely out of this self-preserving circuit.
The excuse for everything that contradicts the climate change narrative is always that either (1) What we are seeing is simply local not global, or (2) We still have global warming but another phenomenon is currently working against that eg aerosols bocking the sun. ——Why make excuses? Why not just accept observations? —-Because an entire Political Agenda that seeks to change the whole economic model of the world depends entirely on their being global warming. —–If there is no human caused dangerous changes to climate, then that whole agenda collapses, and that simply cannot be allowed to happen.
And, don’t forget, a lot of money to be made out of it too. Ed Minibrain is hurling £billions about.
Hmm. How do I get my hands on some of that? Now that Rachel from accounts has stopped my Winter warm clothing allowance, I could do with a couple of new, warm sweaters.
FACTS aren’t important to those who are running the scam (as the UN has admitted) or those who BELIEVE the nonsense.
“A 1 C decline in temperature simply means that it is the hottest year evah in Antarctica. Exactly what the models predicted. In fact, worse than we had ever imagined.”
Nobody seems to take a moment to describe what they think ‘climate’ is. Is it a global average over tens of thousands of years (e.g. an Ice Age), a regional expectation (e.g. a temperate zone), or is it what I remember locally in my lifetime (weather)?
There is a human, but biased, assumption that ‘my weather’ is a global average. The value of averages is that the data is smoothed but the range of data variation within that average can bury the signal in noise, especially from a global perspective.
Yet, in the latest “adopt a King Penguin” advert “climate change” is naturally one the the threats to their existence.
Aha! More evidence of climate change. Gadzooks it’s worse than we thought!
We must start feeding those penguins with that new chemical to stop them farting.
Yes.
“Either all you kulaks get off to the gulag without all the grumbling, or this nice penguin and that cuddly polar bear will get it in the neck. We’ll take care of that!”
Signed: – Master Ed and George Soros.
This whole climate scam will fall down like the Berlin wall. Days before the collapse it seemed it would last for decades and just too well established, with too much inertia, and then gone. Anytime about now climate bollox will go the same way, in fact you could say, we have reached a tipping point. The only one we’ll need. I love the way the hyperbolic climate nutjobs describe cascades of tipping points in climate… where clearly one would suffice.
The current issue of “New Scientist” has an article which states Antarctica is “in-crisis”. Perhaps Chris or Ben Pile can analyse and publish their conclusions?
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2458211-antarctica-is-in-crisis-and-we-are-scrambling-to-understand-its-future/