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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