Archives for September 17, 2007

Another article via Marc Morano:

Cherry-picking

“Need more proof that the Big Green Scare Machine is spoon-feeding you
cherry-picked non-science” to further their global warming alarmist
agenda? “Try this,” Marc Sheppard writes at americanthinker.com.

“While news of Arctic ice shrinking to its lowest level on record is
being screamed everywhere … the emergence of colder weather and ice
levels at their highest in almost 30 years on the other side of the
globe has been all but ignored,” Mr. Sheppard said.

“In coming months, you’re sure to hear a lot about how global warming
has created that which has eluded explorers from John Cabot in 1497 to
Henry Hudson in 1609: the fabled Arctic Ocean shipping lane known as
the Northwest Passage.

“And, while it’s true that satellite photos have found an ice-free
corridor along Canada, Alaska and Greenland and Northern Hemisphere
ice at its lowest level since such images were taken in 1978, it’s
also true that Antarctic ice levels (Southern Hemisphere) are at
record highs for that same period.

“That’s right, according to the University of Illinois Polar Research
Group Web site The Cryosphere Today: ‘The Southern Hemisphere sea ice
area has broken the previous maximum of 16.03 million sq. km and is
currently at 16.26 million sq. km. This represents an increase of
about 1.4 percent above the previous SH ice area record high.’

Thanks to Marc Morano for sending me the National Geographic article ‘Mars, Like Earth, Has Cyclical Ice Ages, Study Says’ relating to a new nature paper entitled ‘Dynamics of ice ages on Mars.’

Mars has gone through 40 ice ages during the past five million years that regularly send the planet’s permanent ice sheets cascading toward the equator, then melting backward, a new theory suggests.

The climate changes are likely driven by cyclical fluctuations in the planet’s orbit that alter the amount of sunlight that falls on the planet’s surface, says astronomer Norbert Schörghofer of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Understanding the sun’s exact role in the Martian ice ages could help solve longstanding puzzles about the red planet.

It could also help scientists better understand Earth’s complex climatic systems, which are also affected by orbital variations.