Newsweek’s Antarctic Global Warming Scares Cancelled

Published June 19, 2014

Objective scientific evidence debunks a pair of global warming scares asserted in a Newsweek article this week. According to Newsweek, a global warming-induced decline in Antarctic sea ice is decimating bottom-dwelling marine species by giving icebergs more room to scour the ocean floor. The Newsweek article also asserts global warming has pushed the Antarctic ice shelf “past the point of no return” for a complete collapse.

Despite Newsweek‘s fantasies to the contrary, Antarctic sea ice has been consistently increasing since satellites first began measuring the sea ice in 1979. The sea ice expansion has been particularly dramatic in recent years as Antarctic sea ice extent has set dozens of new records. As is the case with so many other asserted global warming catastrophes – hurricanes, tornadoes, drought, crop production, forest fires, etc. – objective evidence shows global warming is having the exact opposite effect claimed by global warming alarmists. If melting sea ice harms marine species, and prominent global warming activists now claim they predicted expanding Antarctic sea ice all along, then global warming is benefiting bottom-dwelling Antarctic marine species.

The Antarctic ice shelf “point of no return” scare is just as easily debunked. Newsweek cites and links to a paper published a month ago that claiming a single glacier at a single point of the West Antarctic Peninsula is being undercut by warm water. The paper makes no claims about the Antarctic ice sheet as a whole, which is expanding. Although one small glacier in one small part of Antarctica is very slowly shrinking, this outlier location defies the overall trend. Moreover, a peer-reviewed study published just a week later documented that a rash of underwater volcanic activity in the region explained the localized warm water rather than global warming.

The Newsweek article typifies global warming alarmists’ foolish strategy to habitually stretch the truth in order to create new scares every week; only to see the public later learn the real truth about such false scares and gradually tune out their endless alarmism.

Read my full article on the topic at The Federalist.