{"id":1744,"date":"2024-04-28T13:27:08","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T13:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/2024\/04\/28\/reuters-fact-checks-daily-septic-arctic-sea-ice-nonsense\/"},"modified":"2024-05-01T21:06:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T21:06:08","slug":"reuters-fact-checks-daily-septic-arctic-sea-ice-nonsense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/2024\/04\/28\/reuters-fact-checks-daily-septic-arctic-sea-ice-nonsense\/","title":{"rendered":"New Fact Checks for Septic Arctic Sea Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Our regular reader(s) may be wondering at this juncture, but that is not a typo in today\u2019s title. For an in depth discussion of how alleged \u201crenowned amateur naturalist and honorary doctor\u201d Chris Packham sensationally rebranded Toby Young\u2019s self identified \u201cskeptical\u201d web site live on air on the BBC\u2019s \u201cSunday with Laura Kuenssberg\u201d see here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By way of additional background information see also our in depth investigation of the Daily Sceptic\u2019s Arctic porky pie production line over here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To the apparent astonishment of the Septic\u2019s alleged \u201cEnvironment Editor\u201d, Chris Morrison, Reuters Fact Check<\/a> has now followed in \u201cSnow White\u2019s\u201d dainty footsteps through the as yet unmelted Arctic snow cover:<\/p>\n

A headline touting a small increase in Arctic sea ice on a single date after a decades-long decline is being shared online to suggest that climate-change warnings are a hoax.<\/p>\n

But the data show that average sea ice cover in the Arctic is still dropping over the long term and scientists say that minor variations on individual days don\u2019t negate that overall downward trend or the contribution of global warming\u2026<\/p>\n

Experts say while the quoted figures 20 years apart are accurate, \u201ccherry-picking\u201d individual dates does not provide a meaningful picture of what is happening in the Arctic.<\/p>\n

It is more accurate to look at the data over the long term, which\u00a0shows <\/a>\u00a0that the extent of Arctic ice has been\u00a0declining<\/a>\u00a0since\u00a0satellites began continuously recording in 1979<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if sea ice was partially recovering in the Arctic, which it is not, you cannot deny the other markers of climate change on Earth that are not related to sea ice per se, but are still true,\u201d Ga\u00eblle Veyssi\u00e8re, a sea ice physicist from the\u00a0British Antarctic Survey<\/a>, said in a phone interview. \u201cYou can\u2019t deny climate change based on a single marker that fits your narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing\u00a0data<\/a>\u00a0from the University of Colorado\u2019s\u00a0National Snow and Ice Data Center<\/a>, The Daily Sceptic said there were 13.68 million square kilometres of Arctic ice on Jan. 8, 2024.<\/p>\n

That is slightly higher than the 13.64 million sq km recorded on Jan. 8, 2004, which in turn was down from 14.05 million sq km a year earlier.<\/p>\n

But ice levels during large parts of February and March 2024 were lower than during the same periods in 2004, Walt Meier<\/a>, a senior research scientist at NSIDC, told Reuters.<\/p>\n

\u201cComparing two specific days from two specific years is not an indicator for or against long-term changes,\u201d Meier said in an email.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sea ice varies from day to day and from year to year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arctic ice levels usually peak in March and reach their lowest levels in September. But weather can be a major driver in causing day-to-day or even annual fluctuations, experts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, in 2012, where we saw the record minimum in September, the sea ice extent in March was quite high,\u201d said Veyssi\u00e8re, who is also a research fellow at University College London.\u201c<\/p>\n

Then it started melting in spring. But in August there was a cyclone, which moved the ice around, which increased the melting and resulted in the minimum we saw in September.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Please do read the entire Reuters takedown of the Daily Sceptic\u2019s unscientific Arctic skepticism, but in the meantime here is the very latest update of the NSIDC Arctic sea ice extent <\/a>metric:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

To peruse a wide variety of other Arctic sea ice metrics unavailable via the Daily Sceptic, including Arctic snow cover, please see the latest edition<\/a> of the Great White Con Arctic sea ice news, and also\u2026<\/p>\n

Watch this space!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sea ice varies from day to day and from year to year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1744"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1767,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions\/1767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}