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Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts
- sneak 3y agoThis seems like a radical departure from previous years. Am I reading that chart correctly?
- ChatGTP 3y agoSeems like a complete outlier.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lsllc 3y agoIf you look at this summer's average sea surface temps (SSTs) for the mid latitudes, you'll see a similar departure in terms of increased temps: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66387537 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66387537
- leeoniya 3y ago> worrying new benchmark for a region that once seemed resistant to global warming. "once" is doing some heavy lifting here. its susceptibility has been known for a good while.
- BasedAnon 3y agoBOE by 2025 here we come!
- ben30 3y agoIt’s essential to consider the multifaceted effects of our environmental interventions. For instance, the commendable move in 2020 to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions in shipping lanes had an unintended side effect. The decreased emissions meant fewer sulfur dioxide-based clouds in the atmosphere, which previously reflected a significant amount of sunlight and contributed to rain cloud formation. While reducing emissions is a positive change, the absence of these ‘reflective clouds’ might be inadvertently amplifying the heat, especially when combined with the current El Niño. This could partially explain the accelerated ice melt in Antarctica we’re observing just three years after the regulation change. It serves as a reminder that the Earth’s climate system is intricately interconnected, and actions in one area can have cascading effects.
- bequanna 3y agoThis seems like the classic trick that weather plays on people. A few years to us seems like a long time and enough to develop a trend and make conclusions, however, it is nothing when looking at weather patterns and climate changes. Those unfold over decades, a lifetime, or longer.
- suckitsam 3y ago> "When I started studying the Antarctic 30 years ago, we never thought extreme weather events could happen there," says Prof Siegert. When I was a child 30 years ago, I thought Antarctica only experienced extreme weather events, like our own Great Red (White?) Spot.
- weinzierl 3y agoIf you want to show a trend, give us a diagram that shows a trend. A scatter plot with a trend line would be a start, maybe. One can equally interpret the diagram from the article as showing a fairly constant level - somewhat varying within a limited range - with 2023 being an outlier. All it tells about is the variance and without at least more year labels there is no way to read anything about the trend from it. [I'm not saying the article is wrong or right, just that it does a very bad job supporting its thesis.]
- bequanna 3y agoThey did give a chart showing monthly sea ice levels for each year, but I think they didn’t want to highlight that the data is only from 1979-present. Saying this is an “all time low” over only 44 years of measurements isn’t quite as impressive.
- q1w2 3y agoI think the diagram given is pretty telling, but I agree that the words "mind-blowing" tell me that the article is not suitable for the HN crowd.
- GeoAtreides 3y agoThe article isn't about showing a trend, but that's my interpretation, of course. It seems to be about why antarctic ice is important and why would be worrying if this becomes a trend. That being said, the antarctic ice coverage was remarkably steady this past years: https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/s_plot_hires.png https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/s_plot_hires.png compared with arctic ice: https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/n_plot_hires.png https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/n_plot_hires.png
- osigurdson 3y agoIs there no way for scientists to estimate these levels over the past ~500 million years in order to get a broader context?
- bequanna 3y ago
- onetokeoverthe 3y ago[dead]
- Proven 3y ago[dead]
- af3d 3y agoNo doubt this is an issue that should be taken seriously. But certainly much more concrete proof of declining trends would be needed before declaring such a forgone conclusion. While the extent of sea ice does indeed shift around quite a bit from year to year, actual sea temperatures have more or less remained fairly consistent.
- bobbylarrybobby 3y agoNo, they haven't? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_surface_temperature#/media/File%3ADaily_Sea_Surface_Temperatures_60S-60N_1979-2023.png https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_surface_temperature#/med...
- af3d 3y agoThat "Climate Change Service" graphic is indeed disturbing. Regardless, the temperature anomaly in the Arctic is in fact currently at or below average (in other words, plus or minus 0°).
- ralphhughes 3y agoThe other user provided a source that has been used on wikipedia, whereas neither of your comments state any sources. Could you provide some?