If you’ve heard that global warming has finally made it’s way to the Antarctic you can thank the ever enthusiastic MSM for latching on to bad science.
Here’s a little background of the claim…
However, to provide all their pictures of ice-shelves “the size of Texas” calving off into the sea, they have had to draw on one tiny region of the continent, the Antarctic Peninsula – the only part that has been warming. The vast mass of Antarctica, all satellite evidence has shown, has been getting colder over the past 30 years. Last year’s sea-ice cover was 30 per cent above average.
So it predictably made headlines across the world last week when a new study, from a team led by Professor Eric Steig, claimed to prove that the Antarctic has been heating up after all. As on similar occasions in the past, all the usual supporters of the cause were called in to whoop up its historic importance. The paper was published in Nature and heavily promoted by the BBC. This, crowed journalists such as Newsweek’s Sharon Begley, would really be one in the eye for the “deniers” and “contrarians”.
And critical scientific reaction, including a senior scientist of the IPCC…
One of the first to express astonishment was Dr Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist with the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and a convinced believer in global warming, who wryly observed “it is hard to make data where none exists“. A disbelieving Ross Hayes, an atmospheric scientist who has often visited the Antarctic for Nasa, sent Professor Steig a caustic email ending: “with statistics you can make numbers go to any conclusion you want. It saddens me to see members of the scientific community do this for media coverage.”
(bold is mine)
Not to mention that one of the group of scientists that published the Antarctic GW claim was none other than Michael Mann of “hockey stick” infamy.
As global warming/climate changed is studied, “we” really do need to be more particular about the distribution of our research/tax dollars.
Hat tip to Darren over at Right on the Left Coast.