Arctic Ice Doing Fine, Thank You

We're told that one of the surest signs of anthropogenic global warming is the reduction of the ice cover in the Arctic Ocean and on Greenland. Except that it isn't getting any thinner. As Dr. Martin Herzberg reports, the ice is about as thick as it's ever been for the past 7 years or so, and shows no indication of significant decline. He lays out the New York Times for its biased and nonscientific reporting, noting, among other things, that far from a sudden and precipitous melt off, "[t]he data show a 4 % decline in the yearly average Arctic ice cover from 2002 to 2007, and a 3 % increase in Arctic ice cover from 2007 to today."

(Lest you think Dr. Herzberg is just a right wing flamer, he also takes the Times to task for accepting the Bush Administration's statements regarding Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction without independent verification.)

If you're looking for the opinion of someone who is neither a global warming skeptic nor advocate, you might want to check out this explanation of sunspot activity. Apropos of this blog, he also notes that the arctic ice melted unusually fast in July due to southerly currents that were stronger than before, not an overall increase in air or ocean temperature.

What got me started on this thread was Greenpeace stating that the Arctic would be ice free by 2030. You can see the press release here. Gerd Leipold, described as the outgoing head of Greenpeace, had to admit that its claims that the ice would be gone by 2030 was an outrageous fib. The admission was made by Greg Leipold during a BBC interview. Don Surber of the Charleston Daily Mail caught it, too.