Is this the sequel to "The Blob" ?

from Australian
Sea ice spread linked to ozone layer

SEA ice around Antarctica has been increasing at a rate of 100,000sq km a decade since the 1970s, according to a landmark study to be published today....

(They use the metric system to confuse us dumb Americans, but I thought ice was shrinking,like everywhere )

..The study by the British Antarctic Survey, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, says rather than melting as a result of global warming, Antarctica continues to expand....

( Now that is an interesting choice of words "continues to expand". I was under the impression that there had been shrinkage at some point, what with all the warming and all, wasn't that your impression?)

...The fact that Antarctic ice is still growing does not in itself prove that global warming is not happening.>(of course not who would think such a thing!) But the BAS says increased ice formation can be explained by another environmental concern, the hole in the ozone layer, which is affecting local weather conditions....

(Well there you go, that old hole in the ozone, how long have we known about that? Mid eighties I think, hardly hear about that hole any more with all the global climate change warming crisis and all taking up media and scientific attention)

...But the absence of an ice melt overall does put a further question mark over extreme claims that the world faces precipitous rises in sea levels because of the melting polar ice caps....

(Somebody is making extreme claims! Wow that ain't right, who would do such a thing?)

...Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has been under fire for suggesting sea levels could rise by 6m as a result of the melting of the Antarctic ice. Antarctica has 90 per cent of the Earth's ice and extensive melting of its ice sheet would be required to raise sea levels substantially....

(Oh that explains it! It's that politician musician guy Down Under, like he so cool man he surely knows the score here, got to trust him)

...The Weekend Australian reported on Saturday that the results of ice-core drilling and sea ice monitoring indicated there was no large-scale melting of ice over most of Antarctica. Drilling in the fast ice, a type of sea ice, off Australia's Davis Station last year showed the ice was 1.9m thick, its densest in 10 years....

(IT'S DENSEST IN 10 YEARS ! That O Hole is sure doing a number on that ice! That hole gets any bigger, that ice might swallow Argentina or something.)

...The BAS, which discovered the ozone hole in the mid-1980s, has drawn on data from international agencies, including Australia's three Antarctic bases.

BAS project leader John Turner told The Australian yesterday that cooling had been recorded at the Australian bases and elsewhere in east Antarctica. He said satellite images indicated the ozone layer had strengthened surface winds around Antarctica, deepening storms in the South Pacific area of the Southern Ocean. This had resulted in a greater flow of cold air over the Ross Sea, leading to more ice production.....

(Them BAS Boys sure are smart, found the hole and connected it to the ice monster growing, jeez you just gotta be impressed. )

....Dr Turner said the research results indicated why the extensive melting of ice in the Arctic was not occurring in Antarctica.

"While there is increasing evidence that the loss of sea ice in the Arctic has occurred due to human activity, in the Antarctic, human influence through the ozone hole has had the reverse effect and resulted in more ice," he said. As the ozone hole repaired itself as a result of measures in place to reduce chlorofluorocarbons in the stratosphere, the cooling in Antarctica was expected to be reversed....

(Well you knew that was coming didn't you ? Those darned humans can't do a thing right. When they are not frying the globe with their nasty CO2, they're freezing it with their hairspray.)

..."We expect ozone levels to recover by the end of the century, and by then there is likely to be around one-third less Antarctic sea ice," Dr Turner said.

He said that while the expansion of sea ice, the relatively thin ice in Antarctic coastal waters, had been established, debate continued about whether the main mass of the Antarctic ice sheet was growing or shrinking.

(Now it's all settled or in scientific jargon established no need to worry about that insignificant thin ice in Antarctica, the only thin ice that is important is the thin ice in the Arctic. I guess it depends where the thin ice is whether or not it is important.)


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