Warmists are panicking us today about the “pronounced” decline in Arctic sea ice for January.
Here’s the WaPo alarm:
Here’s the graph showing the January sea ice extent dipping outside the “normal” range:
Here’s a really panicky chart from NOAA:
Here’s a slightly different version of that same chart:
Finally, here’s what the situation looks like with the proper scale on the y-axis:
Panic over. There’s plenty of ice.
My high school math teacher identified all graphs which did NOT start at zero on the Y axis as ‘Gee Whiz!” graphs. Their only reason for existence was to exaggerate the changes in something by ignoring the absolute magnitude of whatever number is being graphed.
For example, the *real* Keeling curve should look like this:
https://mtr1600israel.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/keelingcurve.png
Sea ice declined during the biggest El Nino for nearly 20 years. Why would anyone expect anything else?
Steve, the Arctic is anything but uninhabitable. I lived up there for over 30 yrs. You can even grow food up there… go figure, huh?
I believe that’s “crudibility.”
According to Pierre Berton’s The Arctic Grail, there was a time around 1830 when the Arctic was clear of ice for a few years and people were getting all excited about the Northwest Passage. Needless to say, that didn’t last. Anomalies come and go – they always have. But these so-called “scientists” should realize that twisting, exaggerating, and cherry-picking data will not enhance their credibility.
Hmmm, why would they pick that reference range for the anomaly? Could it be that ’50 – ’80 was relatively cool, according to Hansen’ s ’87 paper, making the current, ‘Karlized’ values look worse by comparison?
“The educated man and the scientist are as prone as any other to become the victim of his prejudices. He will in defense thereof make shipwreck of both the facts and methods of science, by perpetrating every form of fallacy, inaccuracy and distortion.” Karl Pearson
What makes the amount of sea ice in January 1979 the “sacred” amount we must have for humans to flourish on planet Earth? What makes the planets guesstimated temperature in 1880 the “sacred” temperature for humans to flourish on planet Earth?
There are millions of square miles of continental land space we cannot use now because of COLD. like Northern Canada, northern Siberia, northern Scandinavia, Greenland, Antarctica. All useless and unihabitable.
If the planet was to really warm, and I am not convinced it is, then this opens up new lands for humans to live, cultivate, and mine (or mine more). So what is the problem?
Most people, when they look at a graph, assume the x/y scales are a one to one comparison without bothering to look further. That’s why the “hockey stick” scares so many of them. Any graph can be made to show your belief is more true or the opposite belief is less true, just by how it’s arranged.
And NOAA is underestimating Arctic ice extent by ~600k km2.
https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/icy-arctic-mid-february/
Well it ain’t done what Al said it would anyhow!