The Global Warming Challenge

The story of sea ice in the “other” Arctic, the Antarctic, seems to be largely untold. It turns out the extent of the Antarctic sea ice sheet has reached a record high. At least it is a record since satellite measurements began in 1979. Yes, I know, that is a short period and so not much of a record, but it is the same period that is used as the basis for Arctic sea ice record claims. Similarly, consistency requires that if one claims that Arctic ice has trended down then one must admit that Antarctic sea ice has trended up. For a chart of the time series and discussion on implications for temperatures, see the Real Science page here.

In a 6 September piece in The Washington Times, Willie Soon and William Briggs bring the long history of research on the connection between solar activity and Earthly temperatures up-to-date. We have reproduced the chart that appears in the article, below. For more on the relationship between the solar radiation hitting the Earth and maximum daytime temperatures, see the article, here. It is not obvious that carbon dioxide, the gas behind Al Gore and the IPCC’s dangerous manmade global warming alarmism, could explain any more of the variation in temperatures than is apparently already explained by the Sun.