Ice is expanding at the poles when 2023 was the warmest year? Beware of this climate skeptic post

It’s a “NASA” map released this time to attack the reality of global warming. In a post widely relayed on Facebook earlier in the year, internet users questioned the climate emergency based on poor readings of the famous American space agency.

“‘The Earth is burning,’ UN president says…” begins this post with the necessary ellipsis for this kind of message. The author of this message, copied and pasted by dozens of Internet users, tells us that “the Arctic will start 2024 with about 1 million km2 more than last year. Antarctica will start with about 2 million additional km2. » Climate skeptic attack follows: “And after the so-called ‘hottest year’ of all time. The warmist cult has to explain this to us, in a new tinkering of which they have the secret and so they have become high-flying artisans. A pure manipulator. »

We should look at the evolution of sea ice extent over several decades

The statement is taken from a reliable site, published by NSIDC, a partner of NASA and an American university, University of Colorado Boulder. Going there, we actually saw that the sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic had a good start to the year with a slightly larger area than in January 2023. However, to understand the reality of global warming, it is not appropriate to compare two consecutive years. method

It is in the long term that we notice the development, remembers many scientists interviewed 20 minutes. “It’s pointless to compare it with one that follows a year,” explains Francois Lapointe, a researcher specializing in the Arctic. It is important to look at the long term. »

2023 saw “record minimum ice in Antarctica”.

So, if we place the cursor over several decades, what does the data tell us? Looking at the website of NASA’s partner university, we see that “sea ice is decreasing significantly with each passing decade,” adds Francois Lapointe.

If we look at the year 2023, “that’s the average for the warmest decade ever, 2011-2020,” adds the University of Massachusetts Amherst scientist. We can see it perfectly in this graph:

Aurelian Quicket, a researcher at the CNRS Environmental Climate Science Laboratory, added that last year also saw “the minimum ice record in Antarctica”. For the Arctic, “although not reaching the record low of 2012”, the 2023 average represents “the same extent as the record year”.

As for the contrast pointed out by the post-climate skeptic – between 2023 which saw record temperatures and an expanding sea of ​​ice at the beginning of the following year – François Lepointe recalls that “comparing winters with previous winters makes little sense. » The expert emphasizes that ” It is not surprising that sea ice can increase in winter. With warming, the melting of glaciers and permafrost will increase the supply of fresh water to the Arctic Ocean. When this water is churned by powerful cold westerly winds, more ice can form. »

This ice that is forming is “new ice” – and it is very important -, the expert continues: “What emerges clearly from the data is the disappearance of old sea ice, which is multi-year. » However, The fact that this thick ice is replaced by thin ice does not have the same effect on the climate or the ecology of the area.

Mathilde Cousins