Interesting news this week about climate change!

Your weekly update on the climate science debate — and the loosely associated agitprop campaign.

(1)  The Antarctic Wilkins Ice Shelf Collapse: Media recycles photos and storylines from previous years“, Anthony Watts, Watts Up With That, 17 April 2009 — Worth a look at this first-rate example of media manipulation.  The antarctic Wilkens Ice Shelf breaks up repeatedly, each time a warning of global warming.

(2)  “Plankton May Influence Climate Change Says UCSB Scientist“, U of California Santa Barbara, 5 May 2004 — Another of the many and subtle ways the Sun influences Earth’s climate. 

Here are a wonderful pair of articles showing the horror of global warming!  As always, ice melting proves global warming — but cooling is not evidence against global warming.  Hat tip to Watts Up with That.  No excepts given.

• “Antarctic ice melting faster than expected“, The Age, 6 April 2009
• “Antarctic ice spreading“, Tony Eastley, Radio National, 23 April 2009 — Transcript

Excerpts

(1)   The Antarctic Wilkins Ice Shelf Collapse: Media recycles photos and storylines from previous years“, Anthony Watts, Watts Up With That, 17 April 2009 — Worth a look at this first-rate example of media manipulation.  The antarctic Wilkens Ice Shelf breaks up repeatedly, each time a warning of global warming.

Those masters of disaster are at it again, and it appears our friendly scientists at that National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) help this story along each year. Note the dates for these two stories {about the Antarctic ice shelf “on the verge of collapse”} are a year apart, but use the same photo.

… Ted Scambos lead scientist at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center} said something similar in 1999:

“On the southwest side of the peninsula, the Wilkins ice shelf retreated nearly 1,100 square kilometers in early March of last year [1998], said Scambos. … Within a few years, much of the Wilkins ice shelf will likely be gone” (source)

But, as can be seen from the following January 1996 and March 2008 images, there has been hardly any change in a decade. Look at the photos below from the appinsys web site …

(2)  “Plankton May Influence Climate Change Says UCSB Scientist“, U of California Santa Barbara, 5 May 2004 — Another of the many and subtle ways the Sun influences Earth’s climate.  Excerpt:

Plankton appear to play a major role in regulating the global climate system, according to new research.

David Siegel, professor of geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and director of the Institute for Computational Earth System Science, made the discovery with his former Ph.D. student Dierdre Toole, who is now based at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

In an article in the May 6 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the scientists explain their research in the Sargasso Sea, approximately 50 miles southeast of the island of Bermuda. Siegel’s research group has been making observations at this location since 1992.

… According to their research, it appears that phytoplankton produce organic sulfur compounds as a chemical defense from the damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation and other environmental stresses, in much the same way as our bodies use vitamins E and C to flush out molecules that cause cellular damage.

Siegel and Toole found that ultraviolet radiation explained almost 90 percent of the variability in the biological production of DMS. They showed that summertime DMS production is “enormous,” and that the entire upper layer of DMS content is replaced in just a few days. This demonstrates a tight link between DMS and solar fluxes.

“The significance of this work is that it provides, for the first time, observational evidence showing that the DMS-anti-oxidant mechanism closes the DMS-climate feedback loop,” said Siegel. “The implications are huge. Now we know that phytoplankton respond dramatically to UV radiation stresses, and that this response is incredibly rapid, literally just days.”

He explained that the findings give new impetus for scientists to re-examine the DMS-climate feedback hypothesis. And the DMS-climate feedback may also play out under possible global warming and climate change scenarios.

As the Earth’s ozone shield thins and greenhouse gases increase, higher ultraviolet radiation will reach the surface layer of the oceans. The findings indicate that phytoplankton will then produce more DMS in response to this increased ultraviolet radiation, causing increasing cloudiness and mitigating the effects of global warming. However, Siegel is careful to note that while the process may mitigate global warming it will not reverse the trend.

The project was funded by NASA.

The article under discussion:  “Light-driven cycling of dimethylsulfide (DMS) in the Sargasso Sea: Closing the loop”, Geophysical Research Letters, 6 May 2004.  Abstract.

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