2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #1

A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 1, 2023  thru Sat, Jan 7, 2023.

 Story of the Week 

Scientists Report a Dramatic Drop in the Extent of Antarctic Sea Ice 

Links between global warming and the decline of sea ice in the Southern Ocean are still unclear, but climate can’t be ruled out as a driver.

The new year started with the familiar refrain of climate extremes, as scientists with the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Jan. 3 that the sea ice around Antarctica dropped to its lowest extent on record for early January.

“The current low sea ice extent … is extreme, and frankly we are working to understand it,” said Antarctica expert Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist with the Earth Science and Observation Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder. 

Scambos said the sea ice extent is about 270,000 square miles less than the previous low, set in 2018. That’s an area just a bit bigger than Texas, and the measurements reflect a persistent, strong trend toward lower-than-average Antarctic sea ice extent that started in 2016 and shows no signs of letting up, he added.

At this point, researchers don’t have a good explanation for the dramatic decline, and the links to global warming are still unclear. For now, he said, persistent wind patterns around Antarctica seem to be the main cause of this year’s rapid decline, while other scientists said climate warming can’t be ruled out as a contributing factor.

Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on the Inside Climate News website.

Scientists Report a Dramatic Drop in the Extent of Antarctic Sea Ice by Bob Berwyn, Climate, Inside Climate News, Jan 6, 2023


Links posted on Facebook

Sun, Jan 1, 2023

Mon, Jan 2, 2023

Tue, Jan 3, 2023

Wed, Jan 4, 2023

Thu, Jan 5, 2023

Fri, Jan 6, 2023

Sat, Jan 7, 2023

Posted by John Hartz on Saturday, 7 January, 2023


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