17 February 2009

Well, the truth would get in the way of my conclusion!

George Will's a lying sack of shit? Say it ain't so. I've always figured that former paste eater - who took his licks as the kid who got picked last so often he turned into a fearless nerd - would at least pretend to care about the truth. But when it comes to the highly politicized science of global warming, I guess he doesn't care.

February 15, 2009

In an opinion piece by George Will published on February 15, 2009 in the Washington Post, George Will states "According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979."

We do not know where George Will is getting his information, but our data shows that on February 15, 1979, global sea ice area was 16.79 million sq. km and on February 15, 2009, global sea ice area was 15.45 million sq. km. Therefore, global sea ice levels are 1.34 million sq. km less in February 2009 than in February 1979. This decrease in sea ice area is roughly equal to the area of Texas, California, and Oklahoma combined.

It is disturbing that the Washington Post would publish such information without first checking the facts.

1 comments:

2old4this said...

Well, this is what I found:

http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=13834

and here's the chart from that page:

http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/9972_large_daily.gsia.jpg

The fifth paragraph of the article would seem to indicate some fine distinctions.

This article is pretty good. Note that it claims that 1979 and 1982 exceeded today's level (yes, do consider the source when reading this, but do check the links too):

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20080506084437.aspx

I would say that Will can be forgiven, whatever your beliefs.

Whether he's got the right idea or not is another discussion!