Arctic White Lie?

Arctic White Lie?

The article I read for my blog post is called Is the Arctic Sea Ice in “a Death Spiral” by Peter Westmore. It was published by Newsweekly on September 15, 2012. A link to this article is http://www.newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=5321

This article focuses on the claims that the Arctic Sea ice is actually decreasing year by year. The claims are being supported by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) because they are saying that the amount of Arctic Sea ice is the lowest on records as a result of global warming. However, they are not telling us that there is a yearly cycle that explains why this is happening. The NSIDC doesn’t tell the public that every year, most of the Arctic Sea ice melts. The total amount of melted ice varies from a maximum of about thirteen million square km to a minimum of about four million square km.

In the summer, sunlight melts the ice. The North Atlantic Current, flows of warm water from the Pacific, and flows of fresh water from Russia and North America, and water mixing due to storms and winds also causes a decrease in the amount of Arctic Sea Ice. The thinness of the ice makes it easy for these natural processes to crack or melt it in the summer.

For centuries, people have known about the thawing of Arctic ice in the summer. Expeditions had been sent out to try to find the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Sea to China. After disastrous voyages in which ships became stuck in ice, people knew not to travel that way during the winter. They, however, knew that they could voyage in that direction during the brief summer thaw.

The article states that “In the last northern winter, the amount of Arctic Sea ice was about the same as for any one of the previous 10 years, perhaps a little more.” This proves that global warming is having almost no effect on the Arctic Sea ice. The NSIDC only commented on the amount of ice in the spring/summer thaw.

The amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere has increased tremendously. Since it’s a greenhouse gas, scientists theorize that it is trapping heat in our atmosphere. This causes the overall temperature of the biosphere to increase. Although the rise in temperature is subtle, it is having a huge impact on many ecosystems, including the ecosystems in the North and South Poles.

We are constantly being fed a steady stream of news about how harmful global warming is. For example, in the video “Pole to Pole” produced by Discovery Education, they teach us about how global warming is harmfully affecting the polar bears’ environment.  After reading this article, I now wonder if we are being given all of the facts about the effects of global warming. I think that it was very manipulative of the NSIDC to only give out the amount of ice in the Arctic in the summer and spring thaw when the amount of ice for the winter freeze hasn’t decreased. Maybe other organizations are only giving us some of the facts too.

The story that the NSIDC gave to the general public could have good effects on society even if it’s not accurate. If people believe them, they may try to reduce the amount of carbon they release into the atmosphere. That could help reduce the effect global warming has on other areas of the world.

This article causes some tension between the readers and the NSIDC. Reader would be angry that they are only being given part of the truth. They may feel like they have been lied to and may think that there is no such thing as global warming.