Upon reading the headline above (quotations mine), and the accompanied story, I nearly grabbed my family and ran for the highest mountains of Colorado. And then I re-read the story a little more critically.
First off, the ice coverage supposedly just fell below the previous low record, set in 2005. If there was a previous low record 2 years ago, one can deduce that the earth somehow generated more ice in 2006, right? Hum.
Then I looked at where the data was being generated - Boulder, Colorado. Enough said on that.
Next I looked at the method of measurement - satellite imagery. That got me thinking. What was the satellite imagery showing in the 1800s and 1900s? I discovered that we didn't start satellite imagery until the 1970s, a little over thirty years ago. And I'll be those pictures were clear as day too. What I remember for the 1970s is the huge scare about global cooling. OK, so it was cold in the 1970s. Doesn't it make sense that if the earth was a frozen wasteland in the 70's, that it might warm up 1/10 of a degree or so on its way back to normal?
What I concluded was that this story is another piece of junk science meant to scare us all. Drawing doom and gloom conclusions from thirty years of observation on a planet billions of years old is just, well, stupid.
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