polar ice regular irregularity

[BMAONE23]

Last year the talk was about Larson B disintegrating and Antarctic melt off, This year, the Sea ice never left the area and started building back more than a week earlier than the Mean date. Last year the talk concerning the Arctic was that the Hudson Bay was still solid ice into Mid May, while today 3-17 there is already signs of melting in the bay. Nothing is really cast in stone WRT global climate change and ALL systems show natural variability.

[rstevenson]

One year does not a trend make.
No scientist said anything was cast in stone.
A scientist would never say there was no natural variability.
Global warming continues.
The debate about the reasons for it continues.

Rob

[Chris Peterson]

Last year the talk was about Larson B disintegrating and Antarctic melt off, This year, the Sea ice never left the area and started building back more than a week earlier than the Mean date. Last year the talk concerning the Arctic was that the Hudson Bay was still solid ice into Mid May, while today 3-17 there is already signs of melting in the bay. Nothing is really cast in stone WRT global climate change and ALL systems show natural variability.

Climate is about long term trends- decades or longer. Even with a strong trend, there will still be annual variation- up some years, down others. We'd have to see quite a few years with the same pattern as this one before anybody could reasonably say the direction of the recent trend has changed.