2008 Polar ice decline was worse than originally forecasts.

[RandySF]

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/07/summer-sea-ice-round-up/

More important than a round of beers at the White House.


"One of the interesting things about being a scientist is seeing how unexpected observations can galvanize the community into looking at a problem in a different way than before. A good example of this is the unexpectedly low Arctic sea ice minimum in 2007 and the near-repeat in 2008. What was unexpected was not the long term decline of summer ice (this has long been a robust prediction), but the size of 2007 and 2008 decreases which were much larger than any model had hinted at. This model-data mismatch raises a number of obvious questions – were the data reliable? are the models missing some key physics? is the comparison being done appropriately? – and some less obvious ones – to what extent is the summer sea ice minimum even predictable? what is the role of pre-conditioning from the previous year vs. the stochastic nature of the weather patterns in any particular summer?"

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Poppycock. Smirk." - Rush 'Ass-Pimple Deferment' Limbaugh (R - Propagandist)

"Who are you going to believe, a bunch of pointy-head scientists with facts, or a draft-dodging, drug-abusing overpaid Republicon Chickenhawk Propagandist fatcat stooge like me? Smirk."

- Rush 'Ass-Pimple Deferment' Limbaugh (R - Propagandist)

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Profits for us Republicon 'elite' trump planetary survival." - Republicon Fatcats