Is the ice covering the North Pole melting?
Well, according to many global warming proponents, the answer is most assuredly “Yes,” and for over a decade now they have been regularly voicing concern about an impending ice melt.
But now comes new research by the Institute of Ocean Sciences of Canada that may put the deep-freeze on such concern. According to the soon-to-be-published research, much of the ice claimed to be missing in the Arctic may in fact not be missing at all, but may in fact be shuffled around and hiding elsewhere.
The researchers point out that submarine data between 1960-1990 has indeed shown a 40% reduction in ice shield draught (that is, the distance between the surface of the ocean and bottom of the ice pack) in certain parts of the Arctic. But the problem with the data, according to the researchers, is that they only cover small portions of the polar region and, when one takes into account the multi-decadal wind patterns known to exist at the North Pole, it seems likely that the ice simply has shifted from one region to another.
“It’s a circumstance where the ice tends to leave the central Arctic and then mostly pile up against the Canadian side, before moving back into the central Arctic again,” commented one of the world’s leading experts on Arctic ice Dr. Greg Holloway. His suspicions were confirmed when he lined up the submarine visits and found they perfectly match the timing of the wind cycles. In short, he concluded, there is no ice melting, just ice shifting.
On a side note, recent submarine visits to the North Pole have also revealed there is not much ice melt, and indeed sonar data throughout the 1990’s suggests there may even be an increase of Arctic ice. Interesting news, indeed.