Political commentary, opinion & insight into the state of the United States of America.

Sea ice surrounding Antarctica reached a new record high extent this year, covering more of the southern oceans than it has since scientists began a long-term satellite record to map sea ice extent in the late 1970s. The upward trend in the Antarctic, however, is only about a third of the magnitude of the rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.

The new Antarctic sea ice record reflects the diversity and complexity of Earth’s environments, said NASA researchers. Claire Parkinson, a senior scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, has referred to changes in sea ice coverage as a microcosm of global climate change. Just as the temperatures in some regions of the planet are colder than average, even in our warming world, Antarctic sea ice has been increasing and bucking the overall trend of ice loss.

“The planet as a whole is doing what was expected in terms of warming. Sea ice as a whole is decreasing as expected, but just like with global warming, not every location with sea ice will have a downward trend in ice extent,” Parkinson said.

Since the late 1970s, the Arctic has lost an average of 20,800 square miles (53,900 square kilometers) of ice a year; the Antarctic has gained an average of 7,300 square miles (18,900 sq km). On Sept. 19 this year, for the first time ever since 1979, Antarctic sea ice extent exceeded 7.72 million square miles (20 million square kilometers), according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The ice extent stayed above this benchmark extent for several days. The average maximum extent between 1981 and 2010 was 7.23 million square miles (18.72 million square kilometers).

Here’s another scientific debate that has raged for years.

Google coffee: “is it bad or good”. You can find 100 articles by renowned scientists and/or scientific institutions that say coffee is bad. You can find 100 that say coffee is good. The most recent one contends that coffee prevents multiple sclerosis.

The first article on Antarctic ice ever tells you how much the oceans will rise in 100 years. Will they give the Dow average for next week? Or, tell me if it is going to rain in Arizona next weekend?

Want other examples, here you go: This is just a quick and dirty list of where scientists differ: Good and bad: compter games, loud music, pounding the pavement(jogging), dairy(fat or fat-free), texting, caffeine, working moms, sunshine, sugary soft drinks, ozone, butter, stem cells, evolution, soy, good carb/bad carb, and vaccination.

Want more:

A level

• Teaching controversial and social issues in science / biology

AAT

• Alpha-1 Antitrypsin

Abortion

• Abortion

Acid rain

• Acid rain

Afforestation

• Afforestation

Agriculture

• Agricultural Pollution
• Bio-accumulation
• Biodiversity & Agriculture
• Methane

Assisted reproduction

• Assisted reproduction

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C

D

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G

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K

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M

N

O

P

Q

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