According to the Church of Anthropogenic Global Warming, one of the signs of the coming eco-apocalypse is the disappearance of sea ice from the North Pole. Lots has been written on this, all meant to scare people into “doing something NOW!!!” about a problem that does not exist — dangerous man-caused climate change. Lots has been written about the vanishing ice. For example:
- Time Magazine: “Farewell to the Arctic — As We Know It”
- Mail & Guardian: “Vanishing Arctic Ice Shows No Sign of Returning”
- CNN: “Arctic Ice to Vanish in Summer, Report Says”
There are hundreds more like these going back years.
All of which makes the following item from the Miami Herald quite amusing:
The heaviest polar ice in more than a decade could postpone the start of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean until the beginning of August, a delay of up to two weeks, Shell Alaska officials said.
Unveiling a newly refurbished ice-class rig that is poised to begin drilling two exploratory wells this summer in the Beaufort Sea, Shell executives said Friday that the unusually robust sea ice would further narrow what already is a tight window for operations. The company’s $4-billion program is designed to measure the extent of what could be the United States’ most important new inventory of oil and gas.
(…)
“We’re seeing multiyear ice that they’ve not seen in such large quantities in over a decade, and it could impact our ability to start the well,” Slaiby said. Of particular concern, he said, is the region of the Chukchi Sea around the company’s Berger Prospect – potentially the crown jewel of the company’s offshore oil inventory – which in normal years would be accessible by mid-July. This year, it may be unreachable until late July or early August.
(h/t Steven Hayward)
Of course, in the fair’s-fair department, the article does mention thinning ice in Canada — so the ice is melting somewhere! (While growing somewhere else…) And, as any good Warmist will tell you, this could only be a temporary upsurge in a long, scary declining trend. So… Quick! Sign Kyoto!
More likely, though, is that polar ice goes through natural cycles of forming and melting, perhaps influenced by winds, among other non-anthropogenic causes. (But those winds do carry the evil CO2. Hmmm…) In fact, there’s strong evidence that the North Pole has frozen and cleared several times in the past. (For example)
Of course, climate alarmists won’t let little things like facts get in the way of a good theory. They have computer models, after all!
So be it. Meanwhile, we can sit back and laugh while Nature shoves another grapefruit in their face.
RELATED: One of the loudest alarmist voices, the UK’s Guardian newspaper, apparently doesn’t read its own articles.
(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)
Posted by Phineas Fahrquar 
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