It's the volume, stupid

Climate skeptics are afraid of Arctic sea ice loss.  That's because, no matter how hard they try, it's essentially undeniable that it's happening.  And it's obvious, and it's visible, and it will affect charismatic megafauna like polar bears and seals and walruses and puffins and ... well, a lot of Arctic animals.  Most of them, actually.

So the skeptics play games with data, and in the middle of winter they pull out  arguments like the sea ice extent is really big.   They play games with polar bear population numbers, ignoring what's happening to the most vulnerable populations because that's what's going to happen to most polar bear populations in too short a span of time.

But as I pointed out via Twitter to public enemy Marc Morano, it's first-year ice that's refreezing at the surface of the Arctic Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere winter.  Sure, when it gets cold the surface freezes.   But what can't be seen under the ice cover is how THIN it is.  Which means low volume.  That problem is coming into clarity.  And this video demonstrates exactly what's going on, in a very visible fashion.


So keep on denying, Morano and your ilk and misguided, sadly misinformed, and politically-predetermined followers.  The truth will bear us out.  But unfortunately, when the tide of truth turns, the cost of trying to fix things will be much higher than if the propagandists supplying the denial crowd with misinformation had not been able to do so.

And some things won't ever go back to the way they should have been, either.