Revealed: Antarctic ice growing, not shrinking | The Australian

Revealed: Antarctic ice growing, not shrinking | The Australian: "ICE is expanding in much of Antarctica, contrary to the widespread public belief that global warming is melting the continental ice cap.

The results of ice-core drilling and sea ice monitoring indicate there is no large-scale melting of ice over most of Antarctica, although experts are concerned at ice losses on the continent's western coast.

Antarctica has 90 per cent of the Earth's ice and 80 per cent of its fresh water. Extensive melting of Antarctic ice sheets would be required to raise sea levels substantially, and ice is melting in parts of west Antarctica. The destabilisation of the Wilkins ice shelf generated international headlines this month.

However, the picture is very different in east Antarctica, which includes the territory claimed by Australia.

East Antarctica is four times the size of west Antarctica and parts of it are cooling. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research report prepared for last week's meeting of Antarctic Treaty nations in Washington noted the South Pole had shown 'significant cooling in recent decades'.Australian Antarctic Division glaciology program head Ian Allison said sea ice losses in west Antarctica over the past 30 years had been more than offset by increases in the Ross Sea region, just one sector of east Antarctica. "Sea ice conditions have remained stable in Antarctica generally," Dr Allison said. "
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The usual arguments will not dispose of these findings. This is not a corporate funded think tank and it isn't Fox News. I am certainly no expert on this subject, but if you are trying to reconcile the dire predictions with the fact that sea levels are not rising as fast as predicted, this would explain it. Ninety percent of the world's ice is in Antarctica, and over the last 30 years, "Sea ice conditions have remained stable in Antarctica generally."

But the global warming zealots only look at evidence that supports their thesis, and they slander and vilify anybody who even considers evidence to the contrary. It is one ad hominem argument after another, coupled with attempts to panic the public and the media into acting without even thinking. That's why Al Gore and others insist "the debate is over." If we have a debate on the merits, they might lose.

I am very much in favor of finding new energy sources and would love to see this nation and the world stop using petroleum for transportation and electricity generation. I have been taking mass transportation to work since 1994, and when the weather cooperates I get around on a bike whenever I can. I will stipulate that the Bush administration was horrifically irresponsible on energy policy, and I'm hoping the next four to eight years will be different on that issue. But in all sincerity, I think the evidence in favor of human-caused catastrophic global warming is questionable at best, and in some cases deliberately deceptive.