The Guardian Sea Ice Scare

This is largely hyped nonsense:

The pictures, kept secret by Washington during the presidency of George W Bush, were declassified by the White House last week. President Barack Obama is currently trying to galvanise Congress and the American public to take action to halt catastrophic climate change caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

First they admit the photos were from a 'spy satellite' then say Bush 'kept (them) secret'. Well, I guess it's now outrageous to think pictures from a "spy satellite" might be secret. Good thing we've got Mr. Sunshine around to release spy photos! Maybe next he could release some shots proving whether OJ was the real killer.

The Guardian took what amounts to be evidence of an ice retreat that peaked in 2007 and turns it into a sign of the coming apocalypse:

One, taken in July 2006, shows sea ice still nestling close to the shore. A second image shows that by the following July the coastal waters were entirely ice-free.

The ice has definitely retreated from climatological norms but it's not as if we hadn't noticed--as if Bushco kept the satellites turned off during the past eight years to keep the National Snow and Ice Data Center in the dark. Sensationalizing these kinds of stories is why the majority of Americans are skeptical of global warming claims.

The only point here is the pictures provide scientists a very high resolution look at the ice fields. If spy satellite shots were released elsewhere they would get high resolution pictures from elsewhere. This is more a stunt concocted by environmentalists and helped along by a compliant Obama administration eager to pass a risky cap'n tax wealth distribution that has nothing to do with climate change scheme.

By the way, most people probably don't realize that large open areas can develop in the main sea ice pack, even near the North Pole. Here's the USS Hampton surfacing around the pole in 2004:


And if you think that proves global warming, here's an earlier surfacing:



And here's an older picture of the Seadragon and Skate from August 1962: