Antarctic Ice Cap Didn't Get the Memo

"Antarctic ice is growing, not melting away"
news.com.au (April 18, 2009)

• "Ice expanding in much of Antarctica"
• "Eastern coast getting colder"
• "Western section remains a concern"

"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. "

If you're into being scared silly over something, there's still hope: the Wilkins ice shelf isn't all that stable, and some of the western ice sheet is melting.

Meanwhile, over on the eastern part of Antarctica (I know: it's on the pole, but that's the conventional way of dividing the real estate), it's getting colder. That's where Australia has its slice of the Antarctic pie. Which probably explains why this article showed up in an Australian news outlet.

Near the end of the article is a remarkable couple of paragraphs:

"Dr Allison said there was not any evidence of significant change in the mass of ice shelves in east Antarctica nor any indication that its ice cap was melting. 'The only significant calvings in Antarctica have been in the west,' he said. And he cautioned that calvings of the magnitude seen recently in west Antarctica might not be unusual.

" 'Ice shelves in general have episodic carvings and there can be large icebergs breaking off - I'm talking 100km or 200km long - every 10 or 20 or 50 years.' "

Cycles in natural phenomena: who could have guessed?

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