Arctic ice 1979 Cherry Pick: ‘It would be hard to find a point since 1930, when conditions were not more favorable for massive Arctic sea ice extent. And they wonder why it has declined since’

Arctic Ice Measurements Began

http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/arctic-ice-measurements-began/

By Paul Homewood
 

http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/index.html
 
Whenever we hear about “Arctic ice melting”, it is always from a start point of 1979. Why should this be so, when we know there were satellite measurements being made at least as early as 1972?
Whatever the reason, it is a fact that 1979 was a particularly cold one, for instance in Iceland, as their Met Office point out.
 

http://en.vedur.is/climatology/articles/nr/1213
 
But what about the rest of the Arctic? I have taken the following sample of Arctic stations from GISS, giving a reasonable geographic spread.. The example of Angmagssalik in Greenland is shown below.
 
 

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/show_station.cgi?id=431043600000&dt=1&ds=1
 
The stations are:
 

Akureyri
Iceland

Vardo
Norway

Nar’Jan-Mar
Russia

Ostrov Dikson
Russia

Mys Salaurova
Russia

Barrow
Alaska

Cambridge Bay
Canada

Angmagssalik
Greenland

 
 
Using the GISS data, we can plot the temperatures between 1930 and 1979. In every single station, there is a clear, long term decline in temperatures from the 1940’s. In many cases, 1979 stands out as a particularly cold year, the only real exception being Barrow, reflecting the PDO shift a couple of years before. Even here though, the early 1970’s showed a steep decline, leading up to 1975 being the coldest year since 1924.
It would be hard to find a point since 1930, when conditions were not more favourable for massive Arctic sea ice extent. And they wonder why it has declined since.
 
Graphs below.
 

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New York Times publishes cartoon about KILLING ‘DENIERS’ with icicles – Suggests ‘deniers’ should be stabbed through the heart – like vampires’

Skeptical meteorologist Anthony Watts weighs in

‘Admittedly, this is a lame attempt at humor/satire, something we are all well familiar with applying here at WUWT. But, imagine if the tables were turned, and the cartoon depicted global warming alarmists such as Mike Mann or James Hansen in the same role? Our friends would have a collective cow. Yet, somehow, somebody at the New York Times thinks it is acceptable to suggest “dispatching” a whole class of people that hold a different viewpoint from them.’

Update: New York Times journalist Andrew Revkin had this response: “This cartoon is right up there with the ‘pretty edgy’ 2010 climate-campaign video showing a teacher blowing up students who didn’t sign on to cut their carbon footprints. Both are great attention getters, and were utterly stupid if the goal was do accomplish anything other than inflaming and dividing people on an important issue. And that would be a reprehensible goal.”

Anthony Watts, the climate skeptic blogger, asked me to comment on a cartoon published online by The Times exploring ways to use the 2014 “icicle surplus” and including this one. Here’s what I told him: I find the final panel in this cartoon on uses for surplus icicles to be the antithesis of humor. But some artists, like some bloggers, seem to thrive on edge pushing. Andres Serrano (“Immersion: Piss Cross”) comes to mind. There are many others. We are quite a species. Updated, 2:47 p.m. | It’s worth saying more. This cartoon is right up there with the “pretty edgy” 2010 climate-campaign video showing a teacher blowing up students who didn’t sign on to cut their carbon footprints. Both are great attention getters, and were utterly stupid if the goal was do accomplish anything other than inflaming and dividing people on an important issue. And that would be a reprehensible goal.

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Skeptics are reacting:

NY Times publishes cartoon about killing global warming ‘deniers’ – ‘The warmist cult, frustrated by the failure of nature to back-up their prophecies of doom, apparently is turning to homicidal fantasies, and venting them in the pages of the New York Times.’

New York Times comic strip suggests killing opponents of man-made global warming – ‘The panel shows a man arguing against global warming while a woman stabs him in the chest with an icicle.’ – Environmentalists have also called for an end to industrialized civilization while the United Nations climate chief suggested Communism is the best mechanism for dealing with so-called global warming. A post at the conservative Gateway Pundit observed that the Times is “the same rag that blamed conservatives for the Oslo massacre… but stabbing climate change deniers is appropriate.”

This is not the first time someone has suggested doing away with global warming skeptics.

Flashback 2010: NYT Cites Morano on warmist film depicting skeptical kids being blown up: ‘This (the Spattergate film) is warmists expressing their frustrations’

Wanting to Kill Skeptics is old hat for warmists: Flashback: Morano on warmists wanting to kill skeptics: ‘This expresses a deep sentiment in [climate fear] movement of wanting to suppress and silence global warming skeptics’ — Let’s hope eco-snuff films aren’t the future’

Related Links: 

Merchants of Smear: Prosecute Skeptics Like Gangsters?! Warmist Naomi Oreskes likes the idea of having climate ‘deniers’ prosecuted under the RICO act