Modellers Remove Evidence of Cooling and Editor Removes Comment by Climate Sceptic

WITHIN the scientific community it has generally been accepted that as a continent, Antarctica, has been getting colder – or at least not warming.  Those who subscribe to the general consensus that climate change is driven by manmade carbon dioxide emissions, and that the world is generally getting warmer, have claimed this is not inconsistent with their greenhouse gas theory or the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) models.  They have explained that Antarctica is a general exception to the global trend because of a loss of ozone in the polar stratosphere.  [1]

When communicating with the general public, however, some high profile scientists, including from the CSIRO, have been so bold as to falsely claim even the Antarctic is warming.  Perhaps because they wanted to avoid appearing inconsistent or having to explain such an annoying exception to the generally accepted global warming trend over the last 100 or so years. [2]

Now the prestigious journal Nature has published an article explaining that the Antarctic has been generally warming and at about the same rate as the rest of the planet.  [3]  This news made the cover of the latest issue of the journal with a dramatic graphic illustration of the new reconstruction of Antarctic surface temperature trends for 1957–2006.

One of the authors of the new paper, Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, has explained that he is pleased that the previous inconvenience of a cooling trend in Antarctica can now be dismissed.  Indeed he now has a paper published in the prestigous and peer-reviewed journal Nature claiming as much.    But this does not necessarily make it true.

Dr Mann is famous for managing to falsely recreate past temperatures so they accord with the popular global warming consensus.    Indeed Dr Mann is responsible for the infamous hockey-stick graph that suggested the medieval warm period did not exist.   

In this new study Dr Mann and others have combined incomplete data from both satellites and weather stations with some complicated statistics to generate a model of climate for the continent for the period 1957-2006.  

Bill Kininmonth, formerly of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, was interviewed on Australian national radio as part of a segment on the new findings.   Mr Kininmonth explained that there has been no reduction in the cycle of Antarctic sea ice and that he was generally sceptical that the west Antarctic ice sheet was likely to melt – a claim made earlier in the segment by Dr Barry Brook from Adelaide University.  

In apparent contravention of ABC Broadcasting principles, the comment from Mr Kininmonth has been expunged from the transcript and the podcast. [4]

It seems computer models can remove evidence of cooling and editors can remove comment from climate change sceptics – but of course the truth does not cease to exist because it is ignored.

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1. Marohasy, J.  Why Isn’t the Antarctic Warming as Much as the Arctic?  January 20, 2006.  https://climatelab.com.au/blog/2006/01/why-isnt-the-antarctic-warming-as-much-as-the-arctic/

2. Marohasy, J.  Graeme Pearman Claims Antarctica is Warming.  April 7, 2008.
https://climatelab.com.au/blog/2008/04/graeme-pearman-claims-antarctica-is-warming-global-warming-and-the-cosmos-part-1/

3. Steig, E., D. Schneider, S. Rutherford, M. Mann, J.C. Comiso and D.T. Shindell.  2009.  Warming of the Antarctic Ice-Sheet Surface Since The 1957 International Geophysical Year.  Nature.  Vol 457,  January 22, 2009.

4.  Antarctic Cooling Theory Challenged, January 22, 2009, ABC Radio National
transcript http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2471659.htm
podcast: http://www.abc.net.au/news/subscribe/amrssi.xml
Formal complaint lodged by Art Raiche to the ABC:  Program: AM, Program Date: 22 January 2009, ABC Service\Network: Radio National, ABC Recipient: Audience & Consumer Affairs
Subject: post broadcast censorship
Your Comments: On AM this morning, as part of a report on a report that Antarctica was warming, the former head of Australia’s National Climate Centre, William Kininmonth, was interviewed.  This occurred about 7:20 plus or minus 5 minutes.  He pointed out that there was no evidence of reduction in the cycle of Antarctic sea ice and that it was only around the coastal margins that temperatures exceeded 0C during daytime for about one month of the year - the West Antarctic ice sheet has been in place for millions of years and likely to remain so.  Although broadcast,  this interview was expunged from the transcript and the podcast.  This sort of post-broadcast censorship must surely be a violation of the ABC’s broadcast charter. 

5.  And for more on this topic read Marc Morano here:
Scientists, Data Challenge New Antarctic ‘Warming’ Study. ‘It is hard to make data where none exist’. Comprehensive Data Round Up Debunks New Antarctic ‘Estimate of Temperature Trends’  http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=fc7db6ad-802a-23ad-43d1-2651eb2297d6