Quote:

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The polar ice caps have melted faster in last 20 years than in the last 10,000. A comprehensive satellite study confirms that the melting ice caps are raising sea levels at an accelerating rate.

The polar regions are important drivers of the world's climate. When the "everlasting ice" melts at an increasing rate, the rest of the world is affected. Global sea levels are rising, dark meltwater pools absorb warmth from the sun which white ice would reflect back into space. Fresh water flows into the sea, changing ocean currents and the living conditions for marine organisms.

For 20 years satellites have been monitoring earth's biggest ice shields on Greenland and in the Antarctic, using different technologies from radar to gravity measurements. In the past, the uncoordinated publication of individual one-off measurements led to confusion, especially with regard to the state of the Antarctic ice. A new study, supported by NASA and European Space Agency ESA combines the data from different satellite missions.

"It's the first time all the people who have estimated changes in the size of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets using satellites over the past 20 years have got together to produce a single result," Andrew Shepherd from the University of Leeds in the UK explained in an interview with DW.

Satellite monitoring ends confusion

"Thanks to the accuracy of our data set, we are now able to say with confidence that Antarctica has lost ice for the whole of the past 20 years. In addition to the relative proportions of ice that have been lost in the northern and southern hemispheres, we can also see there's been a definitive acceleration of ice loss in last 20 years. So together Antarctica and Greenland are now contributing three times as much ice to sea levels as they were 20 years ago," says the Professor of Earth Observation.

According to the study, melting ice from both poles has been responsible for a fifth of the global rise in sea levels since 1992, 11 millimeters in all. The rest was caused by the thermal expansion of the warming ocean, the melting of mountain glaciers, small Arctic ice caps and groundwater mining. The share of the polar ice melt, however, is rising.

Two thirds of the ice loss is happening in Greenland. "The rate of ice loss from Greenland has increased almost five-fold since the mid-1990s", says Erik Ivins, who coordinated the project for NASA.

Although the Greenland ice sheet is only about one tenth the size of Antarctica, today it is contributing twice as much ice to sea levels, according to Shepherd: "It's certainly the larger player, probably just because it is at a more equatorial latitude, further from the North pole than Antarctica from the South pole." The ice on Greenland is also melting on the surface, because of increasing air temperatures.
http://www.dw.de/polar-ice-sheets-melting-faster-than-ever/a-16432199]
There are no dates on this one, but it's GREENLAND, where the ice doesn't recede like it does at the poles:

"Satellite photos track ice loss, as shown in these images of Greenland"

I, of course, have no expectations you deniers will read any of this, even if just the highlighted portions. You'd rather pick apart a couple of photographs, notice it's been cold this Winter, and stick your heads back in the sand. Your right to do so, just don't expect us to have any respect for your intelligence when you do.

Quote:

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During the cold and dark of Arctic winter, sea ice refreezes and achieves its maximum extent, usually in late February or early March. This year the annual maximum extent was reached on Feb. 28 and it was the fifth lowest sea ice winter extent in the past 35 years.

The new maximum —5.82 million square miles (15.09 million square kilometers)— is in line with a continuing trend in declining winter Arctic sea ice extent: nine of the ten smallest recorded maximums have occurred during the last decade. The 2013 winter extent is 144,402 square miles (374,000 square kilometers) below the average annual maximum extent for the last three decades. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/arctic-seaicemax-2013.html]

There's a nice little graphic at

showing the minimum volume reached every September since 1979 that should clear it all up. No comparing September to any other month, it's September to September every year. Since 1979, the volume of Summer Arctic sea ice has declined by more than 80%. The original data, graphs and much more detail can be found at http://psc.apl.washington.edu/wordpress/research/projects/arctic-sea-i
ce-volume-anomaly/

So I dare Rap or anyone else to refute THAT data, and stop playing around with "Oh, that was Summer, this is Winter". Of course, he will go right on ignoring this, and the other material I put up, and stick to his point...it's a shame that article started this thread, because it's a minor point which ignores the much more GIGANTIC reality.

Omigawd, I didn't scroll fast enough for my eyes to miss "Global Cooling will reduce ice in the sea, since the ice stays on land." ?????? How insane IS PN, anyway??