environment: Arctic ice melt media irresponsibility Walruses
by Warren
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Month 9, Day 18: I Always Liked Walruses
USA Today ran an AP article on the Walrus beachings. Naturally, the comment thread is full of denialists. What will it take for these people to wake up?
In discussing the tragic beaching of thousands of walruses, Seth Borenstein hides the true horror of the event. First noting that scientists call this phenomenon “unusual,” he then writes that “…it has happened at least twice before, in 2007 and 2009. In those years Arctic sea ice also was at or near record low levels.” In other words, an “unusual” event isn’t “unusual” any more. This paints a gloomy picture for one of the world’s most fascinating sea creatures. The existential threat posed by climate change is exacerbated by our media’s inability to address the problem directly; Borenstein’s phrasing makes it easy to dismiss a devastating ecological tragedy from our minds. Writing, “Three times in the last four years, melting sea ice caused by atmospheric warming has made thousands of walruses beach themselves,” would be truer to the facts and to the nature of the danger we face.
Warren Senders
A couple of times a year, I look at the annual graph of Arctic Sea Ice cover. The lowest compared to the 1981-2010 average was in 2012. Since then it has increased by around 5 million square kilometers. It is now within about 1.5 standard deviations of the 1981-2010 average. I deal in statistics all the time. I would not regard this as a “dramatic” change. You can see the graph at
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_i…
I’d also reiterate the following.
“”Pacific walruses looking for places to rest
in the absence of sea ice are coming to shore in record numbers on
Alaska’s northwest coast.””
“record numbers” implies that there actually is a “record” of this phenomenon
in the past. Does anyone have these “records”? I’d be interested to see
if there actually are any records. These would allow one to decide
whether this is an unusual phenomenon or not. In the absence of such
records, one can conclude absolutely nothing from these observations.
“Extent” is different from “mass.” A thin coating of ice happens whenever the temp goes below a certain point. It’s not the same as total ice mass, which is rapidly and drastically diminishing.