Sceptics' theories put on ice

TL;DRAbstract

When a Russian-flagged ship carrying Australian scientists and tourists got stuck in thick sea ice in eastern Antarctica over Christmas a small, albeit loud, group of climate sceptics used the incident to re-ignite the climate change debate.To them, a ship getting stuck in a thick expanse of sea ice was irrefutable evidence the earth was not warming. The ice should be melting, not growing, they said. Many of us caught up in the rescue of the stricken Akademik Shokalskiy (I was reporting from the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis) were surprised to hear this straw man argument gaining prominence at home.This week, the Antarctic Climate Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre released a report that draws on the latest scientific findings to explain why, and by how much, sea ice is expanding in Antarctica at the same time it retreats in the Arctic.

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