The Oil Drum

The comments on the World Climate Report by Patrick Michaels seem to ignore the fact that precipitation increases as temperature warms. This is especially so for snow, as warmer air can carry more moisture from it's source to the the local where the snow falls. The Antarctic is very cold most of the year, thus little snow actually falls inland. The Antarctic Peninsula is further north of the main land mass and is both warmer and more exposed to the surrounding warm oceans. As temperature rises, it's quite reasonable to expect that the amount of snow fall would increases there.

For example, the WRC comment ends thus:

So while we’ve heard recent reports about Antarctica losing ice, here we again find evidence to the contrary, and then some, at least in these locations. Not only is there no evidence of melting at the Gomez site, snow is accumulating there at an amazingly high rate....

The implication is that the increase in the rate of surface accumulation implies that there is no loss in total mass at lower elevations. The site is located at 74S and 1400m elevation. Rignot's study reported of mass loss in glaciers at lower elevations, reflecting changes in ice flow as well as melt. The comment on the WRC does not refute Rignot's conclusions. In fact, I think Michaels (or whoever wrote this piece) is intentionally misinterpreting the data to spread disinformation about Climate Change. But, that's nothing new, they've been spreading propaganda like this for more than 10 years. That jrwakefield thinks the WRC link is meaningful just shows how successful these guys have been.

E. Swanson