Wochit Drops the Ball

     The Washington Post is my childhood newspaper. It is my longest and most dearest friend. It is the paper that was thrown down on my driveway everyday of my life as a kid, and continued well into adulthood. It was the first paper I read as a kid, when every Sunday I fought with my sisters over the Funny Pages. It was where I developed my deep love for all Washington Sports. It was what fueled and fed my passion for the Washington Capitals and the Game of hockey. Every Monday, on page A2, there was the Science Section, with one feature article and a handful of shorter articles about the recent discoveries, arguments or theories happening in the world of Science. The Washington Post was my life line and informer, and remains a part of my morning reading to this day.

http://www.safety4sea.com/why-is-antarctica-ice-melting--10898

     So you will have to excuse me...
if I am a bit protective of The Post. On October 7th, The Capital Weather Gang (more specifically, Angela Fritz) wrote an article about the growing sea ice in Antarctica and what scientists thought it meant, Scientists explain why record-high Antarctic sea ice doesn't mean global warming isn't happening. Although there are no definitive findings, there are some leading and promising theories, one of which

 seems pretty straight forward. Land ice melts and flows into the sea, where it refreezes as sea ice. It is winter after all, and fresh water ice freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Salt water, like what is found in the ocean, freezes at much lower temperatures, and that depends on the amount of salt in that water. Higher concentrations of salt water lower its freezing point. So with 23% salt in sea water, the freezing point would be around -21 degrees Celsius, or -5.8 degrees Fahrenheit.

    It didn't take long for someone to come along and bash The Post's and Angela's piece. In fact, it only took one day. Judgin by the crappy production and rice-paper-thin content, it probably took someone at Wochit less then an hour. Wochit, on Yahoo Screen, bashed Angela Fritz for not "explaining" why on a "supposed" warming planet, ice is growing in Antarctica when ice should be melting if global warming is indeed happening. You can watch the Wochit video here. The video goes on to say the headline is misleading and that The Post should have added "attempt to" to the title. Wochit accuses the article of not having an explanation, when in fact, scientists shared their best theories and discussed the experiments and observations they used to understand the phenomenon. I guess the people at Wochit forgot about the scientific method from high school, although my guess is that they never made it out of the Audio Visual Department.

     So, let's break it down for Wochit, since they obviously never got past the headline. The reason ice isn't melting in Antarctica right now is because the winter just ended! Spring in Antarctica, the coldest fracking place on the planet isn't like Springtime in New York or Nashville. It's really fracking cold ALL YEAR LONG! Second, when it does warm up in Antarctica, you know, in late Spring and Summer, the ice inland ice sheets are melting and running into the sea, where the less dense fresh water floats closer to the surface. When Winter comes around, that fresh water freezes. More fresh water melt, equals more frozen sea ice. hat's one of the theories and it holds a lot of water, if you pardon the expression. But, contrary to popular belief in the Climate Denial community, the scientists studying the phenomenon are still doing research and are testing and examining the data before they will have a better, more informed idea of whats happening.

     Wochit's video, complete with condescending voice over and practically zero substance, was 55 seconds long, most of which was used up in bashing The Post for its headline. It is a prime example of the Climate Denial order of operations, where one takes a small sliver of a larger, more comprehensive article and focuses on one small thing that has little bearing on the content, which gives people the impression the whole piece is junk. In today's world, how many people do you think watched that video and now dismiss Angela's Fritz's article without even reading it?

     Science is complicated and it takes time and patience to understand the natural world around us. Be aware of irresponsible crap like the Wochit video. It isn't science. It is yet another bogus piece of the Denier argument that cherry picks one thing and tries to simplify it into under-a-minute-junk. Science isn't that simple. Neither are the effects the human race is having on our planet. Keep that in mind when you come across garbage like this.