Comments on: Antarctic ice loss has tripled in a decade. https://www.habitablezone.com/2018/06/13/antarctic-ice-loss-has-tripled-in-a-decade/ Fri, 03 Apr 2026 22:41:18 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ER https://www.habitablezone.com/2018/06/13/antarctic-ice-loss-has-tripled-in-a-decade/#comment-41590 ER Thu, 14 Jun 2018 11:59:53 +0000 https://habitablezone.com/?p=71390#comment-41590 It appears the climate started warming up at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, at approximately 1800. But the use of fossil fuels, hence CO2 production, was only gradual at first, and grew slowly. It is also to be expected that there will be some sort of lag between cause and effect because the climate system has so many built-in feedback systems, both positive and negative. And of course, the system is noisy, so the effect is not smooth and uniform. But it appears something happened around the year 2000 to alter the rate of growth of certain parameters that help us monitor climate change. I find summer ice extent in the Arctic Ocean the most dramatic of these metrics, and the one I am most familiar with. http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/files/2017/10/monthly_ice_09_NH_v2.1.png <img src="http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/files/2017/10/monthly_ice_09_NH_v2.1.png" alt="." /> It seems to me that a noticeable increase in summer ice loss began around the year 2000, and that it coincided with a jump in instability, as evidenced by the increased noise in the curve. The satellites now give us data from across five decades. I think I can see a trend. Instead of a linear regression, try fitting a curve to these data points and see if you can determine where the inflection point is. It appears the climate started warming up at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, at approximately 1800. But the use of fossil fuels, hence CO2 production, was only gradual at first, and grew slowly. It is also to be expected that there will be some sort of lag between cause and effect because the climate system has so many built-in feedback systems, both positive and negative. And of course, the system is noisy, so the effect is not smooth and uniform.

But it appears something happened around the year 2000 to alter the rate of growth of certain parameters that help us monitor climate change. I find summer ice extent in the Arctic Ocean the most dramatic of these metrics, and the one I am most familiar with.

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/files/2017/10/monthly_ice_09_NH_v2.1.png
.

It seems to me that a noticeable increase in summer ice loss began around the year 2000, and that it coincided with a jump in instability, as evidenced by the increased noise in the curve. The satellites now give us data from across five decades. I think I can see a trend. Instead of a linear regression, try fitting a curve to these data points and see if you can determine where the inflection point is.

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