Which of these states is closest to 20,000 square kilometers in area?
UPDATE: USGS has issued a statement, see below.
WUWT reader “DC” points us to this Gore-esque pronouncement from a USGS scientist about “Antarctic ice loss”.
Jane Ferrigno of the U.S. Geological Survey in a National Public Radio interview
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124178690 (Audio clip available)
Ms. FERRIGNO: The fact that the ice shelves are changing on the peninsula is a significant signal that global change, climate warming, is affecting the ice cover of Antarctica. It’s affecting first the area that’s towards the north, that’s slightly warmer, but the effect of the warming has traveled from the northern part of the peninsula to the southern part of the peninsula, where it’s colder.
…
“RAZ: Give us a sense of how much ice [on the Antarctic peninsula] has been lost over the past, say, 10 years.
Ms. FERRIGNO: I think I’ll go back 20 years, and in the last 20 years, I would say at least 20,000 square kilometers of ice has been lost, and that’s comparable to an area somewhere between the state of Texas and the state of Alaska.
RAZ: So about the size of the state of Texas in terms of ice has been lost in the past 20 years. ”
It gets better.
Ms. FERRIGNO: Well, this is a fairly small amount of ice when you consider the whole Antarctic continent consists of about 13 million square kilometers of ice.
RAZ: I mean, it sounds so dramatic, the size of Texas, right?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. FERRIGNO: It is. It is very dramatic, and it is larger than the size of Texas, but when you consider the entire Antarctic ice sheet, it’s still a fairly minimal amount. But the thing that we’re really interested in seeing is that this is a sort of a red flag because if the warming continues, if the retreat continues, if the amount of ice on the continent starts to flow into the water, then there will be substantial impact to the sea level.
RAZ: That’s Jane Ferrigno. She is a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Jane Ferrigno, thanks for coming in.
Ms. FERRIGNO: Thank you.
Ms. Ferrigno might do well to have a look at this map of the USA and Antarctica compared at Texas A&M University’s Polar Science program to get a sense of scale.
Here’s the story on all the Southern hemisphere sea ice, which includes all Antarctic sea ice, from Cryosphere today:
Maybe Ms. Ferrigno will be embarrassed enough by her geographic ineptitude and will heed Gavin Schmidt’s advice and stop trying to “persuade the public“.
======================================
UPDATE:
Statement from USGS:
The comment by Jane in the NPR interview was an honest mistake. We are sorry for the delay in responding to your email, but Jane has been out of the office. Below is an apology and clarification statement that will be posted on the NPR site soon. Jane will be in the office later today, and if you have any questions, please let me or her know.
From Jane …
I want to apologize to NPR and the listening audience for my misstatement last Sunday, February 28. During the last 20 years, an area more than 20,000 sq. km. (comparable to the size of New Jersey) has broken off the ice shelves of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is the Antarctic Peninsula, the source of the ice loss, that I meant to say was larger than the state of Texas but smaller than the state of Alaska.
Thank you,
Jessica Robertson
Public Affairs Specialist
Office of Communications
U.S. Geological Survey
(703) 648-6624
I don’t understand how ice shelf breakup is of overriding importance in the grand scheme of things. What is important in the grand scheme of things is if the output of glaciers (ice shelf ice plus melt water) exceeds input (snowfall). I do not believe that Jane Ferrigno has shown this to be the case. In what ways are the glaciers themselves retreating or otherwise shrinking? Just because someone grows inch long fingernails doesn’t necessarily mean their nail matrices are any healthier than the next person’s. Come to think of it though, I suppose someone might be able to show that Antarctica is growing rotten ice shelves.
Sorry, it’s Miss Teen USA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caitlin_Upton
@ur momisugly just The Facts
And below average Arctic temperature aswell :O)
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/meant80n.uk.php
[b]She is a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey.[/b]
Is it true ????????. If it is, I think that janitor in primary school in Timbuktu is more qualified for this position.
The “climate science” is getting better and better every day
Just WOW
She IS persuading the public. Many have been persuaded that she does not know what she’s talking about.
Anthony, the sea ice anomaly graph you are showing is that relative to the maximum or the minimum extent or the annual average extent?
Oh come on. Whats the problem? She was only off by a couple orders of magnitude. Well within the standard error bounds of climate science.
Next you’ll be complaining that the core of the earth isnt really several million degrees, as the world’s most famous Nobel Prize winning climatologist has stated.
Move along, nothing to see here.
A complete farrago of misinformation from Ms Ferringo?
No, she blew it on the comparison, but she was correct on the number. A New Jersey of ice is quite a lot… if you think New Jersey is small, try getting to Philadelphia from New York at rush hour.
Anthony’s use of a graph of sea ice to try to contradict a report about ice shelves suggests that he either didn’t read the report or thinks no one else will. Not sure which I’m more uncomfortable with.
I just wonder how much Ms Ferrigno got for this peer-reviewed report LOL
We have trouble with kilometers over here in the UK as well and prefer to leave them on the continent of Europe.
Does this woman have any qualifications to speak of? If so, the peolpe that gave them to her should be struck off.
Sorry, dumb question. Didn’t think straight for a second.
You must remember four things:
1) Facts are meaningless! If facts mattered, these people would debate in an honest, open forum. Facts are meaningless because the vast majority of the public will not verify what is said. (If people would verify, they would see the Antarctic has had record highs lately.)
2) The message has to be dramatic. If you say 20,000 km2, that means nothing. Especially to Americans. There are about 1.619 km per mile. If Ms. Ferrigno had said 12,427 square miles, the audience would know that Texas isn’t that big. But Americans don’t know square kilometers. So, in this case, obfuscation enabled Ms. Ferrigno to make a dramatic announcement.
3) These are the same people who actually believe cold = warm. These people believe that everything is proof of AGW. They believe this, or publicly say this, for one of two reasons. One is my next point, the other is because they are delusional. The ones that truly believe that cold = warm are the ones who need to have their head examined.
4) Easy money is hard to turn down. Being someone who fixes computers, the biggest problem I see is the fake antivirus scam. It is easy money, and these people (who are from Russia, by the way) aren’t going to give up that income without a fight. The fake antivirus scam is very dramatic and in-your-face. It tries to make you act now on impulse before you come to your senses. The AGW scam is just the same way. The ones that know better are the ones who want that easy money. With exceptions for some who want power or both power and money.
Aside from her 10x gaffe, I’d say she’s cherrypicking. The southern sea ice, according to the graph, has *increased* by roughly 200,000 sq km since 1979, an area comparable to 1/4 the size of Texas.
Aren’t all these gaffs just a result of the AGW crowd believing their own hype?
Well as the old joke goes; “If those Texans don’t quit bragging, we’ll just cut Alaska in half, and make Texas the Third largest State.
And Just for curiosity sake, Veep Joe Biden’s home State of Delaware can be placed in 12 different places, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in Alaska, with no overlap.
20,000 square km is about 76.4 nautical miles on a side. Not a heck of a lot different from those two icebergs that were playing Ooops a daisy the other day.
Is that area shrinkage the real difference between then and now, or is it just the integrated amount that has fallen off; and what about all the extra ice deposited on top during that time.
I wonder if Lou Ferrigno agrees with her.
I won’t complain; if she were any smarter, maybe she would have my job.
I sent an email to Dr. Ferrigno and her apparent supervisor at USGS, Dr. R.S. Williams, using their email addresses at the USGS website, asking if they would care to comment on the WUWT blog. Both bounced back saying the addresses were not valid.
I thought the USGS might like to know what their “scientists” are saying. Guess not.
Huh? It’s not her number that’s the problem (regardless of whether it’s accurate or not) it’s that she claimed this number was comparable to the size of Texas and Alaska. Forget about the number, in her mind the amount of ice loss is 30 times greater than it could possibly be. Makes you wonder if she’s ever seen a map.
Oh gosh darn it!
First FEMA goes to pot, now USGS. What next, why this could reach to POTUS or worse.
Alphabet soup anyone?
Mike
David Middleton (09:14:37) :
(…)
The moral to the story is that geologists will occasionally confuse thousands, millions and billions… Too many zeros.
————-
Reply:
She’s no geologist I’d ever claim.
Maybe she confused SQUARE km with LINEAR km, and in that case 20,000 km is indeed LONGER than Alaska, which is reported to be 3,639 km in length.
Beyond that, I can’t see where there’s any excuse for what she said.
Is there anyone reading or adding comments to this article who has the authority and connections to contact the US Geological Survey and point out the errors? I am no longer surprised, however, if that would be to no avail if the US Geological Society is committed to the “AGW religion”.
Somebody failed their geography class…
I remember high school science electives, maybe many of you do, too. You had to choose among one of the following thfourree: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Earth Sciences. Guess which ones the smart kids chose? Guess which one everyone else chose?
How about college? Remember taking Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Earth Sciences…
There are no doubt many smart people doing climate research, but my guess is there’s a whole bunch who are, well, not so smart…
USGS? – Universe of Stupid and Gullible Scientists not to be confused with NPR – Nutty People’s Radio.
I blame Mr. FERRIGNO for her size comparison errors.
Some of the 10 comments on the NPR site are interesting.