Alfred Wegener Institute Deputy Director, Veteran Polar Scientist: “We Have A Light Cooling Trend”

I really hate doing this, because I know that the poor scientist will probably be summoned to some office somewhere for an earful, or just suddenly disappear in some big ice crevice. We all know that in Germany terrible things happen to climate scientists (and journalists) and who don’t say the right things.

Our friends at here at Science Skeptical bring us this clip, which is a snippet from a report that appeared on NDR German public TV last Friday evening.

In the clip Prof. Heinrich Miller is working down at the Antarctic Neumayer III station and is interviewed by NDR. Miller is deputy director of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Bremerhaven and has been researching the Arctic and Antarctic for decades. He’s a true old hat of polar research who really knows what he’s talking about. Science Skeptical writes:

There’s hardly any other climate scientist that knows the polar regions as well and as long as Miller does.”

In the above clip, NDR asks Miller about the trend in Antarctica and what climate-related changes have been noticed? Miller says (emphasis added):

Here almost nothing has changed. At least not near the surface. The average annual tempertures have remained the same. There are of course large fluctuations from year to year. If anything over the last 30 years we have a slight cooling trend. And this flies in the face of what is always immediately claimed: ‘The climate is warming and the Antarctic is melting’.”

There it is, right from the horse’s mouth, from someone who really knows: Antarctica is cooling.

 

15 responses to “Alfred Wegener Institute Deputy Director, Veteran Polar Scientist: “We Have A Light Cooling Trend””

  1. Ed Caryl
  2. Pascvaks

    “Here almost nothing has changed. At least not near the surface. The average annual tempertures have remained the same. There are of course large fluctuations from year to year. If anything over the last 30 years we have a slight cooling trend.”

    And that is where the good Doctor should have bit his lip and said no more. But he didn’t! This is where he steps in it and makes a mess that only harms himself: “And this flies in the face of what is always immediately claimed: ‘The climate is warming and the Antarctic is melting’.”

    Why? Why? Why? The poor man surely is getting too old for this kind of severe climate research. Time for early Retirement and a little garden work, a Folks March or two, and a nice afternoon beer with “old” friends who are also too out-of-it to know which way the wind is really blowing.

    We really do need to cure the aging process, after we fix the Global Warming problem. (SarcOff)

  3. DirkH

    Chinese want to lure the EU into continuing Kyoto by making vague promises. Need to save their PV and wind turbine production. Let’s see whether our bumbling bureaucrats are dumb enough to fall for this.
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-04/kyoto-pledges-must-be-extended-past-2012-if-china-to-adopt-a-binding-deal.html

  4. ArndB

    Two AWI press releases (in German) on return of the POLARSTERN from the Antarctic:
    __May 16, 2008: It could be observed that the deep sea of the Weddell Sea after many years of warming has been getting colder; (the FAZ-net reported about it on 21 April 2008: “Ice cover growing due to cold record”. (A)
    __May 20, 2011: The oceanographer … observed that the water in the deep of the Weddell Sea continues to warm”. (B)

    (A) Dass die Tiefsee im Weddellmeer nach jahrelanger Erwärmung wieder kälter wird, haben die Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler unter Leitung von Dr. Eberhard Fahrbach vom Alfred-Wegener-Institut während des dritten Fahrtabschnitts (Anfang Februar bis Mitte April 2008) beobachtet.
    (B) Die Ozeanographen an Bord haben gemessen, dass sich das Wasser im tiefen Weddellmeer weiter erwärmt.)

  5. R. de Haan

    If only the Antarctic was cooling….

    Watch the video’s posted at this link
    http://rarereaders.seablogger.com/2011/12/the-climate-change-act-reconsidered/

    And you know the climate change doctrine is doomed, doomed.

  6. Bernd Felsche

    TheLocal reports one of the dire consequences of global warming:
    http://www.thelocal.de/society/20111205-39307.html

    Swimming pools filled with mulled wine, apparently.

    1. Ed Caryl

      It couldn’t be the economy, or the trade off for fuel and energy, oh no!

      1. Ulrich Elkmann

        At least the sellers of mulled wine are having an easier time this year – listening to them during the last 2 winters after standing in the snow for 12 hours and freezing their toes & fingers off made you cheer for global warming. Maybe they should add pina coladas to their product palette.

  7. DirkH

    Richard Black has made the mistake of allowing comments on his latest article.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16031432
    “Erik Bloodaxe
    1 Hour ago
    This is clearly very serious for small island nations. Richard can you remind us how many have had to be abandoned in the last few decades of rampant AGW?”
    🙂

  8. matt

    Oh no !!! A quote from the famous Dr Miller —“The climate is warming and the Antarctic is melting’.”

    Can’t argue with that then. The “team” were right all along. Oh dear.

  9. Terry

    Dr. Miller is one of the 8 editors of “Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” That report concludes:

    “Observations show a consistent picture of surface warming and reduction in all components of the cryosphere, except antarctic sea ice, which exhibits a small positive but insignificant trend since 1978. Since IPCC (2001) the cryosphere has undergone significant changes, such as the substantial retreat of arctic sea ice, especially in summer; the continued shrinking of mountain glaciers; the decrease in the extent of snow cover and seasonally frozen ground, particularly in spring; the earlier breakup of river and lake ice; and widespread thinning of antarctic ice shelves along the Amundsen Sea coast, indicating increased basal melting due to increased ocean heat fl uxes in the cavities below the ice shelves. An additional new feature is the increasingly
    visible fast dynamic response of ice shelves, for example, the dramatic breakup of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in 2002, and the acceleration of tributary glaciers and ice streams, with possible consequences for the adjacent part of the ice sheets.”

    The report ends with “In spite of the large uncertainties, the data that are available portray a rather consistent picture of a cryosphere in decline
    over the 20th century, increasingly so during 1993 to 2003”

    As for temperatures trends in Antarctica, according to the 2007 IPCC report:

    “Direct measurements reveal considerable spatial variability in temperature trends in Antarctica. All meteorological stations on the Antarctic Peninsula show strong and significant warming over the last 50 years (see Section 15.6.3). However, of the other long-term (>30 years) mean annual temperature records available, twelve show warming, while seven show cooling;although only two of these (one of each) are significant at the 10% level (Turner et al., 2005). If the individual station records are considered as independent measurements, then the mean trend is warming at a rate comparable to mean global warming (Vaughan et al., 2003), but there is no evidence of a continentwide polar amplification’ in Antarctica.”

  10. Charles Higley

    They are always alarmed by the West Antarctic warming in recent decades, but wouldn’t you, if you were sticking out into the ocean currents while they warm a bit.

    We can expect this trend to reverse as the oceans cool. Wow, cause and effect, what a concept!

  11. Hugh Kelly

    Wundebar Prof Miller! And just in time. With the climate alarmists scaring children about the North Pole melting, Santa can now safely move his operation to the South Pole. Prof Miller will be forever remembered as the man who saved Christmas from the green grinch.

    IPCC official response to Prof Miller – Macht nichts.

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