Set the option here to 'southern' and see that the S pole sea ice is 11.5 million sq km. Set the option to 'extent anonamilies' and note that this is .8 million sq kilometers above the avearge (NASA data):

http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/archives/image_select.html

There is MORE S Hemisphere sea ice.

And note this 460 km of ice breaking, NOT melting,is compared to 800,000 sq km MORE sea ice. This breaking ice is LESS than .01% of the GROWTH in sea ice above the average.

These reports are UNBALANCED in perspective.

And that none of this is really exceptional as ice has been rapidly changing for 250k years:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CEEDC1E3DF936A25754C0A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

Did you even bother to read the article Mace?

Critta,

The NY Times article on Greenland ice cores? Very interesting. Points to much more variability than would b assumed by a CO2 driven climate change.

AGW is not about how CO2 is the only factor in climate. It is about how climate works and the factors that go into it. CO2 is important in that we control it.

Any analysis that tries to exclusively tie only CO2 to any past climate patterns is painting a distorted picture. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps IR radiation. This is a fact from 19th century physics.

As for the ice sheet. This is happening in the antarctic winter. Not the summer. The antarctic, unlike the arctic, contains large land masses that usually restrict the amount of ice losses in the summer months. A breakup of an ice sheet in winter though is a much different matter. It may lend credit to the idea that the surface melting at other times is going down moulins and lubricating the glacial movement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilkins_Ice_Shelf

This may lead to a further breakup of the ice sheet.

NB. the graphs at the nsidc should be looked at the summer minimums rather that the winter maximums. Also should note that many climate models already state that there would be overall initial ice growth in the antarctic.

aym....good point that I described the May winter ice.

NASA data at the same NSIDC site:

..............................................Jan 08.....Feb 08.....Mar 08
Actual sea ice extent(M sq km)...6.8.....3.7.......5.5
Sea ice average 1979 - 2000......5.1.....2.9.......4.3
Amount of sea ice above the avg..+1.7....+.8......+1.2

So for 2008 the sea ice is above average. If there is more ice in the ocean around the continent, there has to be less heat. The thermal energy had to move down or up. Argos is indicating that the ocean as a whole is slightly cooler since 2003. So you can theorize that heat has left the ocean, resulting in cooler ocean, and has moved into the atmosphere. We usually don't think of the continent as drawing or pulling heat from the ocean.

Could be but this breakup, 560 sq km, is only .1% of the 800,000 sq km above the average.

"There's more sea ice because ice is flowing off the continent faster than before."

Deny the science because it refuses to support your agenda.

Antarctic ice levels are much different than that of the arctic due to the fact that there is a landmass. East Antarctica is most likely gaining snow cover but the west is losing. With that in mind, overall levels should show an increase but that was never a question. Our understanding always included the postulation that precipitation levels would increase in the antarctic as the ocean warmed due to increases in atmospheric moisture. Temperatures though show a warming in the outer areas with an increasing coldness in the interior (one theory is the ozone hole). What is worrysome is the continued breakup of the west antarctic ice sheet. Complete collapse of the west antarctic ice sheet would cause a sea level rise of 5-6m. At present, this ice sheet is breaking up, slowly, intermittently but it is breaking up.