This short article from the latest edition of the Heartland Institute’s Environment and Climate News sums up the facts on what’s happening to ice sheets around the globe.

Antarctic sea ice set a new record in October 2007, as photographs distributed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed penguins and other cold-weather creatures able to stand farther north on Southern Hemisphere sea ice than has ever been recorded.

The news of expanding Antarctic sea ice stole headlines from global warming alarmists who asserted Arctic sea ice had reached its lowest extent since 1979.

NASA scientists revealed in an October 4 study that the contracting of Arctic sea ice was due to localized wind patterns. According to a news release accompanying the study, “the rapid decline in winter perennial ice the past two years was caused by unusual winds,” NASA reported.

“Unusual atmospheric conditions set up wind patterns that compressed the sea ice, loaded it into the Transpolar Drift Stream and then sped its flow out of the Arctic,” NASA scientist Son Nghiem confirmed in the news release.

Of course organizations like Heartland that point out these inconvenient truths will draw accusations of “denier” and claims that they are being bought off by big oil, but the one response you won’t find is an article demonstrating that the Heartland article is wrong. Hmmm, I wonder why?