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Here's a few things most people don't know, because most people like to get their news from propaganda movies which win Oscars (*achem* "An Inconvenient Truth"). So here's some facts I bet Al Gore and your science teacher didn't teach:

1. Contrary to the popular belief that glaciers all over the world are melting, in some places they are actually GROWING. In Iceland and Greenland, the first half of the twentieth century was warmer than the second half.

In Iceland, most glaciers lost mass after 1930 because temperatures temporarily rose by .6 degrees Celsius. But since then the climate has gotten colder, and since 1970 the glaciers have been growing. Including eleven glaciers which are surging in size.
(P. Chylek, et al. 2004, "Global Warming and the Greenland ice sheet," Climate Change 63, 210-21)

2. Contrary to popular belief, Antarctica is NOT melting. Only the Antarctic peninsula (a relatively small portion of the continent) is melting, but the continent as a whole is getting colder and the ice is growing thicker. In fact:
a. From 1986 to 2000 central Antarctic valleys cooled .7 degrees Celsius per decade with serious ecosystem damage from the cold.
(Doran, P.T., Priscu, J.C. Lyons, W.B. Walsh, J.E., Fountain, A.G. McKnight, D.M. Moorhead, D.L. Virginia, R.A. Wall, D.H. Clow, G.D. Fritsen, C.H. Mckay, C.P. and Parson, A.N., 2002, "Antarctic climate cooling and terrestrial ecosystem response," Nature, 415: 517-20)
b. Side-looking radar measurements show West Antarctica ice is increasing at 26.8 gigatons/yr. Reversing the melting trend of the last 6000 years.
(Joughlin, I., and Tulaczyk, S., 2002, "Positive mass balance of the Ross Ice Streams, West Antarctica," Science 295: 476-80)
c. Antarctic sea ice has increased since 1979.
(Liu, J., Curry, J.A., and Martinson, D.G., 2004, "Interpretation of recent Antarctic sea ice variability," Geophysical Research Letters 31: 10.1029/2003 GLO18732)
d. The greater part of Antarctica experiences a longer sea-ice season, lasting 21 days longer than it did in 1979.
(Parkinson, C.L. 2002, "Trends in the length of the southern Ocean sea-ice season, 1979-99," Annals of Glaciology 34: 435-40)

3. The arrival of global warming was announced in 1988 dramatically by James Hansen, a prominent climatologist. He predicted temperatures would rise by .35 degrees Celsius over the next ten years. The actual increase was .11 degrees Celsius (that's less than 1/10 of a degree folks). After ten years Hansen claimed

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