Post 5: Compare Two Opposing Articles

These two images show Arctic sea ice extent from January 1, 1990 (left), and January 1, 1999, (Right) respectively. These images were created using data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's (DMSP) Special Scanning Microwave Imager (SSM/I). Click images to see larger pictures. Credit: NASA.

As time passes, more research is being done on global warming and its relation the melting ice caps on the North and South Pole. I found two articles on the internet relating to both sides of this following ongoing argument: are the ice caps melting, and are they the cause of global warming? This topic extremely controversial and continues to cause millions of dollars of research to be used to prove one side or the other.

The first, and more convincing article, is written by NASA, and states that over the past 40 years, the ice caps on the North and South Pole have been rapidly decreasing in area http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/Perrenial_Sea_Ice.html. NASA researchers have found that the ice caps are decreasing at nine per cent per decade, and by the end of this century, there will be very little left of the ice caps. Also, studies have proven that the summer temperature on the ice caps have risen by 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, which makes me trust this article because it is not only done by NASA, which is more scientifically centered than the opposing article, but also gives numbers instead of just words to prove a point. 

The opposing article talks about how the ice caps are actually growing in size over the past thirty years. The researchers have looked at the satellite photos of the ice caps at the North and South Pole and have found that in 1979 the area of the South Pole ice cap was 15.9 million square kilometers, and in 2009 the total area is 16.3 million square kilometers http://www.globalwarminghoax.com/comment.php?comment.news.125 This is a difference of approximately 400,000 square kilometers, or about twice the size of Texas. Unlike the NASA article, this article does not seem to have any research done other than looking at satellite photos, which tells me this is not a reliable study.