north v south
the news media is full of global warming phobia cause the arctic ice is melting. the counter-news is full of smug cause the antarctic ice isn't. or at least isn't as fast as the arctic. i think this kinda rules out the theory where the sun is causing global warming. if it is the sun then you'd expect both hemispheres to be affected pretty much the same. it's not like the sun shines any brighter on the north than on the south. well, yeah okay. there's a caveat. the earth is closer to the sun during the southern summer. but the southern summer is shorter. and the southern winter is longer and colder. which might explain some of the difference. i'll have to work out that math sometime. my bet is, it won't be enough of a difference. no, i think the real reason for the difference is here on earth. there's not much mixing between the air masses of the northern and southern hemispheres. they are chemically different. it's intuitively much more likely that the different chemistry of the air has different effects on temperatures. and hence ice.