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A 1000-Year Record of Spring Sea Ice Conditions in Baffin Bay
Reference
Grumet, N.S., Wake, C.P., Mayewski, P.A., Zielinski, G.A., Whitlow, S.L., Koerner, R.M., Fisher, D.A. and Woollett, J.M.  2001.  Variability of sea-ice extent in Baffin Bay over the last millennium.  Climatic Change 49: 129-145.

What was done
Recent trends in polar sea ice cover, according to the authors, "can be viewed out of context because their brevity does not account for interdecadal variability, nor are the records sufficiently long to clearly establish a climate trend."  Hence, they developed a 1000-year record of spring sea ice conditions in the Arctic region of Baffin Bay, using sea-salt records from an ice core obtained from the Penny Ice Cap on Baffin Island.

What was learned
A statistically significant shift in sea-ice conditions in the Penny Ice Cap record was noted to occur around 1420 AD, such that enhanced sea ice conditions have prevailed in this region of the Arctic during the past 600 years, as opposed to the reduced sea-ice conditions characteristic of the 11th through 14th centuries. As for the past 100 years, the authors note that "despite warmer temperatures during the turn of the century, sea-ice conditions in the Baffin Bay/Labrador Sea region, at least during the last 50 years, are within "Little Ice Age" variability."

What it means
It would appear that the climate models have failed again.  Spring sea ice extent in this region of the Arctic is not experiencing the rapid decline they predict to occur as a result of CO2-induced global warming.  In fact, the authors' data suggest that sea ice conditions in the Baffin Bay/Labrador Sea region have not yet even emerged from the range of natural variability characteristic of the Little Ice Age! -- and this in the region of the world that is supposed to be the most sensitive place on earth to radiative forcing produced by the burning of fossil fuels!!