NOAA's National Climate Data Center is reporting that March 2008 Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent was much above the 1979-2000 mean. This was the largest sea ice extent in March, 28.6% above the 1979-2000 mean over the 30-year historical record, surpassing the previous record set in 1994 by 10.9%. Sea ice extent for March has increased at a rate of 4.2%/decade. Meanwhile, NOAA is also reporting that Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice is below average but still the sixth lowest since record keeping began.

What do these reports mean? Absolutely nothing!

There are no valid inferences let alone conclusions that can be made from such a short record of an observation the magnitude of hemispheric sea ice coverage. Scientists now date the Earth at 4.54 billion years old.  Anthropologists widely date the dawn of man to 200,000 years ago. I'd like to use the shop worn eye blink analogy, but an eye blink at 400 milliseconds is much too long for an apt comparison.