Another Geico Rock Award 2016 Nominee -- Professor Peter Wadhams, Cambridge University, A Leading Expert On Arctic Sea Ice Loss -- October 8, 2016

This is pretty cool. For quite some time now, I've predicted (it's on the blog in multiple places) that Saudi Arabia would have difficulty providing aid to various Mideast countries because of its own financial problems.

Well, here it is. Reuters is reporting: "Without Saudi oil aid, Egypt rushed out big buy tenders." Data points:

• Saudi Arabia recently agreed to provide Egypt 700,000 tonnes of refined oil products per month for five years under a $23 billion deal between Saudi Aramco and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation
• the deal was made during a state visit by none other than Saudi Arabia's King Salman himself
• Saudi Aramco products were halted as of October 1, 2016
• "the reason for the halt in aid remains unclear" -- LOL

From the linked article:

The kingdom has pumped billions of dollars, including grants, into Egypt's flagging economy since the toppling of President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

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The Arctic Sea Is Not Ice-Free

For at least a decade, The Algore School of Global Warming has forecast that the Arctic Ocean would be completely free of ice by now. For a partial "list" of articles with that forecast, see Real Science":

• The Argus, July 17, 1954: "The ice-paced Arctic Ocean might become navigable in another 25 or 50 years if the present "warming-up" tendency of the Polar region continues. This was stated yesterday in the United States Congress."
• The Tuscaloosa News, May18, 1972: "Arctic Ocean to be ice-free by year 2000?
• Google/Newspapers, July 16, 2011: "With Arctic Ice at record low, NSIDC Director Serreze says 'we are on track to see an ice-free summer by 2030. It is an overall downward spiral."
• BBC News, 2009: Arctic summers ice-free 'by 2013'
• John Kerry: "... the Arctic Ocean may be ice-free for a short period of time as early as 2015, according to the 2009 Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment Reportt completed by the eight Arctic Council Nations."

Meanwhile, seven years ago today, Algore predicted North Pole would be ice free in five years.

Well, it did not happen -- the Arctic is not ice-free. In fact, the ice is 21% thicker now than it was in 2012. It will be interesting to see if The National Geographic reports that. David Muir on ABC News won't be reporting that fact.  

The [London] Telegraph did: "Experts said Arctic sea ice would melt entirely by September 2016 -- they were wrong."

Scientists such as Prof Peter Wadhams, of Cambridge University, and Prof Wieslaw Maslowski, of the Naval Postgraduate School in Moderey, California, have regularly forecast the loss of ice by 2016, which has been widely reported by the BBC and other media outlets.

Prof Wadhams, a leading expert on Arctic sea ice loss, has recently published a book entitled A Farewell To Ice in which he repeats the assertion that the polar region would free of ice in the middle of this decade.

As late as this summer, he was still predicting an ice-free September. (Geico Rock Award 2016 nominee.]

Yet, when figures were released for the yearly minimum on September 10, they showed that there was still 1.6 million square miles of sea ice (4.14 square kilometres), which was 21 per cent more than the lowest point in 2012.