{"id":398970,"date":"2025-08-30T19:03:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T17:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=398970"},"modified":"2025-08-30T19:03:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T17:03:23","slug":"wrong-cbs-and-other-media-outlets-abrupt-antarctic-climate-shifts-are-not-new-or-necessarily-catastrophic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=398970","title":{"rendered":"Wrong, CBS and Other Media Outlets, Abrupt Antarctic \u201cClimate Shifts\u201d Are Not New or Necessarily Catastrophic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Three<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Heartland Institute<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Anthony Watts and H. Sterling Burnett<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent CBS News article, \u201cAbrupt Antarctic climate shifts could lead to \u2018catastrophic consequences for generations,\u2019 experts warn<\/a>,\u201d claims that Antarctica is on the brink of irreversible collapse due to climate change, warning that sea levels could rise by meters and that \u201ccatastrophic consequences for generations\u201d are looming. This is false or, at best, deeply misleading. The actual data and history of Antarctic ice show that \u201cabrupt changes\u201d are neither unprecedented nor a reason to panic. Natural variability and cyclical shifts are being ignored in favor of sensational headlines pushing the increasingly untenable climate crisis narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBS was not alone in pushing the Antarctic climate crisis narrative. On 21 August 2025, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) joined the chorus of media outlets with alarming headlines<\/a> warning of pending ice collapse, publishing a report claiming Antarctica is undergoing \u201crapid, self-perpetuating changes\u201d<\/a> that are \u201cpotentially irreversible.\u201d Each of the reports cited a new Nature<\/em> review led by Professor Nerilie Abram,<\/a> as the source of the information for their alarming articles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABC\u2019s article presents Antarctica as being in a state of runaway decline, with imminent threats to emperor penguins and global sea levels, parroting language from the Abram paper as if it were observed fact, rather than the speculative synthesis of research papers that the Nature study cites. CBS, ABC, and other media outlets are covering this story as if a tipping point<\/a> is upon us\u2014but a closer look at the evidence reveals otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBS News warns:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abrupt and potentially irreversible changes in Antarctica driven by climate change could lift global oceans by meters and lead to \u2018catastrophic consequences for generations,\u2019 scientists warned Wednesday. \u2026 After increasing slightly during the first 35 years that satellite data was available, Antarctic sea-ice cover plunged dramatically over the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia\u2019s ABC News, meanwhile, uncritically repeats Abram\u2019s claims and, describing the Antarctic as \u201crapidly, self-perpetuating\u201d on the cusp of collapse, while offering little discussion of data\u2014leaning instead on worst-case modeling and literature reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antarctic data and an examination of its history show that such events have happened previously, long before anyone was worried about human-caused climate change, and they are not self-perpetuating but rather, seem cyclical in nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CBS article claims that \u201cAntarctic sea-ice cover plunged dramatically over the last decade,\u201d citing a \u201cregime shift\u201d since 2014. ABC News, echoing the same theme, refers to a sudden and supposedly \u201cirreversible\u201d decline. But both articles omit key facts, among them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n