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“We are constantly being lied too (sic),” says<\/a> a May 6, 2025 post on Threads.<\/p>\n The post\u00a0shares an image juxtaposing two charts measuring sea ice extent. One is from December 24, 1979, while the other from December 24, 2024.<\/p>\n “Antarctic sea ice extent is 17% higher today than it was in 1979,” text under the charts reads.<\/p>\n Similar claims also appeared on other platforms<\/a>, including\u00a0Instagram<\/a> and X<\/a>.<\/p>\n Narratives seeking to deny the impact of climate change on the Arctic<\/a> and Antarctic<\/a> — the polar regions surrounding the North and South poles — often rely on\u00a0sea ice data<\/a> to make misleading claims<\/a>.<\/p>\n In this case, the charts shared online come from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). AFP retrieved exact matches<\/a> for them<\/a>\u00a0from the NSIDC online archives (here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n But their side-by-side comparison amounts to “a classic case of cherry picking,” said Walt Meier, senior research scientist at the NSIDC.<\/p>\n “Looking at single days from two years does not give useful information about trends or the response of sea ice to warming,” Meier said May 14.<\/p>\n The NSIDC says on its website that sea ice data has been repeatedly\u00a0misused<\/a> to spread myths about global warming (archived\u00a0here<\/a>). Generally, scientists look at decade-long trends for “sea ice extent,” a term referring to the total area of the ocean where at least 15 percent of the surface is frozen.<\/p>\n\n
Cherry-picked data<\/h3>\n