Is Antarctica's sea ice shrinking?

The Times of London is supposed to be one of the most prestigious newspapers in the world -- and one of the most reliable. But when it comes to global warming hysterical even reliable papers fall in line publishing various versions of “the sky is falling” stories. Here is what the Times reported just a couple of weeks ago:

The rate of annual ice loss in the Antarctic has increased by almost 80 billion tonnes in a decade, a study has found.

On the other hand we have this data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center regarding ice around the Antarctic. This is based on the satellite data of the region. Here is the concentration levels of sea ice around the continent in December, 1979.

As you can see, sea ice concentration in 2007 was higher.

Next we look at sea ice extent. Here is the map for December, 1979.

And here is the same map for last December.