question: Why is the Arctic melting so much faster than the Antarctic?
comment: The arctic is mainly icebergs swimming in water. The antarctic is a solid land mass, covered in ice. Warm water is constantly flowing towards the north, mixing with the cold water and warm it up. Warm water flowing to the south is is (I think) much less and since it is mostly land under the ice, it can't reach the ice directly, but only heats up the ground. Imagine an ice cube and a frozen steak. Put them in water. The ice cube has melted, long before the steak is completely unfrozen.
passages: Estimates of how long the Arctic Ocean has had perennial ice cover vary. Those estimates range from 700,000 years in the opinion of Worsley and Herman, to 4 million years in the opinion of Clark. Here is how Clark refuted the theory of Worsley and Herman:
   D-O cycles may set their own timescale. Maslin "et al.". (2001) suggested that each ice sheet had its own conditions of stability, but that on melting, the influx of freshwater was enough to reconfigure ocean currents – causing melting elsewhere. More specifically, D-O cold events, and their associated influx of meltwater, reduce the strength of the North Atlantic Deep Water current (NADW), weakening the northern hemisphere circulation and therefore resulting in an increased transfer of heat polewards in the southern hemisphere. This warmer water results in melting of Antarctic ice, thereby reducing density stratification and the strength of the Antarctic Bottom Water current (AABW). This allows the NADW to return to its previous strength, driving northern hemisphere melting – and another D-O cold event.
   Section::::Solar radiation.
  
  Almost all of the energy available to the Earth's surface and atmosphere comes from the sun in the form of solar radiation (light from the sun, including invisible ultraviolet and infrared light). Variations in the amount of solar radiation reaching different parts of the Earth are a principal driver of global and regional climate. Latitude is the most important factor determining the yearly average amount of solar radiation reaching the top of the atmosphere; the incident solar radiation decreases smoothly from the Equator to the poles. Therefore, temperature tends to decrease with increasing latitude.
   The Northern Hemisphere and North Pole have heated much faster than the South Pole and Southern Hemisphere. The Northern Hemisphere not only has much more land, its arrangement around the Arctic Ocean has resulted in the maximum surface area flipping from reflective snow and ice cover to ocean and land surfaces that absorb more sunlight. Arctic temperatures have increased and are predicted to continue to increase during this century at over twice the rate of the rest of the world. As the temperature difference between the Arctic and the equator decreases ocean currents that are driven by that temperature difference, like the Gulf Stream, are weakening.
   There are several reasons to expect that climate changes, from whatever cause, may be enhanced in the Arctic, relative to the mid-latitudes and tropics. First is the ice-albedo feedback, whereby an initial warming causes snow and ice to melt, exposing darker surfaces that absorb more sunlight, leading to more warming. Second, because colder air holds less water vapour than warmer air, in the Arctic, a greater fraction of any increase in radiation absorbed by the surface goes directly into warming the atmosphere, whereas in the tropics, a greater fraction goes into evaporation. Third, because the Arctic temperature structure inhibits vertical air motions, the depth of the atmospheric layer that has to warm in order to cause warming of near-surface air is much shallower in the Arctic than in the tropics. Fourth, a reduction in sea-ice extent will lead to more energy being transferred from the warm ocean to the atmosphere, enhancing the warming. Finally, changes in atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns caused by a global temperature change may cause more heat to be transferred to the Arctic, enhancing Arctic warming.
   A rebuttal to Crichton's claims was presented by the group Real Climate:
  
  It is common to find statements that "climate models generally predict amplified warming in polar regions" ("e.g.", Doran "et al".), a phenomenon called polar amplification. In fact, however, Arctic and Antarctic climates are out of phase with each other (the "polar see-saw" effect), and climate models predict amplified warming primarily for the Arctic and not for Antarctica.
  
  Section::::Observations of trends.
   Today, submarine mapping and measurements have been drastically reduced. One classic way to measuring ice thickness is to drill a hole in the ice and analyze the ice obtained. There are also many more complex methods and devices dedicated to measuring and keeping track of weather conditions in polar areas. These include ice mass balance buoys, upward looking sonar from under-ice buoys, and satellites. Global warming has increased interest in polar meteorology. This is because most of Earth's snow and ice are in polar regions, and these areas are expected to be the most affected by the snow/ice-surface albedo feedback effect. Therefore, if increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration causes global warming, then polar regions should warm faster than other locations on Earth.
   The poles of the Earth are more sensitive to any change in the planet's climate than the rest of the planet. In the face of ongoing global warming, the poles are warming faster than lower latitudes. The primary cause of this phenomenon is ice-albedo feedback, whereby melting ice uncovers darker land or ocean beneath, which then absorbs more sunlight, causing more heating. The loss of the Arctic sea ice may represent a tipping point in global warming, when 'runaway' climate change starts, but on this point the science is not yet settled. According to a 2015 study, based on computer modelling of aerosols in the atmosphere, up to 0.5 degrees Celsius of the warming observed in the Arctic between 1980 and 2005 is due to aerosol reductions in Europe.
   Section::::Changes in Arctic Climate.:Global warming.
   The interior ice sheet escapes much of the influence of heat transfer from the ocean or from cyclones, and its high elevation also acts to give it a colder climate since temperatures tend to decrease with elevation. The result is winter temperatures that are lower than anywhere else in the Arctic, with average January temperatures of , depending on location and on which data set is viewed. Minimum temperatures in winter over the higher parts of the ice sheet can drop below (CIA, 1978). In the station climatology figure above, the Centrale plot is representative of the high Greenland Ice Sheet.
   Antarctica is colder than the Arctic for three reasons. First, much of the continent is more than above sea level, and temperature decreases with elevation in the troposphere. Second, the Arctic Ocean covers the north polar zone: the ocean's relative warmth is transferred through the icepack and prevents temperatures in the Arctic regions from reaching the extremes typical of the land surface of Antarctica. Third, the Earth is at aphelion in July (i.e., the Earth is farthest from the Sun in the Antarctic winter), and the Earth is at perihelion in January (i.e., the Earth is closest to the Sun in the Antarctic summer). The orbital distance contributes to a colder Antarctic winter (and a warmer Antarctic summer) but the first two effects have more impact.
   Climate change has a worldwide effect, but many studies show that warmer trends are more intense in higher latitudes. Since the Arctic resides in a higher latitude, its communities are more vulnerable. Thus far, average temperatures have risen almost twice as fast as in the rest of the world. Records show changes in various parts of the biophysical environment of the Arctic, such as sea-ice extent, area of permafrost and depth, river hydrology, geophysical processes, and the distribution of marine and terrestrial species of the Arctic. The warming of the earth’s atmosphere and surface is mainly attributed to the greenhouse effect. The gases that have a role in the greenhouse effect are mainly carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Even though carbon dioxide is the abundant greenhouse gas, these other gases actually absorb radiation more efficiently and persist in the atmosphere longer than carbon dioxide, so their warming effects increase with time.
   Section::::Sea ice.
   Record cold temperatures Northern Hemisphere
  
  The coldest location in the Northern Hemisphere is not in the Arctic, but rather in the interior of Russia's Far East, in the upper-right quadrant of the maps. This is due to the region's continental climate, far from the moderating influence of the ocean, and to the valleys in the region that can trap cold, dense air and create strong temperature inversions, where the temperature increases, rather than decreases, with height. 
   BULLET::::- UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), 2007: "Global Outlook for Ice & Snow", Chapter 5.
  
  BULLET::::- United States Central Intelligence Agency, 1978: "Polar Regions Atlas", National Foreign Assessment Center, Washington, DC, 66 pp.
   Because Antarctic ice is mainly first-year ice, which is not as thick as multiyear ice, it is generally less than a few meters thick. Snowfall and flooding of the ice can thicken it substantially, and the layer structure of Antarctic ice is often quite complex.
  
  Section::::Recent trends and climate change.
   Changes in the Arctic will have worldwide impacts. The Arctic basin is an ice-covered ocean that has strong feedback effects on many parts of the climate system. Since the arctic regulates heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere, the sea ice decline is expected to affect atmospheric circulation and weather patterns.
   As with the rest of the planet, the climate in the Arctic has changed throughout time. About 55 million years ago it is thought that parts of the Arctic supported subtropical ecosystems and that Arctic sea-surface temperatures rose to about during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. In the more recent past, the planet has experienced a series of ice ages and interglacial periods over about the last 2 million years, with the last ice age reaching its maximum extent about 18,000 years ago and ending by about 10,000 years ago. During these ice ages, large areas of northern North America and Eurasia were covered by ice sheets similar to the one found today on Greenland; Arctic climate conditions would have extended much further south, and conditions in the present-day Arctic region were likely colder. Temperature proxies suggest that over the last 8000 years the climate has been stable, with globally averaged temperature variations of less than about ; (see Paleoclimate).
   The Arctic's climate is characterized by cold winters and cool summers. Its precipitation mostly comes in the form of snow and is low, with most of the area receiving less than . High winds often stir up snow, creating the illusion of continuous snowfall. Average winter temperatures can go as low as , and the coldest recorded temperature is approximately . Coastal Arctic climates are moderated by oceanic influences, having generally warmer temperatures and heavier snowfalls than the colder and drier interior areas. The Arctic is affected by current global warming, leading to Arctic sea ice shrinkage, diminished ice in the Greenland ice sheet, and Arctic methane release as the permafrost thaws.
   There is considerable seasonal variation in how much pack ice of the Arctic ice pack covers the Arctic Ocean. Much of the Arctic ice pack is also covered in snow for about 10 months of the year. The maximum snow cover is in March or April — about over the frozen ocean.
   Section::::Changes for animals.
   Glaciers are ultra-sensitive to minute changes in the climate and respond by changing their size and by advancing or retreating. The mass balance, or the difference between snow accumulation and snow and ice ablation, is crucial to glacier health and its survival. The Columbia Glacier in Alaska is a large tidewater glacier that began a drastic retreat in the 1970s due to climate fluctuations and began discharging large quantities of icebergs into Prince William Sound. These icebergs were responsible for a massive oil spill in 1989 when an oil tanker captain tried to avoid them and went aground.
  
  Section::::Area-Altitude Distribution.
   In their latest study (20 September 2007) NASA researchers have confirmed that Antarctic snow is melting farther inland from the coast over time, melting at higher altitudes than ever and increasingly melting on Antarctica's largest ice shelf.
  
  There is also evidence for widespread glacier retreat around the Antarctic Peninsula.
   The cryosphere contains all parts of the climate system where water is solid. This includes sea ice, ice sheets, permafrost and snow cover. Because there is more land in the Northern Hemisphere compared to the Southern Hemisphere, a larger part of that hemisphere is covered in snow. Both hemispheres have about the same amount of sea ice. Most frozen water is contained in the ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica, which average about in height. These ice sheets slowly flow towards their margins.
   It is observed that Arctic and Antarctic warming commonly proceed out of phase because of orbital forcing, resulting in the so-called polar see-saw effect.
  
  Section::::Paleoclimate polar amplification.
  
  The glacial / interglacial cycles of the Pleistocene provide extensive palaeoclimate evidence of polar amplification, both from the Arctic and the Antarctic. In particular, the temperature rise since the last glacial maximum years ago provides a clear picture. Proxy temperature records from the Arctic (Greenland) and from the Antarctic indicate polar amplification factors on the order of 2.0.
  
  Section::::Recent Arctic amplification.
  