The claim: Antarctic sea ice area maps show climate change is a hoax A Dec. 26, 2024, Instagram post ( direct link , archive link ) shows maps of purported Antarctic sea ice extent, or area, from Dec. 24, 1979, and the same day in 2024. Text above the graphic says the extent was larger in 2024 than in 1979.”Ice doesn’t lie, but climate scientists do,” reads text in the post, which was first shared on X . Additional text reads, “More proof of the hoax.” The X post was reposted 19,000 times. More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page Our rating: False Climate change − a global phenomenon − can neither be confirmed nor disproven by comparing Antarctic sea ice extent on two individual days, according to researchers. Instead, scientists have used long-term data sets from all over the world to determine Earth’s climate is changing rapidly as the result of human activity. Arctic sea ice in decline, Antarctic sea ice less certain The maps in the post match graphics that can be generated with the National Snow and Ice Data Center Sea Ice Analysis tool . Antarctic sea ice extent was higher on Dec. 24, 2024, than on that day in 1979, according to the agency’s Charctic Interactive Sea Ice Graph − which reports five-day running averages. However, Antarctic sea ice extent was higher in 1979 than in 2024 for most of the year, according to National Snow and Ice Data Center data. December is the only month in 2024 that had days where extents were higher than in 1979. But even if all of 1979 had less ice than 2024, that would not show that climate change is a “hoax.” This is because there is significant […]