By Steve Goddard
Readers will surely recall when WUWT was the first climate news outlet to publish this story:
Oh no! Greenland glacier calves island 4 times the size of Manhattan
In it, an admonition: “Watch the media now as this story is only about an hour old.” So far the media (and foot in mouth politicians) haven’t disappointed in their zeal to make this “business as usual” for a glacier into a poster child.
Image from The Arc
Professor Andreas Muenchow became a media celebrity this week with his quote about an iceberg in Greenland being “four times the size of Manhattan.” This iceberg has become a poster child for global warming, even though a much larger one broke off the same glacier 50 years ago.
From the Kansas City Star
Researchers last week spotted a 100-square-mile chunk of ice that calved off from the great Petermann Glacier in Greenland’s far northwest. It was the most massive ice island to break away in the Arctic in a half-century of observation. The huge iceberg appeared just five months after an international scientific team published a report saying ice loss from the Greenland ice sheet is expanding up its northwest coast from the south. Changes in the ice sheet “are happening fast, and we are definitely losing more ice mass than we had anticipated,” said NASA’s Isabella Velicogna.
Others took the misinformation one step further:
In what he calls ‘a manifestation of warming’, Dr Richard Bates who helps monitor the Greenland ice said he was ‘amazed’ to see such a huge area of ice break off the Petermann glacier. Reported in the Telegraph a team from the University of St Andrews said that a huge 106 square mile chunk of ice had broken away at the start of August. This is the largest ever seen to come from Greenland. The US National Ice Center has named the iceberg the ‘Petermann Ice Island’. They also report that the Petermann glacier, which is located in North West Greenland to the East of the Nares Strait and one of the largest in the Northern hemisphere, has retreated back to a level not observed since 1962.
What the press is not widely reporting is that Professor Muenchow also said :
years of data on the glacier itself show that after this month’s event, the mass of ice is still, on average, discharging about the same amount of water it usually does – some 600 million cubic meters a year, or about 220,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. “Even a big piece like this over 50 years is not that significant. It’s just the normal rate,” he said. Muenchow warns people not to jump to conclusions. “An event like this, this specific event, all flags go immediately up, ‘Oh, let’s explain this by global warming.’ I cannot support that,” he said.
So what we know is that the glacier is where it was 50 years ago, a bigger chunk broke off 50 years ago, and the rate of ice moving to the sea has not changed. There is absolutely no story here. Our warming friends get more desperate by the day. It is pathetic.
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Theres none so blind as cannot see! everything is as they expect it to be, for them there is no other way.
I propose naming it Markey Iceland §.-)
Hmm, I think you’re on to a scoop here. Penguins on a Greenland iceberg. What won’t they think of next.
I particularly like the Arctic penguins. A new species perhaps?
The “green industry” has tied it’s wagon to the global CAGW myth which is rapidly loosing it’s political steam. They stand to loose big time if cap and tax legislation or EPA regulations are not enacted. There will be a lot of political issue ads and bad “science” releases between now and November trying to keep CAGW politicians in office. It’s not about science. It’s about research funds and carbon offsets.
Summer of the Shark meet the Generation of Global Alarmism.
Yes , it is pathetic . But did you expect less than the worst in media coverage ?
I’m tempted to make a blacklist of all those experts who interpreted this event as a sign of CAGW…
Why dont they come check this out at wuwt?They could have been set straight before they made fools of themselves
“It was the most massive ice island to break away in the Arctic in a half-century of observation.”
Interesting how just adding “of observation” to that sentence makes it sound like: In all the time we’ve been observing the Arctic, this is the biggest ever.” Sounds a lot more dramatic than: “The last time this happened was 50 years ago when a much larger one broke off” What he wrote was true, but readers will be misled, perhaps intentionally?
ANY attempt to get the ‘cattle’ to stampede … pitiful state we find ‘science’ in today …
.
Whatever happened to having honor and integrity? The warmers and the lap dogs in the media have neither.
Here is DMI’s take on the situation:
http://translate.google.dk/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dmi.dk%2Fdmi%2Fhaard_opbremsning_i_arktisk_istab&sl=da&tl=en&hl=&ie=U
I know it is a lousy translation by Google, but it is too late for me to do it myself.
Istab = Loss of ice
Isudbredelse = ice extent
Isdrift = ice drift
Make no mistake – DMI has both feet firmly planted in the Warmers’ camp.
selective editing a wonderful idea……
It’s a bit like splatter movies. The acting and the plot don’t matter as long as enough blood flows. News has become a subgenre of B movies.
Equals more grants for studying the Greenland ice sheet…. More careers cocooned in soft fluffy science where rose-tinted glasses are part of the uniform.
Penguins stranded on a mini-iceberg.
Heart-wrenching, but I’m not going to give up carbonated soda pop.
On a similar theme but different subject.
ABC radio in Australia stated that the floods in Pakistan
were “worst in the country’s history”… I wonder how many
of their listeners realize that Pakistan came into existence
in 1947?
It seems the warming interests have issued the MSM the same template article to write world wide: blame the fires in Russia, the monssoon in Pakistan as the latest “proof” that global warming is happening. Funny every article starts with the disclaimer that prudence is required BEFORE attributing these to AGW, but this is just what journalists are doing in the title of their articles…
They’re all jumping on this iceberg like a pack of starving wolves.
Giant Greenland iceberg a climate ‘warning sign’
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5inGfVX69zbp-Gs4_y0FEdtLKMLeA
AFP – Marlowe Hood – 5 hours ago
PARIS — A giant iceberg that snapped away from Greenland last week is a signal that global warming is causing the island’s continent-sized ice cap to melt …
Ice sheet in Greenland melting at record rate
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7941035/Ice-sheet-in-Greenland-melting-at-record-rate.html
Telegraph.co.uk – Louise Gray – 9 hours ago
The Greenland ice sheet is melting at a record rate due to global warming, according to a British-led expedition currently taking measurements from the …
Greenland Ice Island Prompts Global Warming Debate
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/Greenland-Ice-Island-Prompts-Global-Warming-Debate-100590574.html
Voice of America – Carla Babb – 19 hours ago
Heat waves, droughts and floods have been wreaking havoc across the globe in recent weeks, and now scientists say a 250 square kilometer island of ice has …
Scientist: Huge Greenland iceberg a sign of warming
http://www.ocregister.com/news/warming-261971-ice-greenland.html
OCRegister – Pat Brennan – 6 hours ago
When a massive ice island broke off Greenland last week, it looked quite familiar to UC Irvine climate researcher Eric Rignot. …
Greenland ice melts at record pace
http://www.economicvoice.com/greenland-ice-melts-at-record-pace/50012432#axzz0wWbOsXj2
The Economic Voice – Jeff Taylor – 12 hours ago
In what he calls ‘a manifestation of warming’, Dr Richard Bates who helps monitor the Greenland ice said he was ‘amazed’ to see such a huge area of ice …
Of course it’s pathetic, all they have left is pathos.
To people like this – Isabella or Bates, nothing existed prior to their birth.
That was my first reaction – it’s desperation.
yes, crop yields which are actually increasing are said to be catastrophicaly failing because of global warming.
glaciers, which are actually growing, are said to be collapsing because of global warming.
the warmist machine is really running with this calving incident, it is all over the press, perhaps the worst being at the guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/10/greenland-ice-sheet-tipping-point
when in fact the ice sheet is growing, and we are obviously on the long (maybe rapidly steepening) descent into in the next glaciation
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/Icecaps_and_Glaciers_thumb.jpg
Anthony PS: I have a couple hours of 8mm color film my father took on a trip to Antarctica back in the ’50’s of giant icebergs when he was on a Navy icebreaker. If you are interested, email me.