When megawarmist Richard Black of the BBC pans it, you know it’s a problem.
WUWT covered this story earlier, now the crescendo is building on this fancifully exaggerated claim about Greenland melting.
The Times Atlas says:
“for the first time, the new edition of the (atlas) has had to erase 15% of Greenland’s once permanent ice cover – turning an area the size of the United Kingdom and Ireland ‘green’ and ice-free.”
…
“This is concrete evidence of how climate change is altering the face of the planet forever – and doing so at an alarming and accelerating rate.”
The Scott Polar Institute has now weighed in.
The Scott Polar group, which includes director Julian Dowdeswell, says the claim of a 15% loss in just 12 years is wrong.
“Recent satellite images of Greenland make it clear that there are in fact still numerous glaciers and permanent ice cover where the new Times Atlas shows ice-free conditions and the emergence of new lands,” they say in a letter that has been sent to the Times.
“We do not know why this error has occurred, but it is regrettable that the claimed drastic reduction in the extent of ice in Greenland has created headline news around the world.
“There is to our knowledge no support for this claim in the published scientific literature.”
Read the entire article here
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This is a first! For the first time in the history of mankind, the BBC denounces a false claim by warmists ON THE FRONTPAGE! Look before it’s gone:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
I think that this now makes Richard Black of the BBC the leading contented for the job of village idiot.
*Contender
It’s made the Torygraph too.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8774623/Times-Atlas-makes-absurd-claims-about-shrinking-of-Greenland-ice-sheet.html
Amazingly, the piece is written by Louise “barking” Grey. There is this:
“A spokesman for HarperCollins said its new map was based on information provided by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
The spokesman said: “Since The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World 10th Edition, in 1999, we have had to erase 15 per cent of Greenland’s once permanent ice sheet.”
“This is based on information provided by the much respected and widely-cited National Snow and Ice Data Center (Atlas of the Cryosphere, Boulder, Colorado USA). “”
It’s amazing to see how the brainwashing effect of CAGW has gotten to the point where people/institutions see things that aren’t there (or vice versa)…
Wondering – Would this have been n IPCC AR5 ?
It’s getting harder and harder to sell global warming. Look what PETA is up against.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/09/19/peta-porn-site-will-raise-veganism-awareness-peta-says/
“We do not know why this error has occurred”, yeah, I wonder why this could have happened. Very strange indeed.
“This is concrete evidence of how climate change is altering the face of the planet forever”, insanity.
The “…altering the face of the planet forever” comment by the writers of the Atlas is just completely unforgivable. I was astounded when I read this. Just how low can writers drunk on the whole idea of warming actually go to? Incredible.
Richard Black usually writes nothing but warm, warm, warm, so this was indeed quite unusual for him. Perhaps it is indeed a sign of just how badly wrong the Times Atlas got it.
CRS, Dr.P.H. says:
September 19, 2011 at 10:33 am
“I blame the Danes…..they want to go back and farm Greenland, just like the good old days! (sarc off)”
Hrmm… That was the Norwegians. Denmark stole Greenland from us in the International Court of Justice in Haag, 5. april 1933.
Anthony,
Any chance of asking Dr. Walt Meier or Julienne Stroeve of the NSIDC about the information provided, and how it could have been interpreted so badly?
REPLY: I could, but I’m betting they’d like to steer clear of this mess. – Anthony
. . an addition to the previous post – I should have put Dr. in front of Julienne also ( . .mods, please feel free to add this if you desire . ..
@David Springer: “Is there a category for “bullsh-t” \?”
There should be….I propose Anthony changes his header menu:
http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/7859/unledqip.png
🙂
A clever article by Richard Black from the Pravda perspective. He attacks what cannot be defended – ridiculous alarmist nonsense – and then slips in a few propaganda claims to emphasize that Greenland is still melting. The fact is that it is simply preposterous to even suggest that Greenland ice cover should be stable and unchanging in the first place (chances are, at any time, it is either growing or declining with an extremely low probability that it is, if ever, unchanging).
That people can get away with this kind of deceitful journalism couched as “environmental science” is just part of the reason for the decline of the once strong Western model of democracy. Nearly all news and politics are driven by parasitic interest groups, meanwhile the actual productive elements within our economies, such as industry and small businesses, are bled for all they are worth.
David Schofield says:
September 19, 2011 at 10:42 am
So almost a sixth of Greenland has melted in past 30 years? And if all of Greenland melted it would raise sea levels by say 6.5 metres
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs2-00/?
I think we would have noticed a 1 metre sea level rise by now?
====================================================
Amazing that our USGS would participate in such hyperbole. They don’t mention a possible time-line scenario, nor do they mention the ice is sitting in a bowl. The basin that the ice sits in is 300 meters below sea level. I haven’t done the math, but even if it does melt, much of it will stay right there in Greenland.
“Climate Change causes…”
“Global Warming causes…”
Arrgh!
Of course a changing (warming or cooling) climate causes the migratory bird routes to change, or ice to melt or expand and thicken somewhere, or planting seasons to alter, etc.
Geez.
It always has and it always will. Well, “always” since we humans have been planting seeds and birds have been around to migrate. Most likely ice has been doing what ice does since before we were here to watch it. At least, I strongly suspect it has.
The real question remains: What effect, if any, have we humans had on the changing climate?
One very good answer is:
“There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.” (From the Global Warming Petition Project – http://www.petitionproject.org/ )
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/19/times-atlas-wrong-greenland-climate-change?intcmp=122
“But a spokeswoman for Times Atlas defended the 15% figure and the new map. “We are the best there is. We are confident of the data we have used and of the cartography. We use data supplied by the US Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado.”
The latest aerial shots of Greenland on Google Earth (2011) shows the island to be almost completely covered in ice and deep snow, including most of the east coast. The south and south-west coasts have the most land area exposed, but I doubt that more than 15% of the whole country is ice free. Perhaps the WUWT team would kindly confirm.
The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/win-one-of-20-designer-ecoumbrellas-from-wayne-hemingway-2353510.html
“Win one of 20 designer eco-umbrellas from Wayne Hemingway”
JohnWho says: September 19, 2011 at 12:26 pm:
John, I like your petition, but being a Brit I can not sign it . I have a UK petition of my own (http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/2035), but as you are American you can not sign it.
Perhaps thereby lies the problem – CAGW is a scam of GLOBAL proportions. I have no idea if petitions can do any good – only an expert in PR could comment on this – but does anybody here think that a worldwide petition of qualified scientists opposed to the CAGW hypothesis and scaremongering would do any good?
When you believe….
….you really believe
and that goes for the NSIDC too……………
The guardian is nothing more than the print version of the BBC. these two organizations have been conspiring between themselves for decades on telling the people what they want them to hear, not what is actually happening.
Secondly, it is the BBC’s advertising in the Guardian than goes a long way towards keeping it running, even though the guardian is hemorrhaging tens of millions of pounds a year in losses!
Mailman
Looks like even John Vidal at the Guardian has taken back his article. His new article claims that the ice loss, by volumn, is 0.1% in 12 years. At that rate, it would take 12,000 years to lose all of the Greenland ice.
Max – Glacier Girl’s discovery location is shown on her website.
http://p38assn.org/glacier-girl.htm
Don’t these guys do basic order of magnitude checks. The Greenland ice sheet, if melted, would rise the ocean levels about 10m. 15% of that is 1.5m. So, even if we assume that we are talking about areas where the ice thickness is less than the average 2km, certainly, a double check would be in order before one drops this on the media. Or maybe, that’s the whole point. Why spoil the fun.