MSN augments “Fake News” with photoshopped penguin photos

Guest post by Jim Steele

Director emeritus Sierra Nevada Field Campus, San Francisco State University and author of Landscapes & Cycles: An Environmentalist’s Journey to Climate Skepticism

MSN appears to be a source of climate fear mongering and “fake climate news” based on their story under the headlines Antarctica hits record high temperature at balmy 63.5°F .

The story was accompanied by what can only be a horribly photo-shopped photograph for the unassuming warmunista of a mushroom-shaped ice form teetering on a rocky outcrop.

clip_image001

Supposedly it was photographed on the opposite side of the continent from which the record temperature occurred. Climbing such a structure would be a difficult technical climb for an experienced mountaineer. Furthermore when Adele penguins come ashore to breed they avoid the ice if possible, only crossing snowfields as the seek ice-free breeding territories. Lastly if you magnify the picture 500%, the penguins become extremely pixilated, the ice chunk less so, and the background rocks even less so, a fingerprint of 3 different photographs with different resolution that have been overlain.

MSN reported, “An Argentine research base near the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula has set a heat record at a balmy 63.5° Fahrenheit (17.5 degrees Celsius), the U.N. weather agency said on Wednesday.” The record was set in 2015 and the WMO report simply confirmed the temperature. The Wunderblog had reported in March 2015, “On March 24th Base Esperanza (under Argentinean administration) located near the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula reported a temperature of 17.5°C (63.5°F). Although this is the warmest temperature ever measured since weather stations became established [in 1953] on the southern continent, it is complicated by what the very definition of ‘Antarctica’ is.

To induce fear over Esperanza’s temperature record MSN writes, “Antarctica locks up 90 percent of the world’s fresh water as ice and would raise sea levels by about 60 meters (200 ft) if it were all to melt, meaning scientists are concerned to know even about extremes around the fringes.”

However high temperatures at Esperanza tell us nothing about climate change, or if there is any threat of melting ice caps or rising sea level. Instead Esperanza presents a prime example of how temperatures can rise dramatically without any increased input of heat. Argentina’s Esperanza weather station is situated on the most extreme equatorward tip of the Antarctic peninsula and its mean monthly temperature for March is -3.6 C. But Esperanza’s location subjects it to episodic warm northwesterly winds which is why it is also infamous for its foehn wind storms that can dramatically increase temperatures by 10 to 40 C degrees in a matter of hours.

This record 17 C (63.5 F) temperature recently recorded, is 20 C above average, and as expected the record temperature is the result of foehn winds. Foehn winds warm temperatures via adiabatic heating (no heat input) as descending winds passing over the nearby mountains warm from adiabatic compression. It is meaningless weather regards penguins. But no mention of foehn winds by MSN.

At least the Wunderblog, was honest about the cause of record warming in 2015 stating,

“A strong high pressure ridge and a Foehn wind led to the record temperatures as Jeff Masters explains here:

This week’s record temperatures were made possible by an unusually extreme jet stream contortion that brought a strong ridge of high pressure over the Antarctic Peninsula, allowing warm air from South America to push southwards over Antarctica. At the surface, west to east blowing winds over the Antarctic Peninsula rose up over the 1,000-foot high mountains just to the west of Esperanza Base, then descended and warmed via adiabatic compression into a warm foehn wind that reached 44 mph (71 km/hr) at 09 UTC on March 24th, near when the maximum temperature was recorded. A similar event also affected Marambio on the 23rd.”

Likewise in the 2016 paper Absence of 21st century warming on Antarctic Peninsula consistent with natural variability researchers with the British Antarctic Survey reported, “The trend in the SAM led to a greater flow of mild, northwesterly air onto the AP [Antarctic Peninsula] with SAT [surface air temperature] on the northeastern side increasing most because of amplification through the foehn effect.”


This isn’t the first time such photo fakery has been used. There’s the Ursus Bogus episode, and NCDC’s fake flooded house, to name a couple. Anything for the cause – Anthony

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March 1, 2017 10:43 pm

The other Arctic record temperature form 1982: 19.8 Deg. C

https://eos.org/features/evaluating-highest-temperature-extremes-in-the-antarctic

Reply to  John_QPublic (@John_QPublic)
March 1, 2017 10:44 pm

Sorry, no penguin pictures, but 2.3 Deg. C higher 35 years ago.

David A
Reply to  John_QPublic (@John_QPublic)
March 2, 2017 4:37 am

So fake pictures, fake records, and pixulated reporters.

gnome
March 1, 2017 10:51 pm

Someone tell those penguins it’s safe to come down now. Those weren’t really polar bears, just a lot of overfed democrat women dressed as polar bears.

Brian H
March 1, 2017 10:56 pm

Definitely a foeny foto.

Auto
Reply to  Brian H
March 2, 2017 12:35 pm

Ohhhhhhh.

Auto

papiertigre
March 2, 2017 12:06 am

Another thing wrong with this story, the world almanac this new record is updating used different criteria of what qualified as “Antarctica” .

The previous record included only locations within the Antarctic circle (66 degrees South or better). Apparently meteorologists prior to the AGW political movement considered Esperanza Station unrepresentative of general conditions in Antarctica and excluded it for the purposes of almanac records of extremes. So this might not be the highest temperature ever recorded at Esperanza, it might just be the most recent temp higher than the record for inside the Antarctic circle.
The record high temp for inside the Antarctic Circle remains 59 degrees at Vanda Station, Antarctica, on Jan. 5, 1974.

papiertigre
Reply to  papiertigre
March 2, 2017 4:51 am

Here’s Vanda Station.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanda_Station

It’s defunct. The ecologists insisted all trace be removed to avoid contamination of the environment. So they needed a replacement for a regular source of Antarctica is so hot stories.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/77%C2%B031'00.0%22S+161%C2%B040'00.0%22E/@-77.5274021,161.7678879,74680m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d-77.516667!4d161.666667?hl=en

Interesting that Vanda sat in the moisture shadow of three converging mountain chains. Kind of like the Death Valley of Antarctica.

Griff
March 2, 2017 12:57 am

Has anyone proved this is photoshopped?

Asked MSN for a comment?

You see that’s the difference between this website and the NY Times: the Times asks for comment and fact checks. It doesn’t just sling mud at people.

And it was a record high temp, wasn’t it? Which is of interest and concern… is this article trying to divert attention from that fact?

and I don’t see the posts on the record low Antarctic ice here anywhere ???

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Griff
March 2, 2017 1:07 am

Griff, it’s very easy to test a digital image for tampering, if you know what utilities to use and what to look for. So, like polar bears, you know nothing about what you speak.

Bryan A
Reply to  Patrick MJD
March 2, 2017 12:25 pm

Shopped or not, It definitely isn’t Esperanza on 3-24-15, almost 3400 miles away on a continent that is 3500 miles accross. In fact there is a good Google 360 view at Ninnis and Mertz Cross on Azimuth Hill Antarctica that shows what the area looks like.
A good picture used out of context, is bad reporting in any book

Bryan A
Reply to  Patrick MJD
March 2, 2017 12:38 pm

In fact, the only images in the MSN article are from Scott Base and Commonwealth Bay respectively 3400 & 2500 miles away from Esperanza Base. If Esperanza Base on 3-24-2015 is the news, show us an image from there then, not some recycled image from someplace else designed to jerk heart strings.

That is like telling us that LA is overcrouded and showing a picture of New York City

tty
Reply to  Griff
March 2, 2017 1:19 am

“the Times asks for comment and fact checks. It doesn’t just sling mud at people.”

Hilarious comment of the year from Griff

Reply to  Griff
March 2, 2017 2:08 am

You are missing the point Griff. The object is to discredit a report which is uncomfortable news by diverting attention to the nature of a stock photograph. If it had not been the photograph, doubtless something else would have been found which was equally as minor. However you are right is suggesting we discuss the nature of the report, as opposed to the aesthetics of the Penguin picture.

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Gareth Phillips
March 2, 2017 2:12 am

Or to fuel emotion rather than fact. Yeah, I missed that point! The fact is, it is fake.

Tom Halla
Reply to  Gareth Phillips
March 2, 2017 5:00 am

Gareth and Griff==>the whole damn story, illustration and copy, is bogus, all the way down. It is a fabricated illustration to a grossly misleading story.

MarkW
Reply to  Gareth Phillips
March 2, 2017 7:06 am

There is nothing uncomfortable about the report.
It really is funny how easily you alarmists are fooled.
It’s almost as if you have no brain power to speak of.

Griff
Reply to  Gareth Phillips
March 2, 2017 8:23 am

No, I thought that was exactly what was happening… an attempt to discredit an uncomfortable report by diverting attention.

I was however also trying to make the point that this site is advocacy, not reporting: the news media often have higher standards than websites.

There seems to be a tendency among sceptical sites to have a go at photos… which is ridiculous seeing some photo editor who has really nothing to do with writing the articles usually just sticks in first stock photo which vaguely matches the subject…

MarkW
Reply to  Gareth Phillips
March 2, 2017 9:26 am

news media have high standards?

Once again you be-clown yourself.

Reply to  Gareth Phillips
March 2, 2017 9:36 am

The NY Times covered up the starvation deaths of 6,000,000 Ukranians at the hands of the Soviets. They received a Pulitzer prize for their reporting. After their falsehoods were exposed, they still did not disavow the Pulitzer.

I will accept Griff’s polar bear expertise, as an anonymous commenter, on the WUWT blog, before I will ever uncritically accept anything written in the NY Times.

Reply to  Gareth Phillips
March 2, 2017 10:14 am

Gareth,

the story is misleading since they didn’t mention that it was caused by a warming wind (Foehn wind),that lasted for part of a day,as it cooled back down to freezing. There were other previous record highs in the 50’s,that happened numerous times in the past at the base.

Jeff Masters made this statement:

“A strong high pressure ridge and a Foehn wind led to the record temperatures as Jeff Masters explains here:

This week’s record temperatures were made possible by an unusually extreme jet stream contortion that brought a strong ridge of high pressure over the Antarctic Peninsula, allowing warm air from South America to push southwards over Antarctica. At the surface, west to east blowing winds over the Antarctic Peninsula rose up over the 1,000-foot high mountains just to the west of Esperanza Base, then descended and warmed via adiabatic compression into a warm foehn wind that reached 44 mph (71 km/hr) at 09 UTC on March 24th, near when the maximum temperature was recorded. A similar event also affected Marambio on the 23rd.”

That is the TRUE nature of the phenomenon, a temporary WEATHER event that dissipated in just a few hours.

Has nothing to do with “global warming” or insignificant increase in atmosphere CO2 levels. Nothing uncomfortable about it,Gareth. It is warmist loons like you who make a mountain out of a molehill,milking it for propaganda purposes.

What is sad is that Senator Schumer,you and Griff go bananas over a tiny region of the continent,cause by a short term weather event.

MarkW
Reply to  Gareth Phillips
March 2, 2017 10:56 am

SunSettommy: They are also the first to scream that any temperatures that are colder normal, is just weather and should be ignored.

Bryan A
Reply to  Gareth Phillips
March 2, 2017 12:41 pm

AYUP, Higher Standards like using Stock Photos from different parts of a continent 3000 miles away to make a point about a weather situation that is already 2 years old and an entire continent away

3x2
Reply to  Griff
March 2, 2017 2:25 am

Seriously, Is there any eco-babble that you won’t defend?

BTW if there were actually a record low in ice … this would be a bad thing because…?
Wishing for more ice is like wishing for more desert. Life is orders of magnitude more prolific at the equator for good reason.

MarkW
Reply to  3x2
March 2, 2017 7:07 am

For an alarmist, all that matters is that the narrative must be supported. It doesn’t matter how badly the alarmist has to embarrass itself, support the narrative at all costs.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Griff
March 2, 2017 4:26 am

err griff mate..its SUMMER down here

Sheri
Reply to  Griff
March 2, 2017 8:58 am

Griff—You’re proving what skeptics say. You care only about the actual temperature and NOTHING about why it occurred. It’s HIGH!!!!!! For 5 hours once in a while, yes. Why? Who cares? It’s HIGH!!!!!!! Your comprehension of science is just so lacking.

MarkW
Reply to  Sheri
March 2, 2017 9:27 am

As always Griff doesn’t know what the difference between weather and climate is.
Everything is interpreted based on whether it supports one of his religious convictions or not.

ferdberple
Reply to  Griff
March 2, 2017 9:15 am

the Times asks for comment and fact checks.
=========================
Two reporters in a bar:
Reporter 1: Anyone know what Trump is doing?
Reporter 2: My girlfriend’s aunt’s hairdresser says Trump is in bed with Putin.

MSN breaking news – Reporter 1 exclusive:
Confidential sources report KGB blackmailing Trump over kinky sex orgy.

hunter
Reply to  Griff
March 2, 2017 9:53 am

Griff, why are you concerned about a 2015 high in a place that last was that temperature in the 1980’s? No one is commenting on the Antarctic ice because like all claims by climate hypesters, it turns out to be unimportant. Low sea ice in the Antarctic is doing nothing adverse to world climate. So back to the topic of this post: Why would MSM consistently decide to lie and deceive readers about climate?

TA
Reply to  Griff
March 2, 2017 2:00 pm

“And it was a record high temp, wasn’t it? Which is of interest and concern…”

It’s cooled off since then, Griff.

jim heath
March 2, 2017 12:57 am

FAKE SCIENCE

john harmsworth
Reply to  jim heath
March 2, 2017 11:23 am

Does not even qualify as resembling science.

tty
March 2, 2017 1:17 am

I think the photo could be genuine. Of course there would have to be an easier way to get onto the ice from the back, but penguins are much more agile on land than you might believe. And it isn’t unusual for penguins to get onto snow or ice patches on sunny days in Antarctica. I’ve often seen this behavior in Gentoos and Royal Penguins. Admittedly I haven’t seen Adeles do it, but I have rather limited field experience of that species. Remember that those feather coats have to keep the penguins warm in sub-zero water, so I imagine they can get uncomfortable on land when temperatures creep up over freezing.
Jim Steele is right that they only breed on rocks though, I’ve seen them scramble hundreds of meters up a steep snowbank to get to a suitable rocky patch.

tty
Reply to  tty
March 2, 2017 1:22 am

Correction “Royal Penguins” should be “King Penguins”. I always mix those two names up.

Derek Andrews
Reply to  tty
March 3, 2017 8:56 am

It seems to be a 2010 photo taken by Reuters staff. http://pictures.reuters.com/archive/CLIMATECHANGE-ANTARCTICA–GF10000365918.html

Felflames
March 2, 2017 1:23 am

Just out of curiosity,this temperature sensor wouldn’t happen to be next to the exhaust of the generators, or down wind from a heat source perchance ?

tty
Reply to  Felflames
March 2, 2017 1:34 am

Actually not needed to get extremely high temperatures during Föhn conditions. Next time you hear abot record warmth in Greenland, check where it happened. It will almost certainly be in Narsarsuaq which is famous for extreme föhn effect.

March 2, 2017 1:57 am

As soon as I saw the term ‘warmunista’ I gave up reading. You cannot condemn people for using the word ‘denier’ and claim the high moral ground when you patently use the same insulting terms in a different context.

Reply to  Gareth Phillips
March 2, 2017 8:21 am

Gareth I use warmunista as a kinder apolitical term than alarmists. What do you recommend for a term for people who think CO2 causes everything?

Sheri
Reply to  jim steele
March 2, 2017 9:23 am

I often refer to them as global warming advocates or global warming believers. I changed to “advocate” when there were objections to “believer” as being religious (which it isn’t, but I gave up on logic with said persons). Actually, I don’t object to the “d” word—it’s additional proof that the advocates don’t have a science case. If this were REAL science, the “skeptics” would be referred to as those who have a different theory, not those who deny science. Even the use of the term “pseudoscience” would have been less indicative of the advocates not being able to make their case. Of course that term opens the discussions to actual scientific investigation, something that is not wanted by advocates.

Tom in Florida
Reply to  jim steele
March 2, 2017 9:27 am

Stupid comes to mind.

Reply to  jim steele
March 2, 2017 10:02 am

“What do you recommend for a term for people who think CO2 causes everything?”

The wizards of COZ?

March 2, 2017 2:04 am

If anyone has an interest in false news and dodgy reporting, they may find this of interest :
http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/news/fake-news-and-alternative-facts-in-the-times/

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Gareth Phillips
March 2, 2017 2:44 am

Wales. The country in the UK where the Welsh burn houses owned in Wales by the English.

Reply to  Patrick MJD
March 2, 2017 4:52 am

The same country where English immigrants persecuted school children for speaking their native language and wouldn’t allow official documents to be printed in Welsh!

Reply to  Patrick MJD
March 2, 2017 8:30 am

Once you realise your beliefs and morals are defunct, it’s always a good fallback position to attack the integrity of someones country or their culture. You are both beneath contempt for reverting to such Philistine pig ignorant tactics.

Reply to  Patrick MJD
March 2, 2017 8:31 am

Apologies Phil, I think I may have misread your post. Mae’n ddrwg gennyf

john harmsworth
Reply to  Patrick MJD
March 2, 2017 11:52 am

As Gareth attacks the Phillistines. Who aren’t even around to defend themselves!

Patrick MJD
Reply to  Patrick MJD
March 2, 2017 3:59 pm

The Romans forced the “Angles” to speak and write in Latin. The French forced us to write and speak French, the official language, “English” was actively banned. I don’t quite see your point.

Reply to  Patrick MJD
March 2, 2017 6:24 pm

.
“The Romans forced the “Angles” to speak and write in Latin. The French forced us to write and speak French, the official language”

No they didn’t that’s a fallacy.

There was no such thing as English when the Romans arrived and there was no such thing as English when they left. Latin was the language of the aristocracy whilst there was little to no written language for the common man. That which was spoken was Brittonic Celtic and has no relation to modern English. And after the Romans left the language which replaced the common tongue was am Anglo-Frisian version of German that was spoken by the people left behind by the Romans. With the influx of Angles and Saxons who spoke their own version of old high German the common tongue became a mixture of all three.

English is a form of German and a recognisable form of English as we understand it didn’t come around until maybe 1500 whilst the aristocracy spoke French for a few centuries after invasion the common tongue remained an evolving form of the Germanic Anglo Saxon that had been around a long time. The common man was certainly not forced to speak any language, certainly not that of the aristocracy. Keeping the populace illiterate by maintaining Latin as the language of the church and French as the language of the gentry was a contrived plan to maintain control of the minds of the populace.

Modern English didn’t exist until some time into the 1600’s when the language in Europe had a major shift.

Your comments about Wales are also incorrect but meant to be provocative. As I am in content moderation i will only address those as I am able.

Editor
Reply to  Gareth Phillips
March 2, 2017 4:05 am

LOL!!

The ever reliabe Bob Ward!

OldUnixHead
Reply to  Paul Homewood
March 3, 2017 9:47 am

Heh!! I suspected as much, but was reluctant to visit the LSE Grantham Institute site link to find out. Lo and Behold! For those at WUWT not familiar with Mr. Ward and his long history with Grantham Institute, check out the Bishop Hill site and use the Navigate, Search menus with “bob ward” or, for easier links to Josh’s enhancements, “bob ward josh” . Quite a guy.

ralfellis
March 2, 2017 2:05 am

I would disagree that foehn winds have no heat input. They do have a heat input, through the agent of moisture output. They get their extra warmth though condensation, rainfall, and dry adiabatic warming.

R

tty
Reply to  ralfellis
March 2, 2017 4:27 am

You know what “adiabatic” means? “No heat exchange”, from greek a- “not” -dia- “through” -batos “passable”.
There is no heat input. The temperature increase comes from energy of position as the air moves downward in the gravitational field.

Sheri
Reply to  tty
March 2, 2017 9:25 am

“Adiabatic” is a most interesting word. I find it fun to just say it over and over again! (Yeah, I’m not like other people!)

ralfellis
Reply to  tty
March 2, 2017 9:55 am

>>You know what “adiabatic” means?

Yes, I know what it means. But the air is only warmer on the way down, because it has been given heat through the latent heat of condensation.

No moisture, no foehn wind. Understand now?

R

Hugs
March 2, 2017 2:06 am

The fake picture has been circulating for years. Reuters, for one, has been using it. I wonder who has the credit?

Hugs
Reply to  Hugs
March 2, 2017 2:29 am

Ok, I’m not calling it photoshop fake. I’m calling it a piece of art deliberately planned to not document but to lie about nature. Media are full of that kind of crap. Nice one if you don’t think about the carbon fingerprint created by shooting two penguins.

Steve Fraser
Reply to  Hugs
March 2, 2017 6:26 am

Here is a link. Pauline Askin is the photographer. Look at the version of the posting thare. The image edge boundaries and resolution are much crisper.

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&hl=en-us&ei=RSm4WIDhG8OojwPe8rvgDg&q=pauline+askin+penguin+pictures&oq=pauline+askin+penguin+pictures&gs_l=mobile-gws-serp.3…46958.56058.0.56326.17.17.0.0.0.0.167.1954.3j14.17.0….0…1c.1.64.mobile-gws-serp..0.16.1850…0j0i22i30k1j33i160k1j33i21k1.OInek218RZE#imgrc=_

Reply to  Steve Fraser
March 2, 2017 8:26 am

Crisper but the penguin pixelation still disrupts the ice forms top boundary

Editor
Reply to  Hugs
March 2, 2017 7:36 am

It’s Pauline Atkins — anyone with Twitter account (which would not be me) could send her a twit and ask her about it at

@ProudPagen

If you do, let us know here.

Reply to  Kip Hansen
March 2, 2017 11:17 am

I just tweeted her directly. Such an odd ice shape would prompt a photographer to take several photos. As photographers know, we only get one really good photo for every 100. So I asked her for any photos of the backside of the ice that would reveal a gentler slope that enable the penguins to climb to the top.

Reply to  Kip Hansen
March 2, 2017 11:35 am

Will absence of such evidence mean you are correct? You have suggested the opposite in my argument.

john harmsworth
Reply to  Kip Hansen
March 2, 2017 11:54 am

Send her Griff. That’s a twit we can do without.

Reply to  Kip Hansen
March 3, 2017 10:26 pm

Craig says, “Will absence of such evidence mean you are correct? You have suggested the opposite in my argument.”

PLease Craig dont be so snarky. The absence of such evidence only means we will never know for sure. Did reuters get back to you that there is no evidence?

ralfellis
March 2, 2017 2:32 am

The CofG of this ice mushroom would be so far to the right that it would topple. The smooth ice shows it was a peak on a larger iceberg. 100% photoshop, even without the added penguins.

However, you can get ice mushrooms if there are some rocks around, to shade the ice beneath them….

http://oi66.tinypic.com/1045c7n.jpg

Daniel Mannix
March 2, 2017 3:08 am

I spent 2 months in the area in 1996, and we had an unusual warm spell because of high pressure. Continuous storms are the norm, but the rare high pressure yields conditions very much like Vancouver in the winter–both being martime climates. The Antarctic peninsula is the Florida of Antarctica. The photo is definitly not from anywhere around Esperanza, and penguins would never achieve such a precarious position.

Pablo
March 2, 2017 3:49 am

“minds bound and cramped by their own theories and despisers of their fellows….They make poor observations because they choose among the results of their experiments only what suits their objective, neglecting whatever is unrelated to it and setting aside everything which might tend toward the idea they wish to combat.
Claude Bernard (1813-78)

Editor
March 2, 2017 4:03 am

Worth noting that the previous record was only slightly lower at 62.8F, set way back in 1961, also at Esperanza.

So “balmy” temps of 63F are not unusual there.

Interestingly the photo originally appeared in 2013, as part of an article by the International Science Times about the record Antarctic COLD temperature in 2010!

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2017/03/02/antarctic-record-temperature-con/

I expect we’ll see plenty more of it every time there is a bit of warm weather there.

David A
Reply to  Paul Homewood
March 2, 2017 4:47 am

Ok, so we can infer .2 degrees C rise in 56 years. Well I’ll be pixilated.

Kaiser Derden
March 2, 2017 4:52 am

actually the story admits that that was not even the Antarctic’s highest record temp …

Kaiser Derden
March 2, 2017 4:54 am

The heat record for the broader Antarctic region, defined as anywhere south of 60 degrees latitude, was 19.8°C (67.6°F) on Jan. 30, 1982 on Signy Island in the South Atlantic, it said. (from the story)

heysuess
March 2, 2017 5:00 am

Putting aside the photoshop inquiry, the photo makes no logical sense. The hunk of ice would have been washed into place by a severe storm with waves big enough, strong enough to place it, or push it, into this unlikely spot, probably much earlier in the season. The idea that penguins would have stayed put through all of this long enough to find themselves isolated from the ocean and terra firma is utter nonsense. So, unless there is a gentle ramp to the heights of this ice chuck unseen on the far side – where one would expect to see a shadow, but one does not – one can be assured that the photo is pure hogwash, without any further investigation into photoshop techniques.

Sheri
Reply to  heysuess
March 2, 2017 10:11 am

Agreed. The only way this would be natural is if there is a ramp on the other side that allowed the penquins to get to the top. Then, it would qualify as use of a photographic angle to produce a photo that gives a false impression of what is going on.

Reply to  Sheri
March 2, 2017 11:36 am

That’s called using your photographic eye. We are taught to use perspective and position to create striking images.

Sheri
Reply to  Sheri
March 2, 2017 3:04 pm

Craig: I’m well aware of that. I clearly label all my photos that are “artistic” as such. I do not use photos to try and bend people’s perceptions of reality. I consider that dishonest.

Reply to  Sheri
March 2, 2017 5:02 pm

So what is your evidence that the photographer is dishonest here? They have taken this image along with many others and submitted it to their employer for the stock image file. It has been used a number of times since then for different articles. At what point has the photographer been dishonest by the time you have become aware of the image? It was submitted without comment.

Ian W
March 2, 2017 5:11 am

Many people do not have any grasp of geography. Antarctica is huge you will see from this overlay picturecomment image that the claim that a temperature at the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula is rather like claiming that the temperatures in the Bering straits affect the temperature of Iowa. The do-you-want-fries-with-that greens are extremely easily led due to their ignorance

ossqss
March 2, 2017 5:37 am

comment image

MarkW
Reply to  Fraizer
March 2, 2017 9:29 am

Life imitates art. ;*]

March 2, 2017 5:38 am

There is a pattern of deception by alarmists which has been called out, two notable examples being Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. False advertising is a criminal offense, if the authorities have the gumption to enforce the law.

https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2017/01/06/truth-in-climate-advertising/

Art Stanton
March 2, 2017 6:04 am

Don’t they know that ice kills Adelie Penguins?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/13/world/penguins-die-giant-iceberg-irpt/

Mickey
March 2, 2017 6:06 am

It’s not photoshopped. It’s a series of pictures that Pauline Askin took in Cape Denison in late 2009 – early 2010.

http://www.newsweek.com/antarctic-ice-melting-may-be-worse-thought-314614

heysuess
Reply to  Mickey
March 2, 2017 6:36 am

Yes, there must be access unseen behind the ice block after all. I don’t believe a reporter with Reuters would be making things up… http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=2C0FCI3HBII44&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=625

Reply to  heysuess
March 2, 2017 8:20 am

“I don’t believe a reporter with Reuters would be making things up…”

Why not?

Andrew

Reply to  heysuess
March 2, 2017 9:17 am

Very notorious example of Reuters using photoshopped pictures as evidence.

TA
Reply to  heysuess
March 2, 2017 2:17 pm

Yeah, why not?

Tony Mach
Reply to  Mickey
March 2, 2017 8:21 am

I would say in that case Jim Steele has published fake news. No evidence of fakery – no cookie.

[but you’ve provided no evidence other than your own opinion -mod]

Reply to  Tony Mach
March 2, 2017 11:37 am

Mod. It’s no less evidence than has been provided to the contrary

Reply to  Tony Mach
March 2, 2017 11:50 am

Except for the very obvious common sense of “How does that mass of ice balance itself?” What magic keeps it from toppling over to the one side

Reply to  Tony Mach
March 2, 2017 12:00 pm

Perhaps its the greater body of ice behind that slopes to the shore not yet eroded by the summer tides that follow the natural channel from the north. Perhaps?

Reply to  Tony Mach
March 2, 2017 1:39 pm

“Perhaps its the greater body of ice behind that slopes to the shore not yet eroded by the summer tides that follow the natural channel from the north. Perhaps?”

Just-So Story.

Andrew

Reply to  Mickey
March 2, 2017 9:24 am

pat. I’m very aware of that image and story which is precisely why it would be suicide for them to include composite images in their library now. Reuters did not manipulate the image, the photographer did. And when it was discovered he was suspended then fired. Reuters are a news agency, not a content delivery service. They as an entity have no position but they must rely upon the integrity of their content providers. The image above was quickly found out and dealt with. To suggest a manipulated image would stay in their catalogue for 6 years undetected is a bit wide of the mark. But by all means, report them for bad practice. Their code of conduct means they must investigate it.

MarkW
Reply to  Craig (@Zoot_C)
March 2, 2017 10:59 am

Reuters defended the reporter for several weeks. Only when the evidence became overwhelming did they decide to cut their losses by firing the reporter.
This issue does create the instant hew and cry that the Lebanese engagement did, so the heat levels are not the same.

Reply to  Craig (@Zoot_C)
March 2, 2017 11:38 am

Mark, it does not alter the facts. The reporter was removed. It has not happened since

MarkW
Reply to  Craig (@Zoot_C)
March 2, 2017 1:54 pm

Context is very important.
You left out all of the important details, like the huge outcry and that Reuters defended the “reporter” for weeks.
You want us to believe that absent the outcry, Reuters still would have removed the reporter, and from that concluded that absent any outcry, Reuters went through it’s stock images and removed all photo-shopped pictures.
Based on what? The evidence of their past behavior does not support the picture you are trying to paint.

Caligula Jones
Reply to  Mickey
March 2, 2017 9:50 am

Yes, not Photoshopped, but forced perspective. That chunk of ice could be a foot tall.

But definitely deceptive if used in the context of “poor penguins, ice is running out”.

ralfellis
Reply to  Mickey
March 2, 2017 10:27 am

>>It’s not photoshopped.

It is photoshopped.

a. The ice block is unstable, with a far-right CofG. It could not stand on a small plinth like that.

b. The ice shadow is from forward-top-left, casting a shadow to the right and slightly towards us. The rocks shadow is from back-top-left, which is why the rocks are giving no shadow. Had the ice sun-angle been correct, many of those rocks would have been giving shadow.

c. The upper ice shadow is far too smooth. This is a jagged ice shadow on jagged rocks, and it cannot give a smooth shadow.

d. The left penguin has the back-top-left sun position. But the right penguin does not show the same illumination.

e. The penguins could not have got on top of this plinth. And if there were a rear access ramp, we would see its shadow. And there is no shadow.

Photoshop deceit. SOP for the warmist lobby.

R

Reply to  ralfellis
March 2, 2017 12:04 pm

A: You have no evidence that the ice you see is all there is in a 360 view.
b: The shadow is not unusual. It merely means you have no understanding of perspective, In fact the shadow is evidence of the ice being longer to the rear than can be seen.
c.d,e dismissed as lack of education.