The global warming crowd has pulled another stupefying blunder in an increasingly frantic attempt to show the world that there actually is a global climate crisis. They propose yet again that reality has no place in the argument.
The recent entry, as reported by the Guardian, no less, is the publication of the [London] Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, which shows Greenland with land on the east and south coasts emerging from the ice sheets that cover the vast majority of the huge island, reflecting a significant change from the 1999 edition of the atlas. The new edition shows that some 300,000 square kilometers, or 15%, of the ice cover has been lost in the last twelve years.
"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," said the publishers of the atlas, HarperCollins, in information given to the media last week and reiterated by a spokeswoman on Monday.
That would be alarming evidence indeed . . . if it were true.
In a letter to the editors of the Times Atlas, [researchers at the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge] agree that the Greenland ice cover is reducing but at nowhere near the extent claimed in the book. "A 15% decrease in permanent ice cover since the publication of the previous atlas 12 years ago is both incorrect and misleading. . . . 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."
Other researchers backed the Scott team. "Although many of these regions have decreased in area and thickness over the past decade(s), reported in many recent scientific papers, the misinterpretation of enormous losses of glacierised area from these maps is far off the range in measured losses," said Hester Jiskoot, a glaciologist at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta.
"A number like 15% ice loss used for advertising the book is simply a killer mistake that cannot be winked away," said Jeffrey Kargel, a senior researcher at the University of Arizona.
The editors of the atlas, though, will not take the imposition of facts lying down.
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. . . . Our data shows that it has reduced by 15%. That's categorical," she said. . . .
The NSIDC said it was investigating the claims made by the Times Atlas. The row echoes a 2010 flare-up, when the UN’s climate science body admitted that a claim made in its 2007 report – that Himalayan glaciers could melt away by 2035 – was unfounded. The claim was not based on peer-reviewed scientific literature but a media interview with a scientist.
At the Guardian’s conservative competitor, The Daily Telegraph, columnist/satirist James Delingpole simply could not resist the temptation, saying that the atlas
has decided to take its new role as cheerleader for Climate Change alarmism a step further. In its upcoming 14th edition, unconfirmed rumours suggest, it will completely omit Tuvalu, the Maldives and major parts of Bangladesh in order to convey the "emotional truth" about "man made climate change." . . . “Why would a government lie about something as serious as climate change? . . . I hold a doctorate in Cambridge in Climate Change and Sinking Islands Studies so I know what I'm talking about. . . . [The editors] understand that maps based on accurately recorded geographical features belong in the Victorian age of child chimney sweeps. What we need now is maps that change the world, transforming into something which it isn't actually yet but might be one day if we don't act NOW!"
Unfortunately, you've taken one inaccurate report and made an erroneous headline of your own.
ReplyDeleteGreenland IS melting, and the pace of that melting has been accelerating, about 120 cubic kilometers in '96 to more than double that today.
Pardon the delay of my reply; I was elsewhere for some time in the wilderness, and your comments slipped past me.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of the post is to point out that the map printed by the Times is fraudulent. It does not reflect established cartographical science and technology. It is a representation of what partisan groups want the world to see, but the fact of the matter is that the map isn’t true. It is based on either shoddy work, false claims, or more likely, both.
Are some glaciers around the world retreating? Yes, but this probably is the result of a cyclical trend that we see in natural science and history, and to the extent that any of this is the result of man is still highly contentious. But to try to slip in a map so wildly inaccurate shows again how bankrupt is the argument for AGW. The proponents can’t prove it, so they make stuff up. This is not science; it is charlatanism.