The Times Comprehensive Atlas of The World Rediscovers Warming Island To Please The Guardian’s Anti-Science Agenda
IS the latest edition of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World incorrect? Greland is reduced in size by 15%. A news island is included in the atlas. Treehugger reports:
Uunartoq Qeqertaq is the world’s newest island: translated from Inuit as “Warming Island,” it was attached to a Greenland peninsula as recently as 2002. But Arctic ice began melting with increasing speed, and Uunartoq Qeqertaq was discovered as its own island in 2005. Scientists say the island exists directly because of climate change—and it is now officially included in the latest edition of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World.
In Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, Greenland has lost around 15% of its ice cover between 10th edition (1999) (left) and 13th edition (2011) (right). Photograph: Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World. If you have never heard of Uunartoq Qeqertaq, it’s possibly because it’s one of the world’s newest islands, appearing in 2006 off the east coast ofGreenland, 340 miles north of the Arctic circle when the ice retreated because of global warming. This Thursday the new land – translated from Inuit as Warming Island – was deemed permanent enough by map-makers to be included in a new edition of the most comprehensive atlas in the world…
So. It is global warming?
The Independent agrees:
The map of Greenland will have to be redrawn. A new island has appeared off its coast, suddenly separated from the mainland by the melting of Greenland’s enormous ice sheet, a development that is being seen as the most alarming sign of global warming.
Bishop Hill links to this thread on the Cryolist email list:
Dear Cryolisters, especially media people ‘listening’ in: No doubt this ‘news’ story and Atlas are going to be repeated far any wide. THIS IS NOT WHAT IS HAPPENING. THIS IS NOT SCIENCE. THIS IS NOT WHAT SCIENTISTS ARE SAYING. Greenland specialists, people like Michele Cittero, Peter Ahlstrom, Leigh Stearns, Gordon Hamilton, Waleed Abdalati and many more have documented what actuallyIS happening in Greenland, and it involves some incredibly rapid changes, mainly increasing melting, thinning, andretreat; and slight thickening in some sectors, but overall Greenland is a story of massive, rapid retreat. Special dynamics are at play, and probably climate warming as well. However, this Guardian story is ridiculouslyoff base, way exaggerated relative to the reality of rapid change in Greenland. I don’t know how exactly the Times Atlas produced their results, but they are NOT scientific results. Therefore, media be warned: play on this story at your own serious risk of losing credibility. I am certain that the scientists mentioned above, and many others,will respond with actual data, throughly peer-reviewed publications, and lots of data to show what is happening.It isa dramatic story, many dramatic stories. But don’t believe this Guardian article.Sorry, Guardian. I used to just grin and bear it when things like this happen. But the IPCC fiasco and the whole’sad chain leading up to it, where media played on media and NGO’s played on each other, without actual sciencein the loop, leads me to believe that there is no such thing as being too critical with the media. This Greenland story is not science; did I say that already? OK, now somebody can figure out where the new brown or the lossof old white came from. Not from proper treatment of data, that’s for sure. Thanks to Jim Torson and Graham Cogley for bringing this new ‘news’ to my attention. It is a crisis of misinformationonly if the media or politicians fail to consult with scientists.
The Danish Meteorological Institute says under the headline “Times Atlas represents the ice cap is too small” (translation):
“There is no scientific evidence that the area of the Greenland ice sheet since 1999 has shrunk by 15% as the latest edition of the ‘Times Atlas shows,” says climate researcher Ruth Mottram, DMI.
In the latest edition of the British ‘Times Atlas’ is the area of Greenland’s ice sheet decreased by 15% during the period from 1999 to 2011. It must reflect the effects of global warming. But there is no scientific evidence for the claim that is overrated and not based on robust measurements.
‘Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World’ was first published in 1899 and is the standard reference atlas in large parts of the world.
The marked difference between the two ‘Times atlas’-map of Greenland for 1999 and 2011 is that the coastline especially on the east side is no longer covered by ice. The true picture is another.
Dirty ice covered in some places of newly fallen snow on the east coast of Greenland near Mestersvig at Kong Oscars Fjord.Photo: Michele Citterio.Copyright GEUS.
The error may have occurred if katograferne from the ‘Times Atlas have used satellite images of Greenland to assess ice spatial distribution.
“When I look at satellite images of Greenland, it looks real enough dark along the coast, but that does not mean that the ice has disappeared” says climate researcher and continues: “The dark color is caused by dirt, dust and volcanic ash that makes the ice dark especially in Southeast Greenland. “
The area of the ice cap has diminished with the wrong ratios in the ‘Times Atlas, but it does not change that shrinks the ice in Greenland. In the period 2003 to 2008 are missing from 168 to 268 billion tons of ice, equivalent to four to six feet of water evenly over Denmark.
Richard Betts, is Head of Climate Impact for, UK Met Office wrote the climate change section for the Atlas. Says he:
“I’m not happy. I wrote the climate change section for this Atlas and didn’t say any of that Greenland rubbish! I have contacted the editors.
Oh, and thet new island… Well, it isn’t. World Climate Report writes:
In our continuing theme of exposing ill-founded global warming alarmist stories (see here and here for our most recent debunkings), we’ll examine the much touted discovery of “Warming Island”—a small piece of land that has been “long thought to be part of Greenland’s mainland”—but that turns out to have been known to be an island back in the early 1950s.
Another good story out the window.
As was the case of the previous two scare stories we examined that turned out to be untrue (global warming leading to amphibian decline in Central and South America, and the Inuit language lacking a word for ‘robin’), the story of “Warming Island” was also prominently featured in the New York Times. On January 17, 2007, The Timesdedicated an article to “The Warming of Greenland” and described the recent “discovery” of islands that were exposed as such when the ice connecting them to the mainland melted away…
Rather than the New York Times announcing the “discovery” of “Warming Island,” in actuality, it seems that what they were really reporting on was the rediscovery of an island that had been shown to have been such 50 years prior.
Such are the facts.
Spotter: David Middleton.
Posted: 20th, September 2011 | In: Key Posts Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
