{"id":1292,"date":"2024-02-02T16:42:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T16:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/2024\/02\/02\/climate-disinformation-at-a-glance\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T22:20:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T22:20:44","slug":"climate-disinformation-at-a-glance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/2024\/02\/02\/climate-disinformation-at-a-glance\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate Disinformation at a Glance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

I was mildly surprised when a somewhat \u201cskeptical\u201d interlocutor of my Arctic alter ego linked to \u201cClimate at a Glance\u201d in the course of our alleged \u201cdebate\u201d. I was even more surprised to discover that the far end of the suggested link was not NOAA\u2019s familiar overview of the Arctic temperature trend<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

but instead a similarly named web site<\/a> proudly sponsored by the Heartland Institute:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

The \u201cClimate at a Glance\u201d home page currently features the Arctic at the top, and it probably won\u2019t surprise you to learn that the linked article<\/a> is full of half truths and untruths about \u201cSnow White\u2019s\u201d favourite topic? Here are the Heartland Institute\u2019s key Arctic takeaways:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Arctic sea ice melts and refreezes every year, typically peaking in March, while the summer minimum typically occurs in September<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. Many scientists, politicians, and media sources wrongly predicted Arctic sea ice would disappear in the summer.<\/li>\n
  3. Satellite data show the summer minimum sea ice has not decreased at all since 2007, and instead has formed a stable level after a temporary low in 2012.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Snow cannot argue with number one, but the evidence provided for number 2 includes a blatant untruth. Allegedly:<\/p>\n

    In 2008 NSIDC scientist Mark Serreze\u00a0told ABC News<\/a>\u00a0that the Arctic could be \u201cice free\u201d that summer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    However the linked ABC News article actually states that Mark said:<\/p>\n

    There is this thin first-year ice even at the North Pole at the moment. This raises the spectre \u2013 the possibility that you could become ice free at the North Pole this year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    It even goes on to clarify that:<\/p>\n

    Despite its news value in the media, the North Pole being ice free is not in itself significant. To scientists, Serreze points out, \u201cthis is just another point on the globe\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    However evidently for the Heartland Institute\u2019s learned author the \u201cNorth Pole\u201d is synonymous with \u201cthe Arctic\u201d! Equally evidently the Heartland Institute haven\u2019t actually spoken to Mark Serreze about their scurrilous assertion. When I interviewed him<\/a> in 2014 concerning the matter:<\/p>\n

    Mark confirmed to me that he still stood by his 2030 estimate for the onset of a seasonally ice free Arctic, although \u201cmost models say more like 2050\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    To be continued\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Climate at a second glance, actually…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1292"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1620,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292\/revisions\/1620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcticwatch.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}