The Times Atlas of the World used to be a highly authoritative atlas. In 2011, it lost its prestige overnight by publishing a whopping great lie about what it claimed to be the effect of man-made global warming in Greenland.
Promoting the new edition of the Atlas, publishers HarperCollins asserted confidently that a massive 15% of the ice sheet around Greenland – that’s an area as large as the UK and Ireland taken together – had melted and vanished in just 12 years. The area, HarperCollins said, was now completely “ice-free”.
The map of Greenland they had published in the new Atlas consequently showed Greenland with an extensive part of the northern ice cap coloured green instead of white. The ice had all gone – melted with extreme and shocking speed due to man-made global warming.
In case anyone might have imagined there was another cause for the (wholly imagined) ice melt apart from global warming, the publishers made this dramatic announcement in publicity accompanying publication of the Atlas:
“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.”
Alarming indeed. But totally false. The map of Greeland and the publicity for the Atlas were both entirely wrong.
Scientists from Cambridge University’s Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) – including SPRI Director, Julian Dowdeswell – were taken aback to see that the publicity and map bore no relation to the reality of ice cover on Greenland’s coast.
So how wrong was the Times Atlas on how climate change has “altered the face of the planet forever” in Greenland? How wrong were they to publish a map “erasing” 15% of the northern ice cap?
Very wrong. The scientists at the Scott Polar Research Institute wrote to The Times newspaper saying that:
“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. 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.” [My italics.]
In fact, on the ground, where the Times Atlas shows green land exposed by melting ice due to global warming, there is actually ice a quarter of a mile thick. The new edition of the Times Atlas of the World completely misrepresented Greenland.
HarperCollins was not deterred, however, even by criticism from the UK’s most illustrious polar research institute. The publisher initially defended the Atlas and the fact that they had ‘erased’ the ice around Greenland’s east coast, giving a totally false impression of reality on the ground.
A spokesperson for the publisher said that the new map of Greenland was based on information provided by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). She added:
“While global warming has played a role in this [15% ice] reduction, it is also as a result of the much more accurate data and in-depth research that is now available.”
In reply, the SPRI scientists said that HarperCollins had make the most basic of “GCSE errors”. (GCSE’s are taken by young teenagers in the UK.)
Dr Ian Willis of the SPRI said the institute’s researchers “utterly disputed” that the Times Atlas new edition showed a correct map of Greenland. The SPRI letter to The Times corrected HarperCollins, saying that the real rate of ice loss was less than 0.1%.
It added: “We compared recent satellite images of Greenland with the new map and found that there are in fact numerous glaciers and permanent ice cover where the new Times Atlas shows ice-free conditions and the emergence of new lands.”
Despite the correction, HarperCollins continued to defend their error. The had used the “best data available” their spokesperson said. She also asserted that:
“We stand by the accuracy of the maps in this and all other editions of the Times Atlas.”
It’s a very sorry pass when the publishers of what was the world’s most authoritative atlas can make such a whopping error and refuse to acknowledge it. “Standing by the accuracy” of a map which is wildly inaccurate is a bizarre business decision however you look at it. The Atlas needs to be pulped and re-published using accurate data.
America’s US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) also need to explain how they came to issue such inaccurate data, if indeed they did.
In response to the false Times Atlas map of Greenland, the SPRI scientists say: “It is crucial to report climate change and its impact accurately and to back bold statements with concrete and correct evidence.”
Quite. The debate and the use of facts around man made global warming are highly polarised – dominated, as we all know, by political agendas. Lies, defence of false statements and inaccuracies won’t help humanity and won’t help the planet. Articles linked at the end of this article detail other recent inaccuracies and false claims made by vested interests who promote the idea of “alarming and accelerating” manmade global warming.
I have a personal interest in the Times Atlas story in a way. I worked as a book supplier to libraries for many years and have promoted the Atlas widely in past years. I also supplied books to the SPRI and know that the Institute’s work is meticulous and that there are many scientists there who are every bit as impartial and objective as scientists should be.
I also know that marketing departments at publishing houses tend to be stuffed with eager young men and women who want to make an impact when they write their publicity and press releases. I can well imagine the marketing manager at HarperCollins pointing out the much-reduced map of Greenland to a young marketing assistant and the assistant thinking:
“Wow! That’s dramatic. I can write a great press release saying the Times Atlas has erased 15% of Greenland’s ice cover because climate change is altering the face of the planet forever.”
He or she may have thought it made great copy. Thankfully, it isn’t true.
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See also:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2619973/ippc_chief_admits_claim_that_himalayan.html?cat=57
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2859508/arctic_ice_formation_is_looking_healthy.html?cat=57
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2860018/the_gulf_stream_is_not_failing_say.html?cat=57
Note: The Times Atlas costs £150 (around $235). It has long claimed to be the world’s most authoritative atlas. The Times Atlas is published by Times Books – an imprint of HarperCollins. The company is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14969399