[CRYOLIST] Something for CNN's Ridiculist: New atlas shows extent of climate change

[Jeffrey Kargel]

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 theTimes 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 Greenlandstory 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.
--Jeff Kargel 
From: 
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:08:15 -0700
Subject: New atlas shows extent of climate change



http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/15/new-atlas-climate-change

 		
					
				
			New atlas shows extent of climate changeThe world's newest island makes it on to the map as the Arctic Uunartoq Qeqertaq, or Warming Island, is officially recognised


				
    				
                
                
    
                





	        		John Vidal, environment editor
				
	

		   	
                      	
          
			guardian.co.uk,			
																		
				            Thursday 15 September 2011 06.46 EDT	        	        
         
		
	
		
		
	
    
        	    





		
										

        


    
        

        
        		
        			
							
										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 of Greenland, 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.Uunartoq
 Qeqertaq joins Southern Sudan and nearly 7,000 other countries and 
places added or changed since the last edition of the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, reflecting political change in Africa, administrative changes in China, burgeoning cities in developing countries, climate change, and large infrastructure projects which have changed the flow of rivers, lakes and coastlines.The
 world's biggest physical changes in the past few years are mostly seen 
nearest the poles where climate change has been most extreme. Greenland 
appears considerably browner round the edges, having lost around 15%, or
 300,000 sq km, of its permanent ice cover. Antarctica is smaller 
following the break-up of the Larsen B and Wilkins ice shelves.But
 the Aral Sea in central Asia, which had previously shrunk to just 25% 
of its size only 80 years ago, is now larger than it was only five years
 ago, thanks to Kazakhstan redirecting water
 into it. Elsewhere in Asia, islands are appearing off the mouths of the
 Ganges and the Yangtze rivers as the amount of silt brought down from 
the Himalayas and inland China changes.Sections of the Rio 
Grande, Yellow, Colorado and Tigris rivers are now drying out each 
summer. In Mongolia, the Ongyin Gol has been redirected to allow gold 
mining, while the Colorado river these days does not reach the sea most 
years. "We are increasingly concerned that in the near future important 
geographical features will disappear for ever. Greenland could reach a 
tipping point in about 30 years," said Jethro Lennox, editor of the 
atlas.--------------

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/world/875483-new-times-atlas-reveals-changes-to-earth
New Times atlas reveals changes to Earth


   The Greenland ice sheet is shrinking, the latest edition of the Times Comprehensive Atlas Of The World has revealed.

Related Tags:Ireland

      
      This image shows the Aral sea is vanishing (Picture: Atlas/PA)
   By comparing 
Greenland in the 1999 edition with the same country in its 2011 version,
 the full impact of the changes to our world becomes clear.Using 
satellite images, map makers have turned an area of Greenland the size 
of Britain and Ireland ‘green’. That’s because its once-permanent ice 
cover is retreating inland.They have also included a new island 
off the coast of Greenland, named Warming Island (Uunartoq Qeqertoq), 
which has appeared as a separate piece of land several miles long as the
 ice melts.
      
      Laid bare: Greenland in 1999, left, contrasts with the same country today, right (Picture: Atlas/PA)
   The Aral Sea, once the fourth largest lake in the world, has
 shrunk by 75 per cent since 1967. Soviet irrigation projects diverted 
its waters to cotton fields in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, effectively 
emptying it.‘With each new map we can see  and plot environmental
 changes as they happen,’ said atlas editor Jethro Lennox. ‘We are 
increasingly concerned that important geographical features will 
disappear for ever.’It also shows that more than 50 per cent of the world’s population now live in cities.

    

						
	
		
            	    





		
										

        


         		 	   		  
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