North Pole in Peril
The global warming alarmists are out again. The polar ice caps
arent leaving us forever, but ABC and The New York Times seized a
new study this week about seasonal change to proclaim the end of the
North Pole and the polar bears habitat.
ABCs Bill Blakemore reported for three straight days
on a NASA study of Arctic ice patterns that found less ice at the
end of the 2005 summer than in years past. On the September 29
World News Tonight, Blakemore spoke of creatures living in the icy
water creatures anchor Bob Woodruff described as in enormous
peril. Woodruff introduced the segment as part of ABCs reporting
on the serious concern among scientists that the polar ice caps
have been melting, and Blakemore said of the Arctic sea ice:
before the end of the century, it could all be gone.
But the truth is, scientists on both sides of the
global warming debate agree that the ice cap isnt in peril. As
Myron Ebell, director of global warming and international
environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute said,
the Arctic is experiencing natural cycles of warming and cooling.
Yet, on the September 27 World News Tonight, ABCs Elizabeth
Vargas introduced him with a staggering headline tonight about the
planet getting warmer. Researchers say the summertime ice cap,
which covers the North Pole, could be gone in 100 years, Vargas
said. Blakemore then declared that the frozen surface of the Arctic
Ocean is melting away, warning that villages are tumbling into the
sea.
Good Morning America continued the hype on September
28. Diane Sawyer said NASAs study provided startling and alarming
images brand-new satellite photos showing the ice pack around
the North Pole melting and shrinking. Stark proof that the world is
getting warmer. Blakemore appeared again, lamenting: These vast
fields of ice of the frozen Arctic Ocean are so immense, so
beautiful, with such a huge silence, its hard to imagine them ever
disappearing. And yet, that is exactly what some scientific
scenarios say could well happen before the end of the century.
Blakemore did admit that he was talking about summer
sea ice, but that was halfway through his report, and the overall
tone was alarmist. He ended by linking hurricanes, summer heat waves
and global warming. Sawyer asked him, Is this the final proof about
global warming? Blakemore replied, Its the latest, its the
latest very strong proof. The scientists are quite worried about
it.
Not all scientists are as worried as Blakemore was. In
fact, scientists on different sides of the global warming debate
even agreed that reporting on the study has been overblown. The
missing point, they said, is that NASAs study, in conjunction with
the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), provides information
about the seasonal melting that occurs in summertime which doesnt
mean the ice caps will be gone during the rest of the year.
The Arctic Ocean was ice-free at the end of the summer
for 40 percent of the last 7,000 years. Whats the big deal? said
Pat Michaels, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a research
professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia.
Michaels said he didnt see how the conditions that
dominated three millennia can be construed as some type of
disaster. If the issue is that human beings are capable of
changing the climate theyve been doing that for thousands of
years, he said. So whats new?
Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist with the
NSIDC at the University of Colorado-Boulder, said he and Michaels
would disagree on many points on climate change, but they agree that
the media have been missing the point of the Arctic story.
The media are trying to simplify this or dont
understand what were talking about, said Serreze, who was quoted
in The New York Times September 29 article about the study. He said
the media, in his experience, are not necessarily trying to find
your story theyre trying to get their story.
The Times story, by Andrew C. Revkin, skipped straight
to global warming in the second paragraph, stating that the shift in
summer ice is hard to explain without attributing it in part to
human-caused global warming, the teams members and other experts on
the region said.
Revkin wrote, One of the most important consequences
of Arctic warming will be increased flows of meltwater and icebergs
from glaciers and ice sheets, and thus an accelerated rise in sea
levels, threatening coastal areas. The loss of sea ice could also
hurt both polar bears and Eskimo seal hunters.
But Serreze told the Business & Media Institute that there is
an important distinction the media often dont clarify the
difference between ice in the ocean and ice on the land. Melting sea
ice has essentially zero effect on sea level, he said, another
point on which he and Michaels agreed. Both scientists gave the
example of a glass of ice water: if ice cubes in the glass melt, the
water level in the glass remains the same.
Its ice melting from land into the sea that causes
ocean levels to rise but even so, Serreze said that right now,
the sea level rise that we observe is quite modest. He said the
rate could increase in the future, though that is debatable
depending on forecasts.
In the meantime, the media continue to trot out natives
of the Arctic region, whether human or animal, in support of a
global warming disaster theme.
For more on the medias distortion of the global warming debate,
including their use of polar bears, see Destroying
America to Save the World.
