The UN report mislabels this image saying it is the Arctic when
it is in fact a picture of Antarctica. (Shutterstock.com)
Recently the United Nations Environment Programme released its Climate Change Science Compendium, a 68 page report the agency says, is “a presentation of some exciting scientific findings, interpretations, ideas, and conclusions that have emerged among scientists.” The document however has quickly come under fire from skeptics of anthropogenic global warming as errors are exposed and the United Nations quickly tries to remove them after the document has been published.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in the forward that the document serves to highlight the need for a climate change agreement based on the ‘soundest’ of science. Skeptics were quick to point out the use of un-peer reviewed graphics from Wikipedia, mislabeling of images and omission of critical data.
In the simplest of errors, the report includes a photo labeled as “Melting Arctic icebergs.” In the accompanying text in the report highlights dire circumstances saying the ice caps face “near-universal retreat and volume loss.”
Skeptics are quick to point out two problems with the item. Blogger Harold Ambler noted that the image was not of the Arctic but of Antarctica – the report misidentified the two ends of the earth. Further, the report fails to mention that Antarctica is in fact gaining ice, not losing it, thus negating the report’s claim of ‘near-universal’ ice loss.
Ambler also noted a photo of the Hawaiian islands with a caption attributed to “L. Carey” that warns “In Hawaii, as the ocean continues to rise, flooding occurs.” The problem therein is that “L. Carey” does not exist and the quote actually comes from Chip Fletcher director of the Coastal Geography Group at the University of Hawaii. Further, the quote was not discussing rising sea levels as the UN tried to portray it. The quote was in regards to places on the islands where landfills are subsiding – it had nothing to do with rising sea levels.
Steve McIntyre of Climate Audit noticed a more egregious error in the report as well. On page 5 the report included a graph taken from Wikipedia that splices together a graph of CO2 levels with one of rising temperatures. The UNEP report cites the sources as “Hanno 2009”, the Wikipedia pseudonym for the person that added it to the database.
The problem with the graph is that the report ostensibly is supposed to contain information from “peer-reviewed literature or from research institutions.” Wikipedia of course does not meet those requirements in any researcher’s eyes. Once the blogosphere started railing against the inclusion of the graph, the UN quickly and quietly replaced it with a different one. No attempt was made by the UN to explain the inclusion of the original image or its replacement.
Following the replacement of the image, skeptics quickly have said that it appears the United Nations chose to cherry pick the image it included as a replacement failing to include a current one. The ‘new’ image purportedly shows global land-ocean temperatures however the UN chose to use a graph from 2005 – this in a report that is supposed to contain new information.
This begs the question as to why, since the UN had to replace the graph anyway, they did not bother to use the latest version, especially since it is widely available on NASA's GISS website. Skeptics point to the fact that by omitting recent years, the graph fails to show the decrease in temperature that has been observed. They say that by failing to include the latest information, the image fails to meet the goal of the report of being current and it also shows the UN is purposely hiding data that does not support its cause.
It is unlikely that the debate about manmade climate change is going to subside anytime soon. Errors in reports such as this only serve to feed the fire and spur skeptics on in their fight to have their voice heard.
Don't miss these related climate change stories:
- The Skeptics - A look those who believe man is not the primary reason for climate change
- The Alarmists - A look at those sounding the alarm about manmade climate change
Climate Change Examiner Facebook Page Climate Change Examiner on Twitter
Or be notified by email when a new article from the Climate Change Examiner is posted.
Click the 'Subscribe' link at the top or bottom of the article and enter your email address.
Comments
Skeptics need no more ammo, we are well aware of the largest fraud perpetrated on the people.
How can you tell from the picture which Earth pole the ice comes from?
A graph that shows 125 years of data is missing the last 3 years? That data is relevant, but in terms of trends over decades, not so much. Nice that you can create a scandal out of such trivial things.
Yes its trivial. Ocean temps were the warmest on record this year, so why are you not mentioning that? Doesn't fit your hoax mentality?
lol
Earl,
Thanks for the comments.
Regarding the photo, if you look at the original from Shutterstock.com, the source of the photo, it was taken in Antarctica per the photographers own annotation.
As for the graph, would you feel the same way if skeptics just ‘forgot’ to include 1998, 2005 and 2003 in a chart they presented (the three warmest years of the last 10)? Or purposely picked data that left those years out?
The real point is that the UN Secretary General and the IPCC insist that the report is based on the ‘soundest’ of science. These errors show the report is far from sound. Would you accept these errors in a report from a skeptic? I am sure you would not.
As for SST’s, nowhere did the article even discuss sea surface temperatures nor was the article in any way related to it – it is irrelevant to the topic at hand.
However, since you brought it up, it has been well documented that there are problems with the latest datasets from NCDC due to their omission of satellite data. Each update to the data that the NCDC results in an uptick in temperatures and anything that shows downward trends is deleted (convenient, eh?).
www.drroyspencer.com/2009/08/spurious-warming-in-new-noaa-ocean-temperature-product-the-smoking-gun/
bobtisdale.blogspot.com/2009/05/recent-differences-between-giss-and.html
The skeptics also had a field day with the Stewart Dimmock lawsuit in the UK to stop "Inconvenient Truth" from being shown in schools because of nine errors. Until you look at the reality and see that the errors aren't very substantive.
tinyurl.com/ywmd94
tinyurl.com/ybdxcjo
tinyurl.com/y89k63y
The ice in Greenland and Antarctica is proving to be thinner than expected. British Antarctic Survey and School of Geographical Sciences strikes me as far more scientifically credible than Blogger X.
tinyurl.com/lxnytl
tinyurl.com/ycabzdf
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!