The executive director of Greepeace was forced to
admit his group exaggerated global warming claims.
Gerd Leipold, Executive Director of Greenpeace, was forced to admit that his organization put out false and misleading information about the effects of climate change. When confronted on the BBC’s ‘Hardtalk’ program, Leipold said it “may have been a mistake” but justified the claims saying “we’re not ashamed of emotionalizing issues.”
On July 15th Greenpeace issued a press release titled “Urgent action needed as Arctic ice melts.” In the release, a number of stark and fearful claims were made. Among the most astonishing, the group claimed, “As permanent ice decreases, we are looking at ice-free summers in the Arctic as early as 2030.”
That claim however goes completely counter to even the direst predictions for the Arctic ice. Hardtalk host Stephen Sackur queried Leipold accusing him of giving out “misleading information” and “exaggeration and alarmism.”
“We as a pressure group have to emotionalize issues and we’re not ashamed of emotionalizing issues.”
~ Gerd Leipold, Executive Director of Greenpeace
Leipold admitted to the error saying, “I don’t think it will be melting by 2030. … That may have been a mistake.” He however justified the inaccurate information saying, “We as a pressure group have to emotionalize issues and we’re not ashamed of emotionalizing issues.”
Those who do not believe in the manmade climate change theory were quick to seize on the admission and pointed to other recent claims by alarmists including:
- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently said, “We have just four months. Four months to secure the future of our planet.”
- Dr. James Hansen, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) warned in January that President Obama had ‘four years to save the world.’
- Britain’s Prince Charles saying that nations had “less than 100 months to act”
Comments
I've never seen any cult to date get where it is by telling its followers the truth.
Except that there is a lot of good science out there now that says the Arctic Sea Ice will melt in ~5 years; call it the end of the 2013 melt season. Of course, it will refreeze in the following winters and there will be ice burgs from Greenland, but sea ice in the north as we have known it, will be a thing of the past.
The 2013 date was first put forth by a guy from the US Navy, a couple of years ago. This is the kind of thing the Navy tends to get correct. The Green Peace tech guys would have known about it even if Gerd was still thinking in terms of the IPCC numbers.
Today most climate guys would say the 2013 projection is better than the number in the IPCC report or the 2030 number. I always thought the 2030 number was just Green Peach easing toward the 2013 number because they did not want to pull too much of a shocker out of the hat.
Except that the host quoted selectively to make that press release say something it didn't. That paragraph was about sea ice, not the Greenland ice sheet like he made it sound. And it IS true that several scientists predict a sea-ice free summer in the Arctic by 2030 if no action is taken on climate change.
Greenpeace didn't lie, the BBC did.
Juliette,
If the facts Greenpeace put forth were true (which they are not), why did Leipold admit it was wrong?
When the time arrives that our coastal cities are below water level, will that be convincing enough. With the CO2 levels thus reached & the waters of the world warming to record levels, when will all of the sceptics become aware that there exists a problem that will take some very strong behavior changes to turn it around & begin the journey back to sound treatment of our environment with more regulation of big business that gives money to our "BODY POLITIC" to look the other way & thus control us all regardless of what we are told. Keep your mouth shut & you become a big part of the problem. I tend to believe those who desire a strong reaction about global warming...
AGW is the biggest hoax in history. Co2 is not a pollutant, its not bad for the environment. Temperatures are perfectly normal in line with historic climate changes over the last 100,000 years. Go back and carry the Hammer and Sickle and instead of the Green Flag.
The warming cultists will get over it and be onto some next poison that will kill us all. Like DDT was going to kill everything that lived and so they stopped it and because of that killed hundreds of thousands from Malaria. CO2 is a necessity for life on this everchanging planet.
@Victoria; Monsanto lied to us about DDT,PCB,DIOXINE & Roundup herbicides biodegradable makeup. I know that every human on earth has the first three in there bodies. When should we stop the introduction of more chemicals into the environment, when you personally begin to deteriorate from the effects of any of these chemicals. Become informed & active to end the influence of the chemical companies who now are able to buy our political process & shove it all down our throats.
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