Here is a United Press International (UPI) article on global warming: Matt Bernardini, ‘More than half of Antarctica’s plant and animals could disappear due to climate change,’ United Press International (Dec. 22, 2022, 7:00 PM), <https://tinyurl.com/47746py4>.
This article was labelled “Science News.” Subsequently, it was picked up on MSN <https://tinyurl.com/5ykdb8tx>, across Twitter, and elsewhere.
The UPI story leads with a picture. You can see the (licensed) photograph at the link to the original UPI article above and also here: <https://tinyurl.com/bdewj8t2>. The label under the picture in the original UPI article states: “A new study shows that Antarctica is at risk of losing 65% of its plant and animal life by the end of the century if fossil fuel emissions are not reigned [sic] in. Photo from NASA/UPI | License Photo”. (bold added)
The photograph has two problems.
First, it is a plain ice sheet. It shows no obvious signs of life—animal or vegetable. There is not a lot there—at least, not a lot visible to the human eye—for global warming to harm or destroy. Second, it is—apparently—a picture from the “Arctic region of the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard,” not Antarctica. The picture is from the wrong continent.
Why do these people think it is their role to educate us? Why?
Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Today’s Global Warming Insight,’ New Reform Club (Dec. 23, 2022, 3:35 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2022/12/todays-global-warming-insight.html>;
“reigned in” is a further problem.
ReplyDeleteHehe. A telling slip. The heirs to Canute's advisors still think their kings' reigns include nature.
DeleteNot only the wrong continent but the wrong hemisphere!
ReplyDeleteWhat a stupid article!! There's virtually no plant life in Antarctica, and the few animal species who live there get their food from the freezing cold waters along and underneath the ice shelves along the coast lines.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.britannica.com/place/Antarctica/Plant-life
"The cold desert climate of Antarctica supports only an impoverished community of cold-tolerant land plants that are capable of surviving lengthy winter periods of total or near-total darkness during which photosynthesis cannot take place. Growth must occur in short summer bursts lasting only a few days, a few weeks, or a month or two, depending upon such diverse factors as latitude, seasonal snowpacks, elevation, topographic orientation, wind, and moisture, in both the substrate and the atmosphere."
How could animal species be "threatened" by tiny changes in water OR air temperatures from purported "global warming", when naturally occurring seasonal temperatures are much higher???
We are well and truly ucked if large numbers of people believe nonsense like this.
Moral reframing rarely requires truth.
ReplyDelete