Global Warming: Drowning Polar Bears And Newspapers’ Fragile Grip On Reality

TO illustrate the horrors of global warming, the papers have been showing a shot of two polar bears.

As the Daily Mail wrote in February:

They cling precariously to the top of what is left of the ice floe, their fragile grip the perfect symbol of the tragedy of global warming.

Captured on film by Canadian environmentalists, the pair of polar bears look stranded on chunks of broken ice.

But as Tim Blair notes “it wasn’t snapped by Canadian environmentalists. It was taken by an Australian marine biology student on a field trip. And in what month did she take it?

“The time of year was August, summer.”
— Email from Amanda Byrd to Media Watch

“They did not appear to be in danger…I did not see the bears get on the ice, and I did not see them get off. I cannot say either way if they were stranded or not.”
— Email from Amanda Byrd to Media Watch

And now, as Bob Parks notes the New York Times is using the picture to illustrate “The Presidential Candidates on Climate Change”.

But so what for truth - as long as we get the message…

Anorak

Posted: 8th, October 2007 | In: Global Warming, Polar Bear Watch, Race For The White House, Tabloids Comments (6) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink