I think I need to be more careful with my wording..

Just came across a 'debate' today centring around Greenpeace and a 'claim' they made on their website which has been picked up on a number of blogs. What is interesting about it though, is that it is only about issues of clarity in an online article. Basically, errors were made on both sides. Here's the direct quote that caused the issues and link from an article about 'Arctic ice' from the Greenpeace website:

"As permanent ice decreases, we are looking at ice-free summers in the Arctic as early as 2030." http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/urgent-action-needed-as-arctic/

This was jumped on by climate change skeptics, especially after a debate started within the scientific community about whether pressure groups such as Greenpeace should 'emotionalize' the science in order to win the public over. Skeptics argued that an ice-free Arctic would be impossible as ice on land, such as the Greenland ice-sheet, has been around for 'hundreds of thousands of years' (the quotation marks are important in order to constrain

On thin ice? (another 'light' post)

I've just finished watching the final part of BBC's 'Frozen Planet' series called 'On Thin Ice', which was written and presented by David Attenborough. It's noteworthy for a few reasons. Firstly, the Discovery Channel in the USA only just decided to show this final episode, previously declining to show it to the American audience, likely fearing a backlash from Climate Change Skeptics. Reasons for the initial rejection are unclear, ranging from the patronising but innocent ie. "Who's David Attenborough?" (the series is being narrated by Alec Baldwin on Discovery) to the concerning; it's impact on the upcoming US elections. Of course, climate change campaigners had reacted to the announcement with anger.

This is a QR Code. Scan it with your smartphone to follow the link 

A more interesting response to it, in my view, and the one which has caused the bigger reaction from the makers of the program and the academics involved is..

Frozen Planet, but for how much longer?

Just came across this new series narrated by David Attenborough called 'Frozen Planet'. As the title suggests it is about the polar regions, and includes a final episode called 'on thin ice' written by Attenborough discussing the recent changes to them and the implications for all of us.

Here's the BBC advert, featuring some very dramatic music...

The series starts on Wednesday, but until then you can watch a few clips here.