Climate skeptics argue that manmade global warming is a hoax and question the veracity of photos used to make the case for climate change. Here are six shots that climate skeptics say were taken out of context:
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1. Beached walruses in the Northern Pacific
This image of more than 35,000 walruses coming ashore in Northwest Alaska made the news all over the country in October. The U.S. Geological Survey issued a release that Arctic ice melt caused by global warming led the animals to seek refuge.
However, the
Daily Caller quickly worked to debunk the story, quoting zoologist Susan Crockford, who said there are many recorded mass walrus beachings in recent history regardless of sea ice levels.
In Crockford’s blog, Polar Bear Science, she writes similar incidents were recorded in 1978 and 1972.
2. Polar bear on ice cap
Image of polar bears atop narrow Arctic ice caps are often used to accompany editorial coverage of climate change. The Center for Biological Diversity warned that by the middle of the century, the Earth could lose two-thirds of its polar bear population as a result of a warming planet.
However, the
Daily Mail reports that the Arctic creatures are not threatened by climate change. The article quotes biologist and polar bear researcher Dr. Mitchell Taylor who said there is “no reliable scientific evidence” of a decline in the polar bear population because the projections are based on climate models that have "done a poor job of predicting climate warning and sea ice decline."
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3. Antarctic ice shelf calving
There is no shortage of photographs showing ice shelves breaking apart in Antarctica.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that over the last 30 years, scientists have seen an acceleration in ice shelf collapses and that those collapses are likely related to climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula, which is “one of the fastest-warming places on Earth.”
However,
Climate Depot reported in December 2013 that levels of global sea ice were actually at their highest level in 25 years. In May 2014,
Real Science said global sea ice levels continued to expand and were at their highest in 32 years.
4. Melting Arctic glaciers
Glaciers all around the Arctic Circle — from Greenland to Canada to Alaska — are melting due to global climate change. Australian Geographic recently did a photo essay of the melting glaciers in Northwestern Greenland. Climate scientists were quoted in
The Guardian in 2012 saying that global warming contributed to the volume of Arctic Sea ice being reduced by half from 1984 to 2012.
However,
Climate Depot says numerous studies have found the arctic melting is part of the Earth’s natural climate cycle and is not proof of manmade global warming.
WattsUpWithThat.com also reports that NOAA’s National Ice Center Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System shows there is not a record low level of arctic ice.
5. California drought
Photos of cracking earth and lower water levels are popping up everywhere as California suffers a drought. Scientists predict this year may end up the driest on record, and they’re pinpointing climate change as the culprit.
However, meteorologist and
global warming skeptic Anthony Watts says climate models used to link the drought conditions with manmade global warming are not realistic representations of climate in the eastern North Pacific due to their not being able to "simulate (hindcast) global or regional surface temperatures or precipitation."
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