FoxNews Misses Three Critical Points

While perusing FoxNews' website, I ran across this article: Scientist: Arctic Ocean to Be Ice-Free in Summer. While reading further, the article mentions the group that conducted this "survey" was the Catlin Arctic Survey. However, the article misses three critical points:

1 - The Catlin Arctic Survey was the group that fought for their survival when a group from the environmentalist organization attempted an expedition to  the North Pole.

2 - The Catlin Arctic Survey was funded by the notorious World Wildlife Fund.

3 - The timing.

The World Wildlife Fund was the organization that aired a misleading commercial that linked global warming to the decline of the polar bear population about a year ago, among other false "reports." As of today the commercial is no longer on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMLJD-mantE).

As to the timing aspect of this "survey", FoxNews failed to elaborate a bit more that this "report" is hot on the heels of the upcoming Copenhagen Conference. The article also fails to mention that WWF is turning up the heat by stirring the hysteria pot.

From their site:

Fresh Arctic evidence for climate summit

Posted by Dominic Hilton

Wednesday, 12 Aug 2009

Scientists are busy analysing data from the Catlin Arctic Survey. The data will provide important new evidence for the crucial climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

The Catlin Arctic Survey team returned this May with unique new measurements of the thickness and extent of sea ice in the Arctic. The University of Cambridge’s Polar Oceans Physics Group is currently analysing the data, with initial results already suggesting that the sea ice is newer and thinner (and therefore more liable to melt) than expected. The results will help climate scientists around the world to understand how quickly the dwindling summer sea ice will melt and to predict more accurately the effect this will have on the global climate.

WWF are providing funding to help the research team speed up their analysis. It’s crucial that the results are available in time for the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen, as they will strengthen WWF’s calls for a strong global climate deal. Governments must take action urgently to keep global temperature rise below 2°C, the threshold beyond which most scientists predict climate change could become catastrophic.

“Climate change is happening now and nowhere is it more evident than in the Arctic,” said WWF’s head of climate change, Keith Allott.

“Sea ice is a critical part of Earth’s climate system and the loss of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is happening decades ahead of most predictions. We cannot predict all of the effects of this ice loss, but scientists foresee severe disruption to the natural world on both a local and a global scale.”

Is this what someone, with a rational mind, would call science?

Author's note: I checked the page where the above statement was made at 10:40 AM PST and the page could not be located. I had to dig into my archives from August of this year to quote the statement above. If someone manages to locate it on their website, please contact me with the details.