Map-makers admit Greenland gaffe
The 2011 version of the map, left, which incorrectly showed ice-loss
IT APPEARED to provide incontrovertible proof that global warming was accelerating faster than even the most doom-laden scientists had predicted.
There was considerable alarm when the word’s most authoritative atlas printed a map which showed that Greenland was rapidly turning green.
However, experts from around the globe pointed out that the cataclysmic chart had no scientific support and was contradicted by all of the most recent satellite images.
Now the Scottish map-makers responsible for the disappearance of 115,830 square miles of polar ice have admitted publicly they were wrong.
As an act of contrition, The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World cartographers have produced a new map which restores Greenland’s ice cover.
Jethro Lennox, senior publishing editor of the £150 tome, insisted lessons would be learned from the episode, which generated headlines around the globe.
The Glasgow-based map-maker said: “We’re very disappointed at the way it happened.
“But we are now looking to draw a line under the Greenland controversy and move on.”
The latest atlas, which was published in September, showed a reduction in ice cover compared with the previous edition from four years ago.
Accompanying publicity material declared the change represented “concrete evidence” of the effects of global warming, stating: “For the first time the new edition has had to erase 15 per cent of Greenland’s permanent ice cover – turning an area the size of the UK and Ireland ‘green’ and ice-free.”
Publishers HarperCollins originally stood by the accuracy of the map but have since admitted to the mistake after the blunder was exposed by scientists.
Mr Lennox said: “After publication of the 13th edition of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World it became apparent that we had not represented the permanent ice cover in Greenland fully and clearly.
“In failing to do that, this section of the map did not meet the usual high standards of accuracy and reliability that the atlas strives to uphold.
“To correct this, we decided to produce a new, more detailed map using the latest information available.”
A new, corrected map of Greenland will be inserted into all remaining copies.
The updated chart was put together after the cartographers consulted experts from the University of Arizona, the University of Bristol, the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland and the Byrd Polar Research Centre.
The editor claimed the newly established links would prevent errors in future.
He said: “We have made some valuable contacts and will be keen to work with them again in the future.”
Dr Liz Morris, of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, said: “This was a really bad mapping error. If 15 per cent of ice was lost, then sea levels would have risen by one metre, and that hasn’t happened.”
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Comments
There are 24 comments to this article
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Gunga Din
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 04:27 PMForget Greenland! Try looking for Gourock, Inverclyde on this very expensive Scottish-produced tome which I bought recently.Only a couple of million Yanks passed through this important Clyde port during the war and it remains a thriving town. Explanation given by publisher was "not enough room to include it"
talko`thetoun
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 12:51 PMThat's what happens when you have employees drinking the tramp's tipple in the workplace. Sadly a far too common problem these days in Glasgow. Can I suggest they change from the English Buckfast to our very own tins of purple nectar? A few cans of Tennat's will not only help their cartography but also support the Scottish economy.
Jolly
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 11:06 AMThese mistakes would not happen in an independent Scotland!
Slioch.
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 09:05 AMThis was an error by cartographers at the Times Atlas. It was immediately and universally condemned by scientists concerned with such matters. For example,"in a letter sent to HarperCollins on Friday evening (16th September 2011), researchers at the Cambridge-based Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) quickly attempted to set the record straight. "A sizable portion of the area mapped as ice-free in the Atlas is clearly still ice-covered," they wrote. "There is to our knowledge no support for this claim in the published scientific literature." ....................................... see: http:\\news.sciencemag.org\scienceinsider\2011\09\atlas-shrugged-outraged-glaciologists.html ... (replace backward slashes with forward)
fourbyfour
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 12:22 PMThe article fails to explain why this "error" happened in the first place. Wonder why?
fourbyfour
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 12:21 PMSo your dishonesty was found out. And all you can say is: “We’re very disappointed at the way it happened." Credibility gone forever I'm afraid.
Euan_1
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 08:16 AMMy last post was of course directed at #15 and not Fuel Head at #14.
Euan_1
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 08:15 AM#14 You may find this piece on the latest worldwide temperature databases interesting: http:www.thegwpf.orgthe-observatory4839-2011-global-temperature-outside-the-top-10.html It says: Overall, data from 2011 in all three temperature databases continue to display the lack of increase in global annual average temperature since at least 2001. The standstill is now entering its second decade. By the way, as soon as you bring up the Holocaust or any reference to the Nazis in trying to win an on-line debate or discussion, you automatically lose the the argument by way of 'Godwin's Law'.
Gemma Ravenscroft
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 07:11 AMThe Icelandic Vikings were the first to paint Greenland greener than it actually was in order to entice unwitting settlers there. Of course when the climate entered a mini ice age of sorts the supply boats stopped coming to Greenland and the settlers eventually starved.
HMNP
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 06:19 AMNo 14: If global warning doesn't exist, at least in your mind & since the welfare of the planet clearly doesn't matter in your mind. Gives an insight from your self appointed elevated outlook in life, what does matter? Global warming deniers are on a par with Holocaust deniers!
Alternative (High Octane) Fuel Head
Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 01:59 PMAnd people wonder why the climate change-global warming brigade are not taken seriously.... .....And then the government come out with yet another "green" tax or restriction to prove the point. It is about time we ditched all this green rubbish and concentrated on things that matter.
HIDDEN 1
Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 11:16 AMA very bad mistake by the cartographers,which will be difficult to draw a line under,particuarly having regard the the misleadign press statement. I agree with 8. The position should have been checked with satellite images. As for 6, the Atlantic Conveyor would be affected by the activation of certain undersea volcanoes, at the Atlantic Ridge,and coud casue more than a mini ice age,and even Tsunamis of considerable height! Fortunately I live about 500 fet above se level, so am unlikey to be affected by any such Atlantic Tsunami. I would not give much for the London Barrier, if there was an Atlantic Surge, funnelled through the Pentland Firth and down the North Sea! In simple terms the ocean currents are STAR CONTROLLED. That is the easy part of the Science!
THX1138
Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 09:35 AM#5 Codswallop. For evidence of consistent loss of polar ice, take a look at, for example, the GRACE data provided in Velicogna, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L19503. Please don't make things up when you're talking with grown-ups.
Jacqueline Hyde
Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 09:05 AMAt least they put Greenland in roughly the right place - which is the primary aim of cartography. How they colour it in is, perhaps, a question of taste and there is a certain logic in colouring Greenland green. The really stupid thing was the ridiculous press statement but I assume that, like the regular flurries of crackpot website links that Slioch likes to throw at us, the statement was brought about more by financial considerations than any tested scientific fact.
unimpressedone
Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 08:52 AMThis is very old news - I remember reading it last year.
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