{"id":27525,"date":"2017-09-01T07:40:35","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T06:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/?post_type=news&p=27525"},"modified":"2024-08-16T10:26:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T09:26:11","slug":"third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Third anniversary of fake news story in \u2018The Mail on Sunday\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday was the third anniversary of one of the most inaccurate and misleading articles about climate change impacts on the Arctic that has ever been published by a UK newspaper.<\/p>\n

On 31 August 2014, ‘The Mail on Sunday’ featured an article by David Rose<\/path><\/svg><\/a> which claimed that the rate of decline in Arctic sea ice extent had slowed.<\/p>\n

Mr Rose cherry-picked the figures for sea ice extent on 25 August 2013 and 25 August 2014 and compared them with the corresponding measurement for 25 August 2012.<\/p>\n

Although the article acknowledged that “the long-term trend still shows a decline”, it stated that “The Mail on Sunday can reveal that, far from vanishing, the Arctic ice cap has expanded for the second year in succession – with a surge, depending on how you measure it, of between 43 and 63 per cent since 2012”.<\/p>\n

What the article failed to disclose was that 2012 was a record-breaking year, with the summer sea ice extent at its lowest level since satellite measurements began in 1979.<\/p>\n

And now the latest data collected by the United States National Snow and Ice Data Center<\/path><\/svg><\/a> show that Arctic sea ice extent on 25 August for each of the last three years has been markedly lower than on the same date in 2014.<\/p>\n

Not only do the data expose how Mr Rose cherry-picked the figures that he cited, but they also comprehensively illustrate that there has been no significant change in the rate of decline in Arctic sea ice extent.<\/p>\n

Sea ice extent on 25 August has been decreasing at an average rate of more than 80,000 square kilometres per year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While it is unlikely that this summer’s minimum extent will set a record low, the winter maximum in March was the smallest since measurements began<\/path><\/svg><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The sea ice has melted relatively quickly for much of the past six months<\/path><\/svg><\/a>, but cooler than average temperatures<\/path><\/svg><\/a> in the Arctic in August have slowed the rate of decrease.<\/p>\n

The Center also pointed out that the Arctic region is warming at a faster rate than the global average.<\/p>\n

Warming in the Arctic has accelerated in recent decades, particularly since 2005.<\/p>\n

The 10 warmest years since records began for the Arctic in 1900 have all occurred within the last 12 years, and 2016 was by far the hottest.<\/p>\n

The most recent ‘Arctic Report Card’<\/path><\/svg><\/a>, produced by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, concluded that the “persistent warming trend and loss of sea ice are triggering extensive Arctic changes”.<\/p>\n

In addition to the fall in sea ice extent, the report warned: “Observations of sea ice thickness and volume from multiple sources have revealed the continued decline of the Arctic sea ice pack over the last decade”.<\/p>\n

Mr Rose’s article obviously breached clause 1(i) of the Editors’ Code of Practice<\/path><\/svg><\/a>, which states “The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text”.<\/p>\n

However, the Independent Press Standards Organisation bizarrely decided not to uphold a complaint<\/path><\/svg><\/a> about the fake news story in ‘The Mail on Sunday’.<\/p>\n

And Mr Rose, Geordie Greig (his editor), Gerard Greaves (the then deputy editor who commissioned the article) have yet to apologise for misleading their readers.<\/p>\n

Bob Ward is policy and communications director at the <\/em>Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment<\/em><\/a> and the <\/em>ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy<\/em><\/a> at the London School of Economics and Political Science.<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday was the third anniversary of one of the most inaccurate and misleading articles about climate change impacts on the…<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":21158,"template":"","tags":[200,178,940],"news-category":[16],"topic_area":[4690,4705],"class_list":["post-27525","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-climate-scepticism","tag-climate-science","tag-media-coverage","news-category-20-commentary","topic_area-climate-science-and-impacts","topic_area-leadership"],"acf":{"exclude_from_sync":{"ref_value":"field_560538b0e7350","value":"0","type":false,"post_type":""},"downloads":{"ref_value":"field_52f16cc1a80f2","value":false,"type":"repeater","post_type":""},"rss_newsletter":{"ref_value":"field_54f5c2c1544d8","value":"a:1:{i:0;s:7:\"exclude\";}","type":"array","post_type":""},"spotlight":{"ref_value":"field_52f80896506d3","value":"","type":false,"post_type":""},"profile_link":{"ref_value":"field_52f164b5189e9","value":["bob-ward"],"type":"relationship","post_type":"profile"},"article_link":{"ref_value":"field_52eee3c7f0586","value":"","type":false,"post_type":""},"article_link_title":{"ref_value":"field_5322399d89d42","value":"","type":false,"post_type":""}},"yoast_head":"\nThird anniversary of fake news story in \u2018The Mail on Sunday\u2019 - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Third anniversary of fake news story in \u2018The Mail on Sunday\u2019 - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday was the third anniversary of one of the most inaccurate and misleading articles about climate change impacts on the...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-16T09:26:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/The_mail_on_sunday_logo-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"207\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/news\\\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/news\\\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\\\/\",\"name\":\"Third anniversary of fake news story in \u2018The Mail on Sunday\u2019 - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/news\\\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/news\\\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/The_mail_on_sunday_logo-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-01T06:40:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-16T09:26:11+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/news\\\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/news\\\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/news\\\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/The_mail_on_sunday_logo-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/The_mail_on_sunday_logo-1.jpg\",\"width\":450,\"height\":207},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/news\\\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News & commentaries\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/news-and-commentary\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Commentary\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/news-category\\\/20-commentary\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Third anniversary of fake news story in \u2018The Mail on Sunday\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/\",\"name\":\"Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment\",\"description\":\"The Grantham Research Institute at LSE carries out world-class research on climate change and the environment.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lse.ac.uk\\\/granthaminstitute\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Third anniversary of fake news story in \u2018The Mail on Sunday\u2019 - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Third anniversary of fake news story in \u2018The Mail on Sunday\u2019 - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment","og_description":"Yesterday was the third anniversary of one of the most inaccurate and misleading articles about climate change impacts on the...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/","og_site_name":"Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment","article_modified_time":"2024-08-16T09:26:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":450,"height":207,"url":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/The_mail_on_sunday_logo-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/","url":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/","name":"Third anniversary of fake news story in \u2018The Mail on Sunday\u2019 - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/The_mail_on_sunday_logo-1.jpg","datePublished":"2017-09-01T06:40:35+00:00","dateModified":"2024-08-16T09:26:11+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/The_mail_on_sunday_logo-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/The_mail_on_sunday_logo-1.jpg","width":450,"height":207},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news\/third-anniversary-of-fake-news-story-in-the-mail-on-sunday\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News & commentaries","item":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news-and-commentary\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Commentary","item":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/news-category\/20-commentary\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Third anniversary of fake news story in \u2018The Mail on Sunday\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/","name":"Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment","description":"The Grantham Research Institute at LSE carries out world-class research on climate change and the environment.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"}]}},"taxonomies":{"post_tag":["Climate change denial","climate science","media coverage"],"news-category":["Commentary"],"topic_area":["Climate science and impacts","Leadership"]},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/The_mail_on_sunday_logo-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50326,"href":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27525\/revisions\/50326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27525"},{"taxonomy":"news-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-category?post=27525"},{"taxonomy":"topic_area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/granthaminstitute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic_area?post=27525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}