From the vault - no penguins in the Arctic

Look familiar? See notes below

Catalyst – 15 November 2007
The complaint
As part of a story about the impact of greenhouse gases, footage of pack ice was used to argue that the ice is melting in the Arctic. The footage included images of penguins diving into the ocean (Not the photo shown above-Ed). Three viewers complained about the use of this footage and pointed out that there are no penguins in the Arctic.
Findings
The ABC acknowledged that the footage, involving two penguins diving into the ocean, was in fact archival footage from Antarctica. It was mistakenly shown while Professor Karoly discussed the Arctic. The story was corrected for future repeats of the program.

From ABC "PUBLIC REPORT ON AUDIENCE COMMENTS AND COMPLAINTS OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2007"

"From the Vault" - digging up past corrections and clarifications from the ABC archives.


While the ABC did not use the above fake image available from istockphoto, we have found it was used to accompany a Science Daily Article titled  

Climate Change Irreversible? United Nations Chief Urges Breakthrough After Dire IPCC Report Release  

posted on 18 November 2007 with the following caption: "Emperor penguin on a floating ice floe in the Atlantic ocean. The IPCC report details how reduced rainfall in much of Africa is likely to aggravate existing water shortages and slash crop yields, rising sea levels are set to inundate small island States and melting glaciers could trigger major floods in South Asia and South America. (Credit: iStockphoto/Jan Will)"

To see where the Polar bear version of the same dodgy istockphoto image (below) was used click HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE

Also available from istockphoto:

Happy Feet-climate link not as certain as headline suggests

COMMENT: ABC Online report that "Climate change good for little penguins" based on comments by Dr Peter Dann from the Phillip Island Nature Park in Victoria made at a public forum in Ulverstone, Tasmania. ABC provide the following quotes from Dr Dunn, however they don't really support the certainty expressed by the headline:

"Penguins, for example, we think are going to breed earlier and probably more successfully if sea surface temperatures in Bass Strait increase."

Mr Dann says more work needs to be done to investigate the sea birds.

"Even the climate is something that hasn't been completely established yet, what the predictions are for the next 100 years,

"But for birds, at least, we don't have as good information on the birds as we do on the climate, even so there's a lot of speculation necessary, unfortunately."

A more informative headline would be "Climate change probably good for little penguins" or "Further research required to determine whether Happy Feet will tap faster beat under new climate conditions".