A National Geographic video in 2017 featured a starving polar bear with the caption “This is what climate change looks like.” The estimated 2.5 billion people who viewed the video were given the distinct impression that climate change was the cause of the bear’s condition. Now the editor admits that they “went too far in drawing a definitive connection between climate change and a particular starving polar bear” (“Starving Polar Bear Photographer Recalls What Went Wrong,” National Geographic, Aug. 2018). The photographer Cristina Mittermeir, an environmental activist, says, “With this image, we thought we had found a way to help people imagine what the future of climate change might look like. We were, perhaps, naive. The picture went viral—and people took it literally.” The updated version of the video says, simply, “This is what a starving polar bear looks like,” but the narration of the sad scenes of the dying bear still leaves the impression that climate change will wipe out polar bears. It is nothing more than propaganda. Yet again, National Geographic’s zeal to promote a pet narrative has led them to promote a myth under the guise of science, and they won’t be able to undo the influence of the misguiding video, even if they wanted to. (See also Seeing the Non-Existent: Evolution’s Myths and Hoaxes, available from www.wayoflife.org.) (Friday Church News Notes, August 3, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Comments are closed.
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