“It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas…Antarctic Style

https://newslit.org/

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception:  How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation."  In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information.  They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1.  Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2.  Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs.  Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3.  Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp.  Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4.  When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5.  Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.  

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source:  Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

It’s that time of year and the spirit of Christmas is in the air even though we are about as far away from the North Pole as one could get, at least from our terrestrial perspective.  But still, “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas,” Antarctic style.

We recently spotted our second tabular (flat topped) iceberg of the trip.  Chuck estimated it at 300 feet tall from our vantage point a couple of nautical miles away.  Icebergs are snow white.  Cornwallis and Elephant islands were covered with snow- capped peaks and glaciers. We also figure to see a lot more of the white stuff for the next few days as we proceed in a southwesterly direction. 

It’s also feeling more like a traditional mid-latitudes Winter in certain parts of North America.  The recorded temperature this morning at 0600 was 2 degrees Celsius.  I’m estimating that the air temperature outside is still in the vicinity of 2 degrees Celsius.

I could wait for the Daily Briefing and tell you what our next destination is and when we will be there, but I don’t want to be up until midnight tonight writing this post.

I can tell you that Environmental Scientist and Explorer Tim Jarvis gave a data filled presentation about his take on Climate Change.  My take-a-way from the presentation is that Climate Change is a big topic.  It needs to be broken down into its component parts and dealt with in smaller chunks.  Thinking of Climate Change as a monolithic megalith won’t get the problem solved.   The messaging needs to change from what climate change is to how it affects each individual person.  We tend to listen and take things more seriously if we understand that they affect us personally.  When we break an issue into bite sized pieces, we are more liely to do something about it.

Polar Latitudes trip Ornithologist and Professional Photographer, Lisa LaPointe, gave a helpful session on how to compose good photographs.  You’ll see if I learned anything today from Lisa.

Right after the class, we went outside and did a bird inventory for the first time since we left South Georgia.  The weather and the seas have just not given us permission to do it.  Each session runs between 20-30 minutes and provides yet another data point for the scientist that requested this data.

We’re all ready to get back on land again.  We’ll get a better look at the wildlife and get a chance to stretch out our legs.  You might ask, “what are you doing for exercise?”  I’ll address that later in the week when we begin our return trip to Argentina.

Excitement is growing and hopes are high for fair and clear weather over the next three days.  Whatever happens for the rest of this third and final week of this trip is that it has been a wonderful experience on the human level as well as on the content level and visual levels.  It has been an extraordinary experience.

Thanks for following my journey,

Bruce