two polar bears on a melting ice floe taken in summer

[knightfisher]

Joseph Brean, National Post

TORONTO - For Al Gore's presentation to a conference of human resources executives, his second Toronto visit in a month, the Oscar-winning envirogelical recycled just about everything from his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

From his opening line -- "I used to be the next president of the United States" -- through the Churchill quotes, the slick computer graphics and the boiling frog analogy, to his rousing finale, the presentation was a live action carbon copy of the film.

But there was one notable addition, an iconic photograph that was distributed worldwide last month by Canada's Environment Ministry, and for which the Canadian government is about to be sued by an Alaskan photographer.

The photo, taken in summer, shows two polar bears on a melting ice floe in the Beaufort Sea, north of Barrow, Alaska.

"Their habitat is melting... beautiful animals, literally being forced off the planet," Mr. Gore said, with the photo on the screen behind him. "They're in trouble, got nowhere else to go."

Audience members let out gasps of sympathy, but there could only have been a handful who had never seen it.

On Feb. 3, the day after the United Nations issued its major climate change report, the photo was published in hundreds of newspapers.

It appeared on the front pages of The New York Times and Boston Globe, The Times and The Guardian in the U.K., the International Herald Tribune, and various others in Canada and around the world. Since then, it has been reproduced countless times, usually credited to Dan Crosbie of the Canadian Ice Service.

"It's not our picture," said Denis Simard, a spokesman for Environment Canada, who was in Paris for the UN report's release and co-ordinated the photo's distribution to news agencies.

"The pressure was a little hard on us," he said. "I had three newspapers in London asking the same questions: Is it your picture? Can we use it? Is it real? I gave them the permission because Dan said it was his picture."

The photo was taken in August, 2004, from the Louis S. St-Laurent, Canada's flagship icebreaker, and downloaded onto a shipboard shared computer. Mr. Crosbie, an ice service specialist and avid photographer, was present at the time, and had been taking pictures of his own.

Some months later, he recovered the photo from his computer files and gave it to Environment Canada to illustrate an online magazine. He thought nothing more of it until Feb. 2, when Mr. Simard e-mailed him to say that some news agencies were concerned it had been faked in some way. His response was that it had not.

"It's just too cute to be true," Mr. Simard said. "You have to keep in mind that the bears are not in danger at all. It was, if you will, their playground for 15 minutes, you know what I mean? This is a perfect picture for climate change, in a way, because you have the impression they are in the middle of the ocean and they are going to die, with a Coke in their hands. But they were not that far from the coast, and it was possible for them to swim... They are still alive and having fun.''

Environment Canada did not charge news agencies for use of the photo. "We don't do that. This is the government of Canada," Mr. Simard said.

Amanda Byrd, the editor of Mushing, a dogsledding magazine in Fairbanks, Alaska, was also on board the Louis S. St-Laurent in 2004, and says she took the photo. In an interview yesterday, she said Environment Canada "distributed it to seven agencies without my consent. They were amicable, but it's under legal action right now."

She has not filed a lawsuit, but has hired a lawyer to pursue a breach of copyright case. She does not accept the government's explanation that it was "an honest mistake."

Mr. Simard said the ministry agreed to distribute a correction, identifying Ms. Byrd as the photographer, which appeared in several major newspapers.

"We had to make it known we are sorry, that it was a mistake and we didn't want to steal your picture," Mr. Simard said.

Ms. Byrd said she learned of the mixup on Feb. 3, when her parents called to say her photo was in the Australian papers. She said they were "furious," because they had already received a copy of the photo as a gift. She had no idea that it had already been on the Environment Canada Web site for several months. It was still there last night.

She said she was flattered when Mr. Gore approached her and offered to pay for use of the photo.

"The image is an icon. It's definitely pulled the heartstrings of people and it says a lot, in itself. But I don't have really any opinion myself on what the image says," she said. "I don't know what happened to the bears after that... They migrate over 100 miles, swimming."

She now charges newspapers US$500 for use of the photo on inside pages, and US$700 for the front.

In Canadian courts, a photographer can be awarded as much as $20,000 for each instance that one of their photos is published without permission.

The use of the photo might have gone unnoticed by the general public if Mr. Gore had had his way. As per his usual request, media were barred from attending his presentation yesterday, but the National Post attended anyway.

[smerchly]

With today's technology in film making and media manipulation , the average person has a difficult time what to believe anymore . Years ago , seeing a picture was believable to a point ,but now I can't trust a picture or a film ,and certainly not what the media says or prints . This is a big reason half the voters stay home and that's too bad that we have become so cynical of goverments . I believe the corporate world is the cause behind all of this as they have enough power now to control the people. Our future children will have to fight hard to have a decent standard of living on many issues.......

[knightfisher]

True words there Bill.

I have no idea what the solution could be

to have the ''truth'' given to the people.

[fanggo]

Interesting read.

I am shaking my head. Don’t know what to make of much anymore.

I read so much about this. And everything agrees with what you posted.

I would just like to add the photo.

It is a beautiful one that Ms. Byrd did capture.

Thanks for sharing

[bigugli]

Rule number1 in mass media. Newspapers do not sell news. They sell advertising. The stories, truthful or not, are just filler.

Far too little time is spent in getting the facts first. That was true in Rome when the masses were kept distracted with 'bread and circuses' . Today we have fast food, combat sports and reality TV.

[knightfisher]

That's the picture, that was taken in the summer. Thanks for putting it up.

It was posted around the world and used by the people drumming

the sky is falling.

Talk about misleading the masses. Sickening.

[Queen Froda]

The media have no scruples, morals or ethics any more. They have resorted to this kind of con job and photoshopping pictures to distort the truth. They are a morally bankrupt lot and a recent poll showed that they ranked below lawyers when it comes to trust.