What is the deal with the viral picture of the dogs walking on water? (D8.9)

• Main Authors: Bearzotti, Chiara, Olsen, Steffen, Grist, Hannah, Meller, Laura, Curtis-Moss, Laura, Preil Damberg, Herdis, Mottram, Ruth
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2019
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; Climate change; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3559540; https://zenodo.org/record/3559540

On the cover sheet of this report, we have placed the picture of dogs running on sea ice flooded by surface melt water, taken in the Inglefield Fjord, Greenland, on 13 June 2019 by the Blue-Action coordinator, Steffen M. Olsen (DMI). You must have seen this a million times in the past months. The picture was published on Twitter by a colleague of DMI taking part in the same expedition, and went viral over the internet overnight. It was retweeted and picked up by all the major magazines and newspapers in the world. The photo is more symbolic than scientific. This powerful image has awaken the society around the world, raising awareness on what is happening in the Arctic area, why the climate changes in the Arctic are important for those living outside the Arctic and how society needs to engage for reducing the impacts of climate change. The idea behind this deliverable is to set the story straight, to give an overview of how the picture resonated around the world, and on the lessons learned on how to deal with this huge interest of the world media. : The Blue-Action project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 727852.