I increasingly believe that BBC journalists bust a gut each morning to find the best climate scare story and then plot how to write it in the scariest way they can. Good game! A latest effort is this Richard Black scarefest which tells us in familiar tones and structure that a new paper has established that the IPCC “landmark” report (note the reverence – I personally would call it the “botched science” report)of 2007 is wrong and that sea level rises as a result of ice loss from the poles is going to be a phenomenal 23 inches by 2100. Cue the usual images of Al Gore horror – we are all going to drown.
Let’s look instead at why this picture should be treated with extreme caution rather than being pumped out as gothic horror. First, sea levels are currently not rising. Bangladesh and the Maldives and Tuvalu are all still there despite the false, systematic panic. Second, this paper has not even been published yet and the BBC is champing at the bit to make it as sensational as possible. And third, when you read the abstract of the paper, the reality is that the writers themselves admit that their methods of prediction are subject to very significant error – but then go on to make firm everybody-panic predictions. This is exactly the problem with climate scientists that has been highlighted time and time again on the blogs doing the real work on climate change, such as What’s Up With That? These climate change zealots conducting so-called research want to find horror stories and they do so. Richard Black and co then slavishly and reverentially amplify them. It should be the BBC’s job to highlight and expose such uncertainty and charlatanism, but it actually does the reverse.
Al Gore?…….mmmmmm very strange
even more so since totAL Bore has just bought a multi million dollar seaside property 😎
The global temperature should have risen by between 4 and 7 degrees fahrenheit by now – anyone noticed?
Set out here http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/dont_know_the_cost_dont_know_if_it_works/ is the full transcript of the evisceration of European Commission’s Director General of Climate Action, Jill Duggan by Andrew Bolt the Australian commentator. She is the EU’s National Expert on Carbon Markets and Climate Change. According to Bolt she was “head of Britain’s International Emissions Trading”
The interview confirms that Ms Duggan doesn’t know the costs or benefits of the scheme she purports to “run”. The whole interview is eye-wateringly awful, laughablle and tragic all in one. This isn’t something which will be reported by the BBC, let alone referred to by Black, until the BBC’s praesidium has met and decided on the line to adopt (or to suppress it entirely). As a taster for the reactions of the warmist media, ABC – the Australian equivalent of the BBC – downplayed the whole fiasco http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/03/08/3158186.htm and concentrated on Duggan’s claim re “green” jobs but failed to mention how many real jobs will be lost in the EU “green” economy.
Robin, I think Black and Harrabin get help from their close friends in the Warmist industry. We’ve seen them jump to report something based on an email Michael Mann sent, and alter an article in response to activists like Jo Abbess. They don’t work too hard to find these stories as their door is always open to the advocates who provide them with material to report.
I listened to 2 minutes of five live this afternoon, which was enough for me. Due to the suspect package found at Heathrow, Andrew Neil was talking to Richard Bacon from Heathrow on five live today at about 2pm. He stated he was flying up to Aberdeen for about an hour and flying back to London to do his show tonight. An hour! And the BBC has the cheek to harp on about global warming.
Marky
For some reason – I’m sure a climate “scientist” or Black could explain – flights taken by BBC personnel or those on BBC business produce no CO2 and are fully compliant with all “green” beliefs. Funnily enough, those on the same plane as said BBC person but not living courtesy of the taxpayer (ie anyone working in the private sector) are climate criminals with an enormous carbon “footprint”.
Funny how it does not mention CO2 – is this taken as read?
Sea levels are rising and have been rising since the last ice age. Black does not ask the question, what additional rise in sea levels is contributed by CAGW.?
Even if the study is correct how can we possibly know if this is not a natural phenomenon. Has sea level rise never fluctuated? Has it always been constant in the past?
Black never questions anything – he is supposed to be a journalist.
Is 20 years of data sufficient to predict future trends? I suspect not. Twenty years in geological time is not even a blink of an eye, it is nothing.
This, like all the other “research” Black pushes onto the sceptical public are based on “what if” scenarios. But Black being a gullible BBC jobber does not have the inteligence to ask the obvious questions.
If only the BBC would employ people with enquiring minds, people who want to serach for the truth, then they may be worth the licence fee.