Strident eco-camapigner Sarah Mukherjee may have left the BBC, but Richard Black is carrying on her propaganda work, even over the holiday weekend. Here’s his latest offering – a largely uncritical re-cycling of a paper paid for by taxpayers’ money – that purports to show that 250 people living in the Himlayas somehow know the truth about global warming.
I was taught years ago – during my training as a journalist – that if you ask ten people about the weather, you get at least twenty different stories. But no matter, this is a cutting edge investigation by our top minds into our future, so anything goes.
The background to this nonsense, of course, is that the IPCC was caught making hugely exaggerated claims about the impact of climate change on the Himalayas. They alleged that glaciers were melting so fast that they would be gone in a matter of decades, putting the millions who depend on their annual release of meltwater in peril of drought.
Unabashed, and incapable of accepting that they were wrong, the Royal Society (grant from the UK taxpayer last year £46m) sanctioned two climate change zealots from the US – including a prominent member of one of India’s main greenie think-tanks – to ask the local farmers what they thought was going on. Rubbish in, rubbish out. I am not aware how it could possibly be imagined that a sample so small from a tiny micro-area of the Himalayas (most of whom have probably already been bombarded with climate change propaganda) could remotely have a meaningful or reliable grasp of the huge mixture of forces involved. I concede that it could be interesting sociology and testimony to human suggestibility – but reliable data about climate variability? What utter tosh.
That said, climate zealots increasingly believe that scientific truth is based on “consensus”, so perhaps this fits the new methodology. Let’s in future decide scientific validity on the basis of opinion polls.
In that vein, the farmers told the “researchers” that it’s getting warmer and drier, there are more mosquitoes and the glaciers are definitely melting more. So it’s been published and pushed round the world as a valid piece of climate change investigation, and evidence that despite the IPCC cock-up there is still much to be alarmed about.
And Richard Black has faithfully recycled it. You can tell by his tone that he knows that the so-called research has all the validity of the claims of a three-card-trick huckster, but hey-ho, this is climate activism, it’s been sanctioned by the Royal Society, and this is BBC science reporting, so it must be true, and it deserves bank holiday weekend prominence.
The story has a different headline on the BBC News home page, Truth seekers. Wonder which eco-activist BBC Online sub-editor came up with that one?
The BBC News home page also prominently features a report that argues that immigration is a good thing, EU immigrants ‘add £5bn to GDP’.
So they’re firing on all the usual cylinders this morning.
Well, that last bit may be true, Craig –
EU immigrants ‘add £5bn to the God Damn Problem’…
‘Truth seekers. Wonder which eco-activist BBC Online sub-editor came up with that one? ‘
Aunty and her minions seem to be of the view currently that if they corner the word ‘truth’ enough simply by intoning it, the possibility is that they will become associated with it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2011/04/the_truth_about_sicknote_brita.html
From the comments they foolishly can’t resist exposing themselves to (the latest The Editors is a hoot.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/04/bbc_world_service_and_afghanistan.html ), I rather fear that ‘but we’re the BBC, so it must be true’ boat has long sailed for them. Mainly after about 10 seconds on Google. For free.
I merely lament that a few dozen filletings on a niche blog does not really compensate for 24/7 a £4Bpa propaganda machine pumping out primetime to every home in the land.
Robin, you call them zealots, they could also be regarded as hysterics. Regardless, it seems that they are unrelenting in their crusade against commonsense and no amount of debate, discussion, or counterargument is ever going to change their minds. the only way this madness will stop, in my opinion, is for these people to be excluded from normal society. However, I am at a loss as to how this can be achieved. Making the bbc a subscription service, just like Sky, perhaps would be a good start. At least then I wouldn’t have to pay for people like Mr Black.
Every time I see or hear the Black cretin, I think of this (and others like it)…
I was in Nepal last month, in the Annapurna Himalayas. Nothing seemed to me to have changed. Mind you, I was on tough trek at fairly high altitude which lardarses like Black could not manage.
The glaciers looked the same size. And the idea of mosquitos at that windy altitude is arrant nonsense.
But what on earth do I know ? I am just an M.Sc. – not a flatulent arts graduate on jumbo pay for recycling warmism garbage.
Well said John. I was in northern Burma in January, experiencing extremely cold weather. All the locals I spoke to (hundreds, they’re a friendly bunch) said that this was the coldest winter in memory and they had never seen so much snow. I reckon this counts as a climate change survey just as much as the one lauded by Black. Method: go somewhere remote, talk to a few locals, point proved.
But what on earth do I know? I’m just an M.Sc – not a flatulent etc etc
The first comment on his report by CanadianRockies seems to sum up Blacks propaganda well.
“Good try Richard. Let’s replace with faux ‘science’ with polls. You folks are getting desperate.”
I agree with this chap – but what do I know I too am just an MSc and not a arts graduate.
“For example, in some villages about half of the people questioned reported that summer was now starting earlier than 10 years ago; which raises the question of why the other half did not.”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/05/01/himalayan-sherpas-as-climate-proxy/#more-39127
I was in Gambia in march and all Gambians agreed it was the coldest march ( i.e. least hot ! ) in living memory. My wife was sleeping wearing a pullover. ( Could be other reasons for that, of course ).
But, what do I know, I am just a BSc, not an arts graduate.
Sorry, can’t keep up with you MSc people !