As John Anderson has already pointed out in comments, Christopher Booker has written a report for the Global Warming Policy Foundation about the BBC’s reporting of climate change and it’s due out tomorrow. Not sure what he will reveal that has not already been reported here or on other blogs like Bishop Hill or Harmless Sky – but Booker is always sharp and to the point and I’m looking forward to it. Hugely.
Meanwhile, liked a stuck vinyl record – and underlining that BBC relentless bias – Richard Black continues his dire refrain from the carbon-guzzling fest in Durban. Today’s homily is about the need to protect nations vulnerable to climate change from the impacts of nasty CO2, including “rising sea levels” and “droughts”. Er, But Mr Black, the rising seal level threat has been exaggerated by a factor of 10. And droughts happen, irrespective of rising CO2. Actually, Africa and the developing world is far more at risk from tranzis and government aid – especially when they focus on the climate – than such alleged impacts, but that doesn’t fit the hate-the-capitalist creed.
African governments (ie kleptocratic leaders) have seen another golden opportunity to relieve the once rich West of more loot to go shopping in the Far East.
Droughts have been common in Africa in all recorded history. The real problems stem from the West introducing modern healthcare and reducing infant mortality rates thus giving rise to a situation where in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa populations are doubling every 10 years.
Since they are incapable of efficient commercial farming they are starving, drought or no drought. Europeans used to do it but were chased out because they don’t like their skin colour.
The other main causative factor is over grazing. Their ubiquitous goat population destroy everything down to the roots. Cattle are too numerous and are left with no grazing. This has led to vast tracts of land that are dust bowls. When it rains there is nothing holding the soil together and it is washed away into rivers and the sea never to be seen again. The terrain is steadily getting poorer with every storm that hits. This makes it less and less likely to sustain future populations.
But never mind there is always Oxfam, Save the Children, etc, etc never ending supply of charities creating wealth from the bleeding hearts of soft Westerners.
Let nature do its job because when nature has restored the balance to a healthy norm all will be well again
I’ve seen this random goat grazing accross the ME. Is it an Arab thing? And further, was the Sahara kicked off by this kind of ‘follow the goat’ mentality? ……just thinkin’…..
Careful with references to goats, please…
Nothing personal Nats!!!!
The BBC’s response.
Climate criminals –
I would like to nominate ALL those at the BBC responsible for espousing the AGW lie, and for disseminating this lie to the public at large, in direct contradiction of the BBC charter. I would also, therefore, nominate the entire BBC, and may they be apprehended and prosecuted without further delay.
According to Bishop Hill http://bishophill.squarespace.com/ it’s coming out on Thursday. Whatever. The report seeks to counter the sermon from Attenborough scheduled to be preached from his pulpit on Frozen Planet at the BBC on Wednesday night. I can predict that Attenborough’s tissue of contentious and slanted untruths will receive a storm of enthusiastically supportive publicity from the BBC and the Guardian. OTOH I can also predict a curious silence in respect of the GWPF Report.
Oh and the Times will be right in the Attenborough fan club too. Murdoch, despite his ownership of Fox News and the WSJ in the US, is as much a CAGW nutter as Huhne. However, if nothing else, Murdoch is a businessman and his enthusiastic championing of returning the West to the Stone Age might damage sales (let alone advertising) in the US if his broadcasters/papers are too blatant. He needn’t worry in the UK though. In our newly fascist (ie corporatist) Britain, big business is on the side of the CAGW nutters. After all business and, let’s be frank, fake charities seek to maximise income and there’s an awful lot of taxpayers’ money in the CAGW swindle.
As Attenborough got more politically correct (agw, and the rest) so he got promoted. What a whore.
ian
As you imply, it’s a shame to see Attenborough – whose record in broadcasting is as distinguished as anyone, and more distinguished than most – flushing his integrity down the toilet so he can still be allowed to do what he (and the BBC) do best: bringing the wonders of nature to a huge and appreciative audience. It’s a tragic end to an illustrious career. Sadly he’ll be remembered as a shyster and propagandist rather than as a byword for probity and virtue.
Richard Black’s reporting from Durban continues to promote the concept of ‘wealth transfer’ from richer nations to poorer ones (sorry, that should be ‘developing’). It really is disgraceful.
Once again he merrily quotes all manner of rent-a-gobshite advocates intent on pushing their own agendas to meet their financial projections. It’s therefore little wonder to see Mr Black quoting someone from WWF hysterically predicting the end of the world as we know it unless agreement is reached in Durban on setting ‘targets’ for a new Kyoto Protocol.
Really, the level of sensationalism and hyperbole in Mr Black’s ‘reportage’ is mindboggling and rather depressing. If this is the best ‘journalism’ the BBC can manage it’s a pretty wretched picture of just how low standards have sunk in the Corporation.
I suppose I should now prepare myself for the end-of-week BBC bombast from Durban as the event moves towards it’s conclusion. I suspect the rhetoric will be ratcheted all the way up to ’11’ by Friday – I’ve noticed the language is getting gradually more hysterical as the week progresses.
I guess that’s what happens if you’re a AGW advocate riding this money train, counting on this fund-raising event to deliver the goods for the financial year ahead. It’s not easy robbing taxpayers, after all.
David Whitehouse keeps up the criticism of BBC science “reporting” – 75% of it is simply Churnalism (the reprinting of press releases eg from pressure groups), and a lot of it is biased, to close in with the scientists rather than standing apart and asking questions.
http://www.thegwpf.org/opinion-pros-a-cons/4501-david-whitehouse-the-pathetic-state-of-science-journalism.html
Even as we await the report from Booker, the Beeb pumps out stuff like this on its website (an introduction to a climate change game)
“Currently there is a growing consensus amongst climate researchers that Earth’s climate is changing in response to manmade greenhouse gas emissions. The main debate amongst scientists is focused on the amount of climate change we can expect, not whether it will happen. With the current level of debate in mind, the BBC decided a game might be a good introductory route into climate change and some of the issues this creates for governments around the world.”
What follows reads like a press release from the IPCC. It’s worth a look:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/aboutgame.shtm
“.. amount of climate change we can expect,”?
How can it be measured? Will we get 2 times climate change or 3?
The problem is that they have now changed “warming” for “climate change” but have forgotten to change the units.
I have just posted the following comment on the David Whitehouse piece at the BishopHill website
“A key criticism made by David Whitehouse is that the media – and statistics show that the BBC is the worst at this – practice “Churnalism” – they simply regurgitate press releases, usually from pressure groups such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth etc, with no critical questioning. Just cut-and-paste jobs.
Plagiarism in journalism is seen as a sin, a sackable offence. But Churnalism is not much different – earning a big salary by copying others’ material. And in the case of the BBC – earning at our expense, pumping out propaganda supported by the compulsory licence fee. I choose not to donate to pressure groups – but I am forced to donate to the shoddy “reporting” exemplified by the endless scare stories from Richard Black, such as his recent ludicrous Churnalism of the claim that a study of just 10 out of 54,000 Himalayan glaciers vindicates the lies of Patchouri and the IPCC.
I can see no way of getting the BBC’s science/environmental reporting sorted out properly but to sack the lot of them, or move them off somewhere else – they are tainted, as ClimateGate 2 shows clearly. The BBC has a dominant effect in UK media, it should be held to high standards. On Global Warming it has totally failed.”
I could have added – the best course would be to sack the lot of them and bring David Whitehouse back.
Just been listening to “Home Planet” (just because it was on, in the background).
Some prat has written in suggesting that all the natural hot springs issuing carbon dioxide should be capped…
Is this programme a joke? It’s taken as read that CO2 is BAAAAD for us all and the planet in general, and we must stop producing it at once. I’m so angry, I could laugh.
Oh heck Natsman.
First they came for the hot springs…but I was not a hot spring so I didn`t care.
Then they came for the car washes…but I had no car, so wasn`t bothered.
But then they came for the kettles and all that global warming steam that they produced…and there was no teabags available to comfort me!
I`m guessing that all that steaming between the ears that occurs whenever the econazis get the Beebs microphone adds to the global hot tub…so why do the BBC enrage us so?