roger harrabin ‏@RHarrabin 11 Nov @billyblofeld @latimeralder @aDissentient This is wrong. BBC does NOT have an agreed approach to #climatechange which is why sceptics abound

Shame Harrabin once said this:

I have spent much of the last two decades of my journalistic life warning about the potential dangers of climate change

And he famously engineered the adoption of the ‘scientific consensus’ within the BBC.

And I can only assume from the tone that freerange sceptics ‘abounding’ is something not very welcome in the Harrabin brave new world.

A reminder of one of Harrabin’s Tweets from a while back…..

roger harrabin ?@RogerHarrabin  @aniolesteban Earthquakes and volcanoes also boost economic growth. The Philippines mud slide was good for builders and undertakers.

Very caring from our Roger.

And then there was this:

roger harrabin ?@RogerHarrabin
Asking if climate change caused Sandy is like asking if gravity caused an old house to collapse when it did.

So a very definite link between climate change and storms…isn’t there?

In this recent report  he claimed that:

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says the jury is out on whether the frequency of tropical cyclones will increase, but Michel Jarraud said it was expected that the impact of storms would be more intense.

The Telegraph says the IPCC said something else:

Here’s what it says in its new report: 

Current datasets indicate no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency over the past century … No robust trends in annual numbers of tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes counts have been identified over the past 100 years in the North Atlantic basin… In summary, confidence in large scale changes in the intensity of extreme extratropical cyclones since 1900 is low.

What’s interesting when you read their [Those who say climate change produces more extreme weather] claims is that none of them is capable of producing any credible scientific evidence that “climate change” has anything whatsoever to do with Typhoon Haiyan.  That’ll be because – as Benny Peiser notes in the Spectator – the science says no such thing.

A more recent Tweet from Roger:

roger harrabin ‏@RHarrabin 13 Nov @BarryJWoods @etzpcm

Look at it decadally, Barry. Year by year is weather not climate.

Which is why of course he has headlines like this:

2013 ‘one of warmest’ on record

Apparently it is a ‘wake up call’ for us….

roger harrabin ‏@RHarrabin 13 Nov @etzpcm There’s nothing incoherent about wake-up calls unless you are deaf. The piece was written in 30 mins on deadline. Not great but OK

Nice to see quality journalism counts at the BBC…any old rubbish as long as it’s on time.

And still peddling that theory of the oceans absorbing all that heat…which is why we have a pause in global warming…so they claim…without proof:

roger harrabin ‏@RHarrabin 12 Nov @conservatarist @BarryJWoods @tan123 Higher sea levels = higher storm surges, warmer ocean has more energy. Creates greater storm potential.

A theory they now use  to tell us that though hurricanes and extreme weather may not be more frequent they will have worse effects because of higher sea levels etc.

If there is no ocean warming…then that’s another theory out the window.

He also Tweeted this:

roger harrabin ‏@RHarrabin 11 Nov

Rising sea levels and warmer seas will create conditions for ever-stronger tropical storms.

Tom Nelson ‏@tan123 11 Nov .@RHarrabin So why aren’t tropical storms getting ever stronger?

Harrabin backtracks:

roger harrabin ‏@RHarrabin 12 Nov @tan123 There are many conditions for storms. But rising sea level and hotter oceans create conditions for more damaging storms.

Getting grumpy…

roger harrabin ‏@RHarrabin  @BarryJWoods @conservatarist @tan123 Don’t misquote me. More heat = more energy. higher sea = higher surges,

Trouble is they weren’t misquoting him……Harrabin said ‘ever stronger tropical storms’.

Quality stuff from our campaigning friend of the earth.

Don’t misquote me…I didn’t say highly misleading twaddle.

Channel 4 poached Paul Mason and it seems they have given him wings to take his flights of fancy to ever greater heights…we shall miss him on the BBC.

His latest thought:

Russell Brand is ……one of the key voices of his age.

A couple of years ago the BBC insisted that Christians were thriving in the Middle East…even in Gaza where they apparently got on splendidly with Hamas…the only problem was those disagreeable Israelis ruining Christmas in Bethlehem.

Recently we had this from the BBC:

Are there really 100,000 new Christian martyrs every year?

Not of course concerned about Christians but intended to quash any suggestions that it might be Muslims slaughtering those Christians.

“This means we can say right away that the internet rumours of Muslims being behind the killing of 100,000 Christian martyrs are nonsense.”

Guess it is just bad luck that a Muslim, Baroness Warsi no less, who claims that:

Christians ‘face extinction’ amid sectarian terror, minister warns

Exclusive: violence against Christian minorities is now a “global crisis” as worshippers are driven out of their ancient homelands by militants, a senior minister warns

“There are parts of the world today where to be a Christian is to put your life in danger,” she writes. “From continent to continent, Christians are facing discrimination, ostracism, torture, even murder, simply for the faith they follow.

“Christian populations are plummeting and the religion is being driven out of some of its historic heartlands…..

Violence against Christian worshippers and other religious minorities by fanatics has become a “global crisis” and is the gravest challenge facing the world this century.

What’s worse, from the BBC’s point of view,  is that she compares the killers and persecutors to the Nazis and Communists:

It is the same mindset that motivated the Nazis to persecute the Jews and the Communists to suppress the Russian church, she says.

How will the BBC report Warsi’s words?  There will be a short run through of what she said before a stream of contrary opinions criticising her comments…followed by examples of how other groups are equally oppressed, if not more so, possibly by Christians, than the Christians.

In other words they will try to subtly rubbish…undermine… her claims.

The World Meteorological Organisation has released a statement about global temperature in 2013…it starts off with this alarming claim:

The year 2013 is currently on course to be among the top ten warmest years since modern records began in 1850, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Harrabin jumps eagerly aboard that bandwagon with his own alarming heading:

2013 ‘one of warmest’ on record

Sounds bad doesn’t it?  Maybe not so bad when you read the following from the WMO (and also consider the Medieval Warming Period….long, long before the Industrial Revolution and yet just as hot):

“Temperatures so far this year are about the same as the average during 2001-2010, which was the warmest decade on record,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

So…..far from warming the standstill continues….which begs the question why Harrabin is spreading alarm?…..maybe this next quote  answers that:

Mr Kim [President of the World Bank] said the overall trend was clear. He urged governments to end subsidies for fossil fuels and give people clean energy sources.

So Roger, let’s be clear…Mr Kim is saying make fossil fuels more expensive, and then on top of that pay for the green power generation and on top of that keep the old fossil fuel generators going as back up….and of course, as prices are now so high, a very expensive backup.

So we’re to pay to keep the old fossil fuel generation going, and double up with a second, and redundant, layer of green generation.

Harrabin is clearly pushing the green taxes agenda, the Miliband solution…ironically….the man who wants to freeze fuel prices that he caused to rise.

Harrabin rounds it all off with confirmation of his agenda with this dig at Cameron:

In the UK, which has led the world in climate change policy, the Prime Minister David Cameron has shifted the emphasis from tackling climate change to holding down consumers’ bills.

The WMO is definitely massaging the message…and Harrabin is happy to help out….the WMO also ties in the hurricane Haiyan with climate change and then takes a look at the Antarctic telling us that:

For the second year in a row, Antarctic sea ice extent in September reached a record maximum of 19.47 million square kilometers according to NSIDC.

So the Antarctic is putting on ice……in a world that is warming….how can that be?

The WMO has the solution….ignore it…..

Antarctica differs from the Arctic in that the Arctic is comprised of water surrounded by land. Conversely, the Antarctic is comprised of land surrounded by open ocean water. Wind patterns and ocean currents tend to isolate Antarctica from global weather patterns, keeping it cold.

….all that record breaking ice…it’s just a bit of local weather.

Curious that they tried to dismiss the Medieval Warm Period by claiming the warmth was regional and not spread across the whole globe….different story now then…..as shown here…

Regional Temperatures

During the first nine months of 2013, most of the world’s land areas had above-average temperatures, most notably in Australia northern North America, northeastern South America, northern Africa, and much of Eurasia. Cooler-than-average temperatures were observed across a concentrated region of North America, central South America and the eastern Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of Ecuador, a small region of northern Russia, and parts of northeastern Asia.

So ‘cooler than average’ for much of the globe?….you can see they use careful wording to try and limit that belief….‘a small region‘, a ‘concentrated region’, and ‘parts of’……but that’s not true….vast areas have been getting colder…breaking records in fact….Russia, China, South America, India, and Europe with record snow falls.

Of course…erm…global warming is to cause for the massive freeze up.

Here are some interesting climate links via Bishop Hill and WUWT:

Blackout Britain — why our energy crisis is only just beginning

The Environment on T.V….Are Broadcasters Meeting The Challenge?

Why and How the IPCC Demonized CO2 with Manufactured Information

Astonishing lack of journalism from the BBC….but then any chance to attack UKIP and undermine them seems to be the order of the day at the BBC…..

Thanks to David Kay (and Pounce I see) who pointed out this:

UKIP Plymstock poppy wreath logo sparks political row

UKIP has denied a wreath it laid to mark Armistice Day was a political statement after receiving criticism from other political parties.

The wreath – with a UKIP logo in the centre – was laid at the war memorial on Burrow Hill, Plymstock and one of four laid by the party in Plymouth.

The city council’s Conservative and Labour leaders said using a political logo on Remembrance Day was wrong.

Tudor Evans, leader of the Labour-controlled city council, said the logo on the wreath should be removed….”It is very bad taste – we have always made Remembrance Day an apolitical event,” he said.

And again:

Lincolnshire UKIP leader ‘sorry’ for poppy wreath logo

In neither report was there a mention of this:

Mock outrage over UKIP wreath, despite it being supplied by the RBL

Yes…that’s  Labour and Conservative Party wreaths…marked up as such.

and let’s not forget em…you know…

The Huffington Post manages to get the full picture:

It seems Ukip may not be alone in attaching its logo in this way, as this photo posted on Facebook, believed to be of Wroughton, near Swindon, suggests:

Why not the BBC, probably the world’s biggest news organisation?

Peter Oborne in the Telegraph says it all…..

Immigration: Britain’s doors are wide open, and we can’t even talk about it

A wave of Romanians and Bulgarians is heading our way, thanks to the EU’s lack of democracy

Just been checking on the US JTWC figures for windspeed….it seems that the figures are not actual speeds but warnings, predictions, estimates, of what the speed might be……

Click on the picture to view and enlarge it:

The top estimate for the 7th of November is steady winds of 170m knots which is 195 mph……gusts of 205 knots…which is the now famous 235 mph.

On the 8th of November the estimate of what a possible windspeed is is a steady 145 knots or 166 mph, and gusts of 175 which is 201 mph.

But as you can see these are just estimated warnings issued on the 7th November (NR 019) and gives estimates up until the 12th.

The figures are warnings of what might be coming.

Here is the most up to date data for the 8th November from the JTWC (NR 023)…wonder what it says:

On the 8th of November actual windspeeds:

TYPHOON 31W (HAIYAN) WARNING NR 023  WARNING POSITION:
   081800Z --- NEAR 12.4N 118.1E
     MOVEMENT PAST SIX HOURS - 285 DEGREES AT 23 KTS
     POSITION ACCURATE TO WITHIN 045 NM
     POSITION BASED ON CENTER LOCATED BY SATELLITE
   PRESENT WIND DISTRIBUTION:
   MAX SUSTAINED WINDS - 125 KT, GUSTS 150 KT

Max sustained wind speed…..125 knots…..or  144 mph or 231 kph

Gusts of 150 knots…..172 mph or 277 kph.

(So lowered from 145  and 175 kt to 125 and 150 kt)

It is the sustained wind speeds that count.

Hmm…. so the Australian weather office gave a wind speed of 232 kph and
the Philippines gave one of 235 kph….and the US actually gave one of 231 kph
for the 8th.

Maybe I’m reading that all wrong but it looks like a figure around 235 kph is correct.

Which is probably why the BBC is now reporting a max speed of 235kph.

Haiyan brought sustained winds of 235km/h (147mph), with gusts of 275 km/h (170 mph) and waves as high as 15m (45ft). In some places, as much as 400mm (15.75 inches) of rain fell.

On the Today programme Chris Morris looks at the disillusion spreading across Europe with the politician’s private project (08:36)

(A written version here)

It turned into an excuse to bash the Right along the way:

The leader of the far right French National Front, Marine Le Pen, is in the Netherlands today to meet the Dutch far right leader Geert Wilders. The BBC’s Europe correspondent Chris Morris reports. Guy Verhofstadt, former prime minister of Belgium, and leader of the liberal and democrats group in the European parliament, discusses the meeting.

Morris’ choice of words is very careful and designed to trigger certain perceptions.

Morris tells us that there is a surge of populist support for figures on the Far Right like Geert Wilders who knows exactly which buttons to press apparently….the BBC doesn’t say that of Ed Miliband when he is spouting his ‘populist’ policies which are purely designed to catch headlines without actually intending to implement them.

He tells us that cynicism about the European project comes in many guises….linking Eurosceptics in the Uk (wonder whom he means) with the radical Communist Syriza in Greece (lead by ‘led by charismatic young politician Alexis Tsipras‘ as the BBC tells us elsewhere) and what he calls ‘xenophobic populists’   like Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen.

He goes on to call them demagogues, extremist parties…..their views very very unsavoury as one interviewee claimed.

He manages to find two people who don’t find the EU attractive but they both say they are not at all fans of Geert Wilders.  Guess he’s just lucky to find them when his report is suggesting Wilders et al are ever more popular.

He brings on Michael Geary from Maastricht University who says that governments need to combat both Far Right and Far Left rhetoric but Morris doesn’t seem concerned about the Far Left despite two of Golden Dawn’s people being killed recently and concentrates solely on disparaging Wilders and Le Pen and linking UKIP to them by mentioning them in the same breathe.

Interesting how the BBC refers to Left and Right:

As above the Greek Syriza leader is ‘charismatic‘, whilst the French ‘Left Front‘ leader is ‘their firebrand leader Jean-Luc Melenchon described his movement as “the people of French revolutions and rebellions”…how romantic…just like cuddly Russell Brand stroking Paxman’s knee.

and Marine Le Pen, not charismatic nor rebellious apparently…..she is smeared with ‘her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, a convicted Holocaust-denier.’

Whilst it’s not Ok for the Daily Mail to look at Ed Miliband’s father’s beliefs when he has stated he was guided by them it is OK to smear Marine Le Pen with her father’s.

There is hardly a mention of any Left Wing parties and their radical views and the dangers they might represent…the BBC seems only concerned with parties that express concern about immigration or Islam…violent revolution and destruction of society seems to be OK.

The BBC’s concern lies essentially with the Right’s success or potential success….Occupy, London riots or George Soros‘ billions pressurising politicians or disrupting the democratic process is presented as the ‘voice of the dispossessed‘ making itself heard.

The Left can do no wrong even when dropping fire extinguishers from roof tops towards people below….that’s probably ‘charismatic’ behaviour.

What’s new though in that from the BBC?

Thanks to George R for this from Charles Moore in the Spectator:

A Dickensian scene of human misery.

Single mothers who cannot scrape together the £145.50 demanded are dragged before the magistrate to pay the six figure salaries of BBC bosses and stars. A cut would be very popular. Go into the next election promising to (say) halve the licence fee. This would immediately please millions and force the BBC to curtail its operations. Once its power starts to decline, it will never recover.

The BBC has very dutifully looked at the recovery and decided ‘nah….not gonna happen really.’

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, says the recovery “has finally taken hold”.

 So why the worry?

The BBC goes on to tell us why we might worry:

The challenge of good economic news

The final words from the BBC….

The challenge for Labour is to keep the political debate off the recovering economy and back onto the cost of living.

Might I suggest that they’ll have little problem with that….the BBC’s phones being manned 24 hours a day.