This morning, I was intrigued by a new posting on the BBC website which said that “endemic” seals are leaving the Galapagos islands for a new island 1,500 kms away where temperatures are said to have risen as a result of climate change by a whopping 6 degrees Centigrade in 10 years. Such a rise could, of course, could be the result of localised warming due to volcanic activity, but the report is very definite in asserting that it’s because of climate change. On my calculations (the current temperature has reached 23 degrees), that means that we are heading for 100 degrees seas by 2110 or so. Boiling seas? That’s beyond even the wildest claims of the IPCC.
So I started checking out the writer, Dan Collyns. It turns out that he works for GRNLive, a worldwide agency supplying reports from radio correspondents to broadcasters around the world, including the BBC World Service. GRN is run by a chap called Henry Peirse, and guess what? He’s a climate change fanatic. Yet another. Mr Peirse says he is is proud to support, for example, the Earth Journalism Awards, which this year took place at the failed Copenhagen climate summit. I quote from their press release:
Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri and Internews, the international media development organization, celebrated the best in climate change reporting at the Internews Earth Journalism Awards in Copenhagen.
Among the presenters were key figures on climate and environmental issues, including Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland; Marina Silva, the former environment minister of Brazil; and award-winning Chinese movie star Li Bingbing, who is also the Global Ambassador for WWF’s Earth Hour.
“If we are to have any hope of reversing the effects of climate change, then we have a monumental task of educating the six billion people on our planet about how climate change works and what they can do to help,” Dr. Pachauri said. “The media is critical in this effort, since just one reporter has the ability to reach thousands, even millions, of people. These awards help to expand and honour these vitally important efforts.”
So, wherever you look, have no fear. There’s a Pachauri connection and a climate change activist supplying the BBC with a constant diet of the propagand it craves, no matter how nonsensical. Even from the Galapagos Islands, making predictions of boiling seas. And he’s supported in his efforts by none other than Li Bingbing. I kid you not.
Update: The BBC website now has this at the end of the item:
Correction 8 February: An earlier version of this story had the species incorrectly as sea lion – lobos marinos. The mammal in question is fur seal – lobos marinos finos. The measurements of average sea temperatures were taken by the Peruvian Geophysics Institute, and should not have been attributed to Orca as in the earlier version. The earlier version had a reference to the temperature rise being caused by climate change. This has been removed as the relevant research is still in its early stages.
In other words, the whole story was a pile of garbage. As B-BBC readers have pointed out, the reason why such animals “migrate” may be nothing whatsoever to do with climate change. The saga confirms what I have long suspected – any scare will do so long as it contains the magic phrase. Or, never let the facts get in the way of a good climate panic story.