Whenever the Church of England gets a favourable headline on the BBC, you can be sure that it will relate to it embracing leftist causes. Global warming hysteria is one of the Left’s favourite causes – in fact I would suggest it has taken on quasi-religious importance to those who worship at the church of the Rev Al Gore. So maybe it’s no big surprise to see the prominence the BBC gives to the story that two senior bishops are urging people to cut back on carbon for Lent instead of the conventional chocolate or alcohol.
The Bishops of London and Liverpool, Dr Richard Chartres and James Jones, are launching the Carbon Fast at Trafalgar Square with aid agency Tearfund. They hope to encourage people to reduce their carbon footprint for 40 days. Bishop Jones, who is vice president of Tearfund, said: “It is the poor who are already suffering the effects of climate change. To carry on regardless of their plight is to fly in the face of Christian teaching.” One Tearfund employee will camp outside the charity’s offices in Teddington for a week in an attempt to reduce his emissions to that of an average Malawian farmer. God preserve us from liberal angst. Dr Chartres called for “individual and collective action”.
OK, so these two Bishops buy into the global warming alarmism so assiduously cultivated by the BBC. But why is that EVERY person who the BBC allows to comment on this story all share the one viewpoint? Whatever happened to plurality of opinion? Is there no-one that the BBC can find to oppose the AGW hysteria? There are MANY in the scientific community who do not buy into the carbon emission obsession, there are many within the religious community who also do not see it the same way as these two Bishops do. But time after time, when it comes to this topic, the BBC ONLY allows one view. That is neither fair nor balanced and it’s high time that the high priests of global warming hysteria in the BBC were held to account. We need less hot air from them.
The good news is that these stories will start, very quietly, to disappear from the headlines in about two years’ time.
The reason why is that the global temperature is falling, not rising. To disguise this, the Chicken Littles always use a ten-year rolling average temperature, and by that measure the temperature is hotter than the previous ten years. It is hotter, however, because of El Nino in 1998. Once that freak year drops out of the statistics, and we are looking at 1999 – 2008 averages, it will become inexorably clear that nothing is happening to the climate at all.
Personally, I think the Big Global Warming Lie will then give way to The Big Peak Oil Lie. Energy exhaustion, we will be told, can only be avoided by the imposition of worldwide socialism – well, as with MMGW, it won’t be called socialism, but that’s what it’ll be.
The “peak oil” scam usually relies on the claim that the earth has 2 trillion barrels of oil and we’ve used half. In fact the earth has 4.4 trillion barrels of conventional oil plus the same again in unconventional oil, so we’ve used one-ninth, but truth and socialism have always been mutual strangers.
It’s hard to say exactly when this next fraud will start to kick in. Ideally it would be as global warming starts to fizzle out, though in practice the propagandists of the IPCC may simply move the goalposts again so as to find a way of keeping 1998 in the “data” forever. It would not be surprising, for example, if the IPCC declared MMGW proven, so that there is now need to monitor temperatures any more – much as the IPCC’s political antecedents, the Communist Party of the USSR, decided in 1917 that elections weren’t necessary any more.
In that case, the 1998 – 2008 dataset will be the only one they are prepared to use or discuss.
If that does not happen, then by about the end of next year, I reckon, there will be an increasing clamour of differently dishonest anti-science starting to make itself heard, as Peak Oil gets deployed to maintain the faltering momentum of the MMGW drive for socialism.
The global warming hysteria was stoked as well last night on BBC1’s 10 o’clock News – a report that because daffodils were already blooming in London, it was ‘proof’ that global warming was definitely happening, and furthermore, that drastic change for the worse could happen suddenly at any time.
What do they think they are doing? There is abudant material on the internet that takes only seconds to find to say – for example – that the most recent stats show that Arctic ice is back already to the same levels as last year, despite all the hype in the summer that there was irretrievable shrinkage; Christopher Booker reported in the Telegraph on Sunday that Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel have just recorded their lowest winter temperatures (along with snowfalls) for decades; and the excellent blog a Hot Topic has just filed a piece which suggests that latest stistics show that global temperatures reached a peak in 1998 and have been falling since, despite the continuing apparent rise in CO2 levels.
The ignoring of this counter opinion (and facts!) seems to be systematic, willful and downright misleading.
It’s shameful reporting and the BBC journalists who peddle such unbalanced nonsense so gratuitously don’t deserve to be called that name.
Robin,
Yes, I saw that story on the BBC last night. Could have been an out-take from an Inconvenient Truth, eh?
After watching the story I couldn’t help but think that this Global Warming phenomenon is becoming less and less prevalent – it is now apparently isolated within the walls of Kew Gardens.
Wasn’t the top person at Tearfund at one time a regularly Lefty on the “Thought for the Day” spot?
Wonder if they’ll manage to 1) field a Christian in tomorrow’s slot – it is Ash Wednesday after all and 2) whether the said christian will manage not to mention global warming/environmental degradation/world poverty?
Place your bets now. My guess is they’ll have the bore from the “Siukh Messenger” just to be inclusive.
David – don’t hit the BBC too hard. Even the Sunday Telegraph tends to choose its book reviewers on the basis of their catastrophist leanings concerning ACC. As you will see, the definitive authority on climate change (and foot and mouth BTW) – Sir David King (the ex-government adviser on all things scientific) – has spoken so we can all shut up. Although Singh admits that of 12 “facts” underpinning the Rev Gore’s convenient untruths presented to the High Court, 9 were outright lies, Singh still writes in respect of Channel 4’s “Climate Change Swindle” that “when it comes to the question of who you should believe, Al Gore’s rhetoric is much closer to the truth than Channel 4’s fairy tales.”
Oh surprise surprise there’s a a coincidence! Although I believe he is now technically freelance “Simon Singh completed his Ph.D. in particle physics [ie not climatology] at the University of Cambridge CERN before joining the BBC’s science department in 1990. He was a producer and director on programmes such as Tomorrow’s World, Horizon and Earth Story.”
I posted this on ATW, but I thought I’d post it here as well.
The BBC talkback show (NI) invited you on yesterday,David Vance and from the sounds of it you got a good hearing on the subject. Or is it only interviews that you don’t take part in that are one sided.
C’mon now. I’ve seen some bias in the interviews-as I pointed out before, but is every issue they cover considered biased in your view, or only those you don’t take part in?
Fair is fair. They’re only urging people after all, not saying its obligatory in any way and it brings home to people the environmental and lenten message if nothing else.
Lent isn’t about giving up chocolate, you don’t have to omit something, you can take something on as well, and I think to take on and be aware of the environment is a good one, different from the usual.
I think perhaps I could get stuck into my garden and prepare it for spring.
Good on these two bishops! It’s a lenten message put out by the BBC by two bishops. What do you want a full scale debate on whether the bishops should be saying what they are saying?
God save us from the BBC supporting the church of England eh? You’d be the first to complain if they didn’t.
Typhoo,
The point is that anytime I am invited on to the BBC, they make damned sure that there are those with opposing views to counter me. Fair enough but this report is pro-AGW with no other view allowed. That’s neither fair nor impartial.
Not strictly BBC bias but it does relate to shrove Tuesday and Lent etc. This article simply reflects the extent to which the madness and extremes of the politically correctness brigade have reached. These are the ridiculous situations that every day folk find themsleves facing because of this mad NuLabour government of curse ably supported by the BBC. I just simply despair at what has happened to this country in the last 10 years. Roll on the election.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/7227897.stm
Typhoo
I agree that we should try not to see bias in everthing the BBC churns out, but one does get the impression that they need to examine the hysterical tone of their environmental coverage at times.
The Bible directs us to be good stewards of the earth and its resources. There would be little dispute about this amongst Christians.
However, the question is whether a clerical “carbon fast” achieves anything. Will it spread the gospel? Will it help the poor?
It will have zero effect on the first, and in my opinion zero effect on the second. So why are they doing it?
Perhaps instead the bishops should put their efforts into preventing the deaths of thousands of old people in these islands who die every year because of the effects of cold, not global warming. Now that would be an achievement worthy of the gospel of Christ. But since when did the gospel of Christ feature prominently in the thinking of either the bishops or the BBC?
Typhoo
No. What really get’s up our collective noses is that BBC peddles the same stale tired old shit about human activity + capitalism equals global warming/climate change, day in, day out, with little or no variation.
That it happened to come from two bishops talking about Lent on this occasion is of monumental indifference to most of us.
Why not air an opposing view from a Bishop crying stinking fish, telling us that the whole MMGW caper is bollocks? They never do, prefering to peddle the same lie in the (probably correct) hope that some of it will eventually stick.
just been out for a drive in my impreza, getting 7 mpg when i floor it, great fun
said this in the other thread, plants react to the amount of light there is, notice how its getting lighter in the mornings and evenings? so have the plants, thats why they are beginning to vegitate, just like a beeboids brain
Sheep and goats.
Forgive the reference to Matthew’s gospel, but there are sheep and goats in the BBC approach to the senior clerics of the Church of England.
Here are the sheep:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7226488.stm
And here is the goat:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7173599.stm
Note particularly how the two articles are concluded; in the first the article is concluded by quoting a very supportive statement from a High Priest of the Church of Climate Change:
“Sir John Houghton, former Met Office chief executive and first chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s scientific assessment said: “Climate change shows us that our energy-hungry lifestyles are harming our poorer neighbours across the world now.
The moral imperative for us to act is unquestionable and inescapable.”
In the second the article is concluded by a statements criticising and undermining the bishop’s views:
“Muslim youth organisation The Ramadhan Foundation said it was disturbed at the bishop’s comments and urged him to step down, saying it was against the tolerant teachings of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.
Ibrahim Mogra, of the Muslim Council of Britain’s inter-faith relations committee, described the bishop’s comments as “alarming”.
He said: “If there is no evidence he can put forward then it boils down to simple scaremongering. It is very worrying if parts of our country become no-go areas for anybody, and it is not acceptable. To suggest that a handful of people are beginning to create such areas where nobody else can go unless they are Muslim needs evidence to back such claims.”
Sheep and goats; that’s how the BBC view most issues.
Sheep or goat?
You have to work hard to find this on the BBC news website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7227246.stm
Bit easier on the Daily Mail website:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=512292&in_page_id=1773
Wonder why?
I would say if this story represents anything it’s how desperate the church of England is for publicity. If it needs to follow the mainstream media to get anyone interested in it then it’s in serious trouble.
But then as the Church of England spend so much of their valuable time trying to appease Islam they deserve all they get.
just been out for a drive in my impreza, getting 7 mpg when i floor it, great fun
said this in the other thread, plants react to the amount of light there is, notice how its getting lighter in the mornings and evenings? so have the plants, thats why they are beginning to vegitate, just like a beeboids brain
This confirms my opinion that all Impreza drivers are wankers
“But then as the Church of England spend so much of their valuable time trying to appease Islam they deserve all they get.
The People’s Front of Judea | 05.02.08 – 3:06 pm”
Try telling that to the Bishop of Rochester as numerous members of the islamic faith threaten him and his family with death.
The problem is that none of the limp wristed greenies at the BBC want to address the REAL issue which is population growth.
These pillocks don’t get it that any cuts in pollution simply get eaten up if you allow for ever continual population growth, even with a stagnant economy.
Why can’t they get THAT fact through their tiny little arts brains?
As an example, take the lies by the BBC that the recent flooding is as a result of climate change.
No it is not. It’s caused by building hundreds of thousands of new homes often in floodlands and the failure of the Government to upgrade Victorian drains that overflow in heavy rain, the Environment Agency that has abandoned the rivers and the concreting over of large parts of our Country meaning that water doesn’t get absorbed into the ground.
Give a man a fish and he will eat.
Give a man a fishing rod and and he can feed his family and kids,
and their kids and…..wait a minute
they`re no bloody fish left,and a starving community,with no fish and a bloody fishing rod.
Start again.
Give a man a condom!
MrAnotherAnon,
jealousy
but rather than give me abuse address the issue, plants produce vegatation by the amount of light they receive, so whys Al Beeb plugging it as proof as global warming?
typical beeboid lefty insults, im buying a dodge viper next, thats got an 8.3L engine
😉
Press Release:
“I will stop farting for Lent”, says Gordon Brown.
See more at 10pm on The BBC “News”
The BBC are particularly lucky that the two Bishops are Anglican. If it had been Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor making the statement, I can’t help but feel that the BBC would be in a terrible fix.
After all, they wouldn’t be able to support his anti-global warming stance AND report on how an “Evil Catholic is Meddling in Politics”, would they?
hey beeboids i got 6 mpg out of my car last night driving down the motorway at 60 mph in 2nd gear at 5500rpm. Am i a climate criminal or what. Oh yes !
Mr Anon
Perhaps you are being premature in rejoicing in your criminality.
After all, for every fiver you spend on fuel four pounds goes into the coffers of the all wise fairy godmother government where it is spent for the benefit of the Human Race and Big Oil gets its evil hands on a miserly pound. On the other hand were you to spend the money on cheese the goverment would hve one pound only and the other four would go to the dairy industry (Big F**t?) to subsidise the production of methane!
Noname Antibeeb | 05.02.08 – 11:33 pm
But the BBC is run by papists…..Thompson and Byford (numbers 1 & 2 in the pecking order) among them.
Though Thompson inherited his religion from an Irish mother, he is not your usual kind of contemporary Catholic. St Aloysius Gonzaga is one of the three English oratories established by Cardinal John Henry Newman in the 19th century. Here, Mass is still said in Latin and there is no compromise with the happy-clappy modernism that has left many Catholic services elsewhere as banal as their C of E counterparts. Worship is wholly orthodox and utterly serious.
http://www.newstatesman.com/200405030021
Mr Anon
LOL
I’m just commenting that your point was not clear and didn’t address ANY issue! Plants vegitate? Are you making some sort of sophisticated argument about green plants and photo-synthesis counterbalancing any carbon dioxide production? To which we could debate about weather there are enough green plants to achieve this balance and more to the point does it matter a stuff anyway!
Oh yeah and the other thing – Jealous? Nah I just don’t like Scoobys and everyone I’ve known who drives one is a c***! Now a Dodge Viper on the other hand, that’s a serious car..
Gordon:
Mr Anon
Perhaps you are being premature in rejoicing in your criminality.
He was doing 60mph in a 70mph zone – no crime there. Unless driving Scoobys is a crime (which it should be in my opinion but it is not on the statute book)
OK I get it “Climate Criminal” well maybe he is, maybe it doesn’t matter.
Have you noticed the frequency with which Thought for the Day is used to promote green issues? I thought it was a spot for religious views… which, I suppose is what environmentalism actually is.
JM:
I’d forecast we’d get a green TFTD yesterday on Ash Wednesday but instead we got the Bp of Liverpool on John the Baptist and the temptation in the wilderness – daring references to the New Testament.
Today we got back to the old routine however with a priestess called Lane-Priestley giving it large on climate change. The similarities between Christian and Green millenarianism are too obvious to need rehearsing – they all go a little way to satisfy the power fantasies some people harbour.
When people stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing, they believe in anything, as Chesterton may or may not have said. And being a Green’s so much easier than being Christian, after all, and much more self-satisfying. Just like being a Communist used to be, in fact.
I would like to think that stories like the following – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/7231372.stm – herald the start of a a more even handed approach to the subject of global warming by the BBC – i’m not holding my breath however.