It may be a general election, and we may be emerging from the coldest winter in thirty years. But hey ho, this is the BBC, and there’s always a global warming scare story around somewhere. Today, it’s that old canard, “early spring”. The fanatics at the Woodland Trust have done a bit of cod research to back up their prejudices, and Richard Black has swallowed it hook, line and sinker, as usual. If he’d spent two minutes searching the internet, he would have found this excellent piece, filed yesterday, which urges strong caution and points out that all such claims are fraught with problems. It lays bare how warmists, led by the BBC, have been pushing relentlessly this seam of scariness for more than a decade. But never let the facts get in the way of a good scare story, Richard, eh? And certainly never quote anybody who might disagree with your moonshine.
COME WHAT MAY
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It was always inevitable that as soon as the weather warmed up, the first global warming cuckoos of spring would emerge.
Lord help us when summer arrives – temperatures above 21 degrees (C)? Phew, what a scorcher! Hottest since, well, last summer… we’re all gonna die… drought orders all round… we’re all gonna DIE !!!! Must be global warming. If my perception of the fickle voting public is correct, as soon as it gets a bit warmer there’ll be a discernible increase in those who believe in AGW. Call me a cynic, if you like. God preserve us from ourselves.
So we’ve just emerged from the coldest winter in 30 years, which is no big deal, to a spring which is a couple of nanoseconds earlier than last year, so we’re all going to fry? Got it, BBC. Thanks.
Yesterday the FT had an editorial that had just a glimmer of backing away from slavish acceptance of all the AGW moonshine.
Today there is an excellent letter from David Henderson that summarises all the weaknesses in the AGW case, criticises media such as the FT for lazy acceptance of the AGW case – and argues that it would be folly to rush (as Brown and the Milliband idiots have been) towards policies that have a severe economic impact.
I believe this David Henderson is the economist who – back in the 1970s – argued that economic follies such as Concorde gather huge momentum but make little real progress. Just like steamrollers, their very weight makes them almost unstoppable. That analogy seems to relate to the AGW nonsense as well.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/89cddef6-41dd-11df-865a-00144feabdc0.html
(well worth registering to see it. The FT is now wobbling ? – and Der Spiegel has just carried a very full review of the debate – including full accounts of the sceptics’ arguments.
Well well well ! Maybe a bit of sanity is breaking through. The last to latch on to it will be Black and others at the BBC.
I pointed out some time back that Harrabin and co were lying low whilst we shivered under the thick belt of snow. I said that once the snow had all gone Harrabin and his turd eating pals would crawl out from under their stones to start spouting their usual bollocks again.
Hey presto.
We were all going to die from swine flu – but lo and behold the NHS has cancelled 3/4 of the vaccine they had ordered as they have millions of pounds worth of the stuff going begging.
A Labour MP appereared on five lite saying the WHO overplayed the danger (while also blaming the drug companies for playing on the scare for profit). The anology with AGW was amazing but no one seemed to pick it up. Certainly not that smug Peter Allen (Labour supporter?)
All it needs for AGW to be dropped is for some drug company to start making some money from it.
Paul Flynn, Labour MP, was on Today this morning blaming WHO and absolving Labour of all blame. James Naughtie (Labour supporter, no need for a question mark) didn’t challenge him too hard.
Paul Flynn – yes that was he. Couldn’t the BBC find another opinion. Seems like the same MP does the rounds answering the same questions on several BBC programmes.
“An early spring is climate, but apparently a late spring is just weather. When can we expect retractions from The Guardian, BBC and Real Climate?”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/04/06/global-warming-and-%E2%80%9Cthe-early-spring%E2%80%9D-part-ii/#more-18221
Also click on this link and see how early or late a chosen plant has flowered in the past.
http://data.kew.org/wild/phenology/
It doesn’t take an “expert” to cherry pick this data.
Richard Black’s blog postings are now beyond parody and often descend into farce (interesting to note that those who disagreed had free rein for a while until ably countered by nothing but moderator-approved ad homs).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2010/04/hair_of_the_copenhagen_dog.html#comments
What’s even better is his defensive skills in digging deeper holes when he weighs in. To some pointed questions on the choice of imagery to ‘complement’, and possibly enhance the narrative:
‘I have far too much regard for the intellect of all of you to think you would allow yourselves to be brainwashed by a mere picture.’
For which he has, rightly, be called out as a fool upon.
This is what he chooses to address????! And in this way?
I wonder if the BBC is content with the notion that pictures are chosen not for relevance or balance but agenda-value, and it is a faux-regard for audience intellect that is relied upon to see it as mere propaganda ramped up to 11.
Expect Gordon with a halo soon. Hey, if they can get Obama with a cross…
BBC’s Richard Black prattles on about ‘Copenhagen climate bus’, and omits this huge development re- South Africa and coal:
World Bank has given $3.75 billion loan for coal-fired electricity plant in South Africa –
{Extract from comment by ‘EU Referendum’}
“You can see why the greenies are so upset. The plant will add potentially 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere over term – about three times the total UK annual emissions from power stations, motor vehicles and homes. It effectively makes a nonsense of our attempts to cut our emissions, especially when India is planning six of these units, dwarfing any UK reductions.
“Strangely though, although The Guardian covered the loan issue on 1 April, and The Times on Tuesday, there seems to be no UK media reaction so far, despite – or perhaps because of – the embarrassment quotient to the UK government.
“One suspects that this is another gem that is going to be lost in the torrent of election coverage. It would never do for the British media to offer real news on issues of substance.”
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2010/04/go-for-coal.html
Meanwhile, the BBC’s Richard Black is on the ‘Copenhagen climate bus’ with the blinds drawn over the windows:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2010/04/hair_of_the_copenhagen_dog.html
Do BBC’s environment ‘journalists’ keep up with business news? E.g. Poland gas development assists UK supplies-
“Poland’s gas find threatens Russia’s hold over EU”
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/61807,business,poland-gas-find-threatens-russias-hold-over-eu