BBC to be investigated over climate science bias

7 January, 2010 by

BBC: impartial climate reporting

And not a moment too soon. The Daily Mail reports that the BBC Trust, the broadcaster’s governing body, has launched a major review of its science coverage after complaints about bias, especially on climate matters:

The BBC Trust today announced it would carry out the probe into the ‘accuracy and impartiality’ of its output in this increasingly controversial area.

The review comes after repeated criticism of the broadcaster’s handling of green issues. It has been accused of acting like a cheerleader for the theory that climate change is a man-made phenomenon.

Critics have claimed that it has not fairly represented the views of sceptics of the widely-held belief that humans are responsible for environmental changes such as global warming.

…

Last year a leading climate change sceptic claimed his views had been deliberately misrepresented by the BBC.

Lord Monckton, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said he had been made to look like a ‘potty peer’ on a TV programme that ‘was a one-sided polemic for the new religion of global warming’.

In 2007 the then editor of Newsnight hit out at the BBC’s stance on climate change.

Peter Barron said it was ‘not the corporation’s job to save the planet’. His comments were backed up by other senior news executives who feared the BBC was ‘leading’ the audience, rather than giving them ‘information’.

Mr Barron had claimed the BBC had gone beyond its remit by planning an entire day of programmes dedicated to highlighting environmental fears.

His comments had come after the broadcaster had already been accused of not being objective on green issues and of handing over the airwaves to campaigners. In 2007 it had devoted a whole day of programming to the Live Earth concerts.

I wouldn’t hold your breath (except to reduce your carbon footprint, of course).

Read it here. (h/t Climate Realists)

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Climate madness from Richard Denniss

7 January, 2010 by

Climate nonsense

Writing in The Australian, the executive director of the Australia Institute, Richard Denniss, is taken in by impressive looking reports from economists about how we should tackle climate change:

Diplomacy aside, it’s in Australia’s interests to cut emissions as quickly as possible. The advice from Nicholas Stern, Ross Garnaut and most economists is that early efforts to reduce emissions will be cheaper than delayed efforts. A stitch in time will save nine. So where should Australia start?

Even the climate sceptics should agree the first step is the abolition of the billions of dollars worth of perverse subsidies and tax loopholes that encourage the consumption of fossil fuels. When individuals buy petrol, they pay 38c a litre in fuel excise. Airlines don’t. And Fringe Benefits Tax arrangements ensure that the more you drive a company car, the bigger the tax savings are.

Surely it makes sense to stop paying the polluters before we implement a polluter pays scheme.

The second thing the government needs to do is to start shutting down Australia’s brown coal-fired power stations, which are among the most polluting in the world. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong likes to talk about creating a low-carbon economy but the reality is the government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will neither result in a reduction in Australia’s emissions compared with today’s levels or lead to a single coal-fired power station shutting down. What we should do is increase the size of the renewable energy target and start building gas-fired power stations on the sites of the existing brown-coal power stations.

I have never understood why people continually say “it’s in Australia’s interest” to cut emissions. Cutting emissions isn’t in any country’s interest if that country values its standards of living, the health of its economy and seeks to alleviate poverty. But it’s a price that may have to be paid in order to assuage the demands of radical environmentalists. And then there are the weighty tomes. Denniss is an economist too, so it’s not surprising he places so much faith in other economists, but the Stern report was, to quote Lawrence Solomon, “a comic mishmash of bad math, bad faith and worst-case scenarios treated as overwhelming probabilities.” Garnaut’s was much the same. To base policy on that kind of hyperbole is madness. Add that to the punishing cost of replacing coal with hugely expensive alternatives for electricity generation and you have a recipe for certain economic disaster. And to what end? To reduce global emissions by three fifths of sod-all.

Read it here.

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UK: Times adverts on "climate change" inaccurate

7 January, 2010 by

Wrong.

Last year, The Times ran a series of advertisements showing a ship passing through icy waters and claiming:

“Climate change has allowed the Northeast Passage to be used as a commercial shipping route for the first time.”

Unfortunately, it isn’t true, as The Register points out:

In fact, the North East Passage opened in 1934, and was opened to overseas traffic after the fall of the Soviet Union. Modern technology, specifically radar, has permitted a safer passage in recent years.

The UK Advertising Standards Authority received 29 complaints, and slapped down The Times, which agreed to change the wording:

“Climate change has allowed the Northeast passage to be more accessible as a viable commercial shipping route.”

Just another in a long line of examples of climate change spin, and a rare occasion on which it has been actually called out.

Read it here.

PS. This was an informal ruling, so unfortunately there is no adjudication on the ASA web site (although you can find the details here, under the Informal Resolved Cases tab)

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RealClimate finalist for "Best Religious Blog" in Weblog Awards

6 January, 2010 by

Worthy nomination

The 2009 Weblogs didn’t actually get to that stage before they pulled the plug, but RC got the second highest number of nominations in the Best Religious Blog category. My friend over at Soylent Green had a lot to do with it, apparently, and writes (proudly):

Well, the votes are in for the 2009 Weblog Awards. And even though the creators cancelled this year’s contest, that’s not going to stop a-holes like us from finishing our Holy mission–especially when we’ve been hatching this plot for two months.

Therefore, we–being McGoo and I–have totaled the nominating votes and declare Real Climate a Best Religious Blog Weblog Award Finalist for 2009.

The top four vote recipients, in order, were:

  1. One Cosmos 253
  2. RealClimate 149
  3. Hare Krsna 33
  4. Wild Hunt. 29 (complete totals are available for vote denialists)

Reaction to the vote has been brisk. See what others have said…

“It validates everything I’ve been preaching since 2006. I’ve done a Christian [-based] training program; I have a Muslim training program and a Jewish training program coming up, also a Hindu program coming up. I trained 200 Christian ministers and lay leaders here in Nashville in a version of the slide show that is filled with scriptural references. It’s probably my favourite version, but I don’t use it very often because it can come off as proselytising.”—Al Gore

“It has it’s own High Priests and it’s own Holy Writ.” — Ian Plimer

“Bwuhahahahahahahahahahahahaha.” — Christopher Lord Monckton

“Real what?”—Michael Mann

“[Snip – this is a family blog – Ed].”—Gavin Schmidt

“Phil’s not here, Mann.”—Phil Jones

“I’m pleased the voters could see the forrest for the trees.”—Keith Briffa

Great stuff – read it here (obscenity alert!). Also check out the original post hatching the plan here.

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UK: Record snow "doesn't undermine global warming science"

6 January, 2010 by

Brass monkeys

Just this morning I wondered how long it would be before some rent-a-quote scientist would come out and say that the record snow in the UK (plus record cold elsewhere in the Northern hemisphere) could not be used to question the religion of “global warming”. Well, it’s taken just a few hours:

Stephen Dorling, of the University of East Anglia’s school of environmental sciences, said it was not surprising the cold period raised questions over climate change – but the snowy weather should not be used as evidence against it.

He said: ”It’s no surprise that people look out of their window at the snow and find it hard to rationalise what’s going on with the longer term trend.”

But he said it was wrong to focus on single events – whether they were cold snaps or heat waves – which were the product of natural variability.

Instead they should look at the underlying, longer term trends for the climate which were more ”robust” evidence of the changes which are happening.

Dr Dorling said: ”There is no doubt we will continue to have unusually warm and unusually cold Decembers and Januarys but it will be superimposed on what the background climate is doing.” (source)

It cuts both ways: if record cold and snow don’t negate global warming theory (which they obviously don’t), then heatwaves and droughts don’t support it either. So I wait with bated breath for The Sydney Morning Herald or The Age to run the following headlines in the next hot spell: “Don’t jump to conclusions: heatwave does not prove global warming theory”, or “Drought ‘entirely consistent’ with global cooling, says scientist.” I think I’ll be waiting a very, very long time…

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UK: Heaviest snowfall in 50 years forecast

6 January, 2010 by

Global warming at work

From the Weather Isn’t Climate Department. This global warming sure is tricky. While the papers here are full to bursting about the last decade being the “hottest” on record (never “warmest” or “mildest”, you will note, but “hottest” – and we’re talking a few tenths of one degree here) I guess there will be some scientist, somewhere, who will attribute record snowfall in the UK to changing weather patterns caused by “global warming”. Here’s a recap from last year, when the UK had the worst snow for 30 years:

Even though this is quite a cold winter by recent standards it is still perfectly consistent with predictions for global warming,” said Dr Myles Allen, head of the Climate Dynamics group at Department of Physics, University of Oxford.

“If it wasn’t for global warming this cold snap would happen much more regularly. What is interesting is that we are now surprised by this kind of weather. I doubt we would have been in the 1950s because it was much more common. (source)

So there you have it. And again in 2010, my home country is frozen:

As the country was plunged into one of its worst winters for decades, the Met Office issued an emergency weather warning for all counties of the UK. The South, including London and the Home Counties, were expected to bear the brunt of the snowfall with emergency services warning they are already struggling to cope with the increasingly bitter conditions.

Forecasters predicted that more than one foot of snow could fall in less than 24 hours in most southern areas leading to widespread chaos and disruption for millions. The residents of Hampshire and Wiltshire were expected to be the worst hit, with as much as 16 inches likely to be dumped by the end of tomorrow. Residents and commuters in London, which ground to a halt last February following heavy falls, were warned to expect a covering of several inches by the morning rush hour.

On the roads drivers were advised not to venture out unless their journey was absolutely essential, as councils warned they could run out of grit if the conditions failed to improve.

The Met Office claimed the amount of snow forecast could be the biggest single fall since the notorious winter of 1962-63, when some areas of the country were blighted by snow and ice for more than three months. During that winter the south saw more than a foot of snow, while blizzards in some parts of Wales led to drifts of over 18 feet. (source)

And fuel will start running out pretty soon:

Figures obtained by the Tories suggested that if the icy weather conditions continue, storage supplies [of gas] could begin to run out early next week. Greg Clark, the Shadow Energy Secretary, accused the Government of negligence over the issue, claiming they had ignored repeated warnings over potential shortages. For only the second time ever, the National Grid on Monday issued a warning to energy providers that demand for gas is threatening to outstrip supply.

The ultimatum comes after a 30 per cent rise on normal seasonal demand as snow and freezing conditions continued their stranglehold on Britain. But the Conservatives claimed the Government had failed to put contingency plans in place for more than a decade.

Mr Clark said: ”This alert is just a taste of what’s to come as a result of Labour’s negligence. Gas supply shortages are already being predicted in the North West and East Midlands and at today’s level of demand we only have enough stored gas for another eight days worth of supply.

“I have repeatedly warned that Britain lacks the essential back-up plans needed for situations like this one. The Government has had its head in the sand on this issue for 12 years. (source)

Good job they don’t have an emissions trading scheme that will push up prices of fuel for the poorest in society. Oh, wait, they already have. They’ll have to start burning books soon. Oh, wait, they already are. (h/t Daily Bayonet)

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BoM: 2009 "second hottest year on record"

5 January, 2010 by

Good news for doom mongers

The warmenistas will love this – oh, well, can’t begrudge them a bit of fun – it’s been a shocking year for the poor blighters. The Bureau has come out and labelled 2009 the second hottest year on record:

“2009 ends Australia’s warmest decade on record, with a decadal mean temperature anomaly of +0.48C (above the 1961-90 average),” the Bureau of Meterology said.

“In Australia, each decade since the 1940s has been warmer than the preceding decade. In contrast, decadal temperature variations during the first few decades of Australia’s climate record do not display any specific trend. This suggests an apparent shift in Australia’s climate from one characterised by natural variability to one increasingly characterised also by a trend to warmer temperatures.”

In a statement, the bureau also noted that the World Meteorological Organisation stated that 2009 is expected to be the globe’s fifth warmest year on record (about 0.44C above the 1961-90 average).

And the moronic Peter “Where’s Penny” Garrett leaps on it as evidence of “global warming”:

Environment Minister Peter Garrett said today the finding that Australia’s annual mean temperature for 2009 was 0.9C above the 1961-90 average exposed Tony Abbott’s false climate change claim that global warming has stopped.

“This false and misleading claim is today shown to be completely at odds with the rigorous scientific findings of the independent experts at the Bureau of Meteorology,” Mr Garrett said.

“This is the latest Abbott climate-change clanger to be exposed by the independent experts and once again shows why Mr Abbott cannot be trusted when it comes to climate change.”

Mr Garrett said the weather records underlined the need for a carbon pollution reduction scheme to reduce global warming. (source)

Where’s Penny again? Where’s Kevin? When those two aren’t around, it’s left to the pea-brained rock-star to deal with climate matters. So what does this actually say? It actually says that the surface temperature in Australia is the second highest since 1850 [Update: actually, since 1910, which makes it even less relevant]. Big freaking deal. The planet was at the end of the Little Ice Age in 1850, so guess what, it’s getting warmer.

What doesn’t it say?

  • It doesn’t prove any link with CO2 emissions, so Garrett’s link to the CPRS is total nonsense
  • It doesn’t say that the satellite record shows far less warming (almost none) since 2001 (see below)
  • It doesn’t say the planet has been warmer previously – it has, many times – nor that the rate of warming is anything unusual.

In fact, Dr Roy Spencer has just posted the December anomaly from UAH:

Dr Spencer comments thus:

While the large amount of year-to-year variability in global temperatures seen in the above plot makes it difficult to provide meaningful statements about long-term temperature trends in the context of global warming, the running 25-month average suggests there has been no net warming in the last 11 years or so. (source)

Which would you trust? Satellite data, or thermometer records that are fudged and “adjusted” and “homogenized” by the likes of CRU?

UPDATE at 3 pm: And of course, every two-bit rag, newsletter and gossip sheet in Australia is now running the story. Stuffed full of alarmists, the editorial offices have had a pretty tough time, what with the climate not co-operating, and Climategate. But now they can breathe a collective sigh of relief as a big, copper-bottomed scare story finally breaks (except it isn’t if you actually stopped for five seconds to think about it).

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2009 Weblog Awards cancelled

5 January, 2010 by

Cancelled

Unfortunately, due to lack of computing resources, the Weblog awards have been cancelled this year.

A big thank you, however, to all of you who nominated this site – we had the highest number of nominations in the Best Australian or New Zealand Blog category.

Hopefully, they will get their act together for next year.

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Rally in Canberra for Peter Spencer

4 January, 2010 by

Supporters

Whilst Kevin Rudd sits and home and takes the credit for a children’s book about his pets written by someone else, Peter Spencer is into his 43rd day of hunger strike protesting against the confiscation of his land (without compensation) for use as a carbon sink, in order for Australia to meet its Kyoto obligations (see here for more stories on this).

More than 300 people have rallied outside Parliament House in Canberra in support of hunger-striking New South Wales farmer Peter Spencer.

Mr Spencer has spent 43 days without food on top of a tower on his property at Shannons Flat near Cooma, in protest against state laws which stop him from clearing vegetation on his land.

He wants the Commonwealth to compensate farmers whose land has been used as ‘carbon sinks’.

…

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce also addressed the crowd, calling for a Royal Commission into vegetation laws.

He said farmers across Australia have been unjustly divested of their land.

“It might have been legally possible but it was totally unjust,” he said.

Read it here.

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Monckton offers "personal briefing" to Kevin Rudd

4 January, 2010 by

Viscount Monckton

Viscount Monckton writes to Kevin Rudd to offer a “personal briefing” on the non-problem of AGW:

Prime Minister,

Climate change: proposed personal briefing

Your speech on 6 November 2009 to the Lowy Institute, in which you publicly expressed some concern at my approach to the climate question, has prompted several leading Australian citizens to invite me come on tour to explain myself in a series of lectures in Australia later this month. I am writing to offer personal briefings on why “global warming” is a non-problem to you and other party leaders during my visit. For convenience, I am copying this letter to them, and to the Press.

I wouldn’t hold your breath. Kevin Rudd and his government have their fingers plugged firmly into their ears on this subject.

Read it all here (h/t WUWT)

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