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A Round-Up of the BBC’s Climate Howlers of the Past 12 Months

by Chris Morrison
6 August 2023 7:00 AM

The annual Paul Homewood review of the BBC’s climate howlers is always an enjoyable read, even for those keen students who follow his investigative work during the year. But with the consensus starting to crumble for the insane Net Zero collectivist project, this latest instalment of Tall Climate Tales from the BBC seems to have attracted a wider audience. Talk TV and the Daily Express have both given extensive coverage to the latest set of BBC bloopers.

How we laughed when Julia Hartley-Brewer read from the list on her TalkTV morning show. Such as the report from the Norfolk village of Happisburgh where “extreme weather linked to climate change” has eroded the soft sand cliff rock. No mention of the finding of the British Geological Society that it is likely the Norfolk cliffs have been “eroding at the present rate for about the last 5,000 years”.

Or the report that the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season was the third most active on record. Nothing of the sort, of course, with Homewood observing that since 1851 there have been 32 years with a higher count of hurricanes. There was also an evidence-free claim in September 2022 on the BBC Verify that hurricanes were getting more powerful. The U.S. weather service NOAA states in its latest review that “there is not strong evidence for an increase since the late 1800s in hurricanes, major hurricanes, or the proportion of hurricanes that reach major hurricane intensity”.

Your own correspondent’s personal favourite made the list with news that bee-eaters had turned up in Norfolk to the delight of local twitchers. But the BBC was worried, reporting that rare ‘rainbow birds’ trying to breed in the UK was a worrying sign of how our climate is changing. It was an “unmissable sign”, no less, that the climate emergency had reached our shores. As any half-knowledgeable bird watcher could have told the BBC, bee-eaters have frequently visited England in the past. One archive alone lists 80 sightings between 1793 and 1957. Then there a story about trees in British cities that a study said were at risk of drought due to climate change. There is no evidence that the areas were getting drier, nor is there any evidence they will. “Once again, the BBC is uncritically presenting a controversial study as factual,” commented Homewood.

It is the common practice of the BBC to reproduce the most extreme climate claims without challenge, without providing supporting data, and without reporting on the views of scientists who disagree, writes Homewood. In fact, the practice continues almost daily. In March, the BBC said that Antarctica ocean currents were heading for collapse – “a new report warns”. The article proceeded to go into full Day After Tomorrow mode with “previous research” suggesting a slowdown in the North Atlantic current causing Europe to become colder.

Modern climate science/activism is awash with clickbait predictions looking for a suitable home in useful idiot mainstream media. As recent research from the Clintel Foundation revealed, about 42% of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate impact statements are based on a computer model that assumes temperatures will climb by 5°C in less than 80 years. Even the IPCC itself admits this is of “low likelihood”. About half the published climate papers are thought to use this 5°C input, leading to a festival of misinformation for gainfully employed journalists content to append “scientists say” to fanciful copy. The latest giant of modern science to rain on this parade is last year’s joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics Dr John Clauser, who calls the climate emergency narrative a “dangerous corruption” of science that threatens the well-being of billions of people. Misguided climate science has “metastasised into massive shock-journalistic pseudoscience”, he observes.

The state broadcaster has followed this path of eco-extremism for over 20 years, providing covering fire for politicians to promote a Net Zero project. As audiences continue to decline, the BBC increasingly operates as a club of eco-fanatics intent on signally their virtue to fellow members of the cult. It fails to cover the scientific process at almost every level, discounting the views of any scientists that don’t adhere to the party political line. As with Covid, there seems to be an irrational belief in the output of computer models. Such belief leads to a preposterous acceptance that ‘attribution‘ models can link individual weather events to supposed human involvement.

As we have noted, large areas of science are now closed for debate for fear that any competing views will cast doubt on the unproven but ‘settled’ hypothesis that humans cause all or most climate change. Natural variation in the climate is largely ignored, while stories of once fanatical interest suddenly disappear from the carefully constructed catastrophe playlist. These include polar bears – more than you can shake a stick at these days – the recovery in Arctic sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet, and spectacular coral growth on the Great Barrier Reef.

In Homewood’s view, the BBC’s coverage of climate change and related policy issues such as energy “has long been of serious and widespread concern”. In his latest review, Homewood notes that all of the BBC’s factual errors could easily have been avoided with a bit of basic research. And he asks, who is editing all this “fake reporting”? Where are the highly paid executives who let all this continue? “It is apparent that nothing has changed in the last 12 months,” he says.

One more for the road – another personal favourite of mine. It was dry in February this year, despite an average amount of rainfall over the winter. Banging the drum for drought, the BBC produced a picture of an empty reservoir labelled “water levels in rivers, reservoirs and groundwater levels were abnormally low in February”. Alas, the picture showed trees in full leaf, which wasn’t surprising since it was taken in September 2021, a time when reservoirs can be seasonably low. “There’s nothing like a fake image to fool the public,” comments Homewood.

Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.

Stop Press: Paul Homewood has produced a summary of his latest report about the BBC’s climate howlers for the Express.

Tags: BBCClimate changeHurricanesIPCCPaul Homewood

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27 Comments
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MikeAustin
MikeAustin
1 year ago

Despite all the current rain and low temperatures, the BBC still report global warming.
I have an explanation.
It’s asymptomatic global warming, just like a covid infection but not explicitly described in the same way.

211
-1
D J
D J
1 year ago
Reply to  MikeAustin

Yes,but think of Mars and Venus. Stay home,save planets!

72
-1
FerdIII
FerdIII
1 year ago
Reply to  D J

Didn’t the ‘science’ promise life on both? One has no atmosphere, the other an immature atmosphere. I thought Venus had flying dinos (the science said so in the 1960s), surface temp 1000 F….

29
0
Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
1 year ago
Reply to  FerdIII

They don’t dare colonize Venus because of the evil dictator Mekon, who is slated for proxy war after Putin and Xi are dealt with.

38
0
Marque1
Marque1
1 year ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

Don’t tell me Dan Dare didn’t do the deed! Another childhood hero shown to have feet of clay. Damn! I am destroyed.

Last edited 1 year ago by Marque1
23
-1
Roy Everett
Roy Everett
1 year ago
Reply to  D J

It looks like the co-founder of Oceangate, Guillermo Söhnlein, has proposed sending a submersible, occupied by humans, to float in Venus’s atmosphere, around the 20 °C 1 atmosphere level. There’s a slight problem with the incessant fluorosulphonic acid rain to be dealt with.

Last edited 1 year ago by Roy Everett
9
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago
Reply to  D J

And Mars… 96% atmospheric CO2 – boiling hot.

8
-1
The Real Engineer
The Real Engineer
1 year ago
Reply to  JXB

There is a rather better reason why it is hot, it is much nearer the Sun!

8
0
DickieA
DickieA
1 year ago
Reply to  MikeAustin

Hot in Southern Europe – “conclusive evidence of Global Boiling”. Cold in UK – “weather”.

85
-1
HelzBelz
HelzBelz
1 year ago
Reply to  DickieA

Or as my idiot husband says, global boiling is happening everywhere – except here…

39
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago
Reply to  DickieA

11C this morning in Kent. August.

22
0
Castorp
Castorp
1 year ago
Reply to  MikeAustin

Do not tempt them, shallow one!
Isn’t the miracle of the mediterranean heatwave enough?!

17
0
FerdIII
FerdIII
1 year ago

I am sure July will be declared the hottest evah!
The Earth is an open system, not closed, ergo the greenhouse ‘effect’ is bullshit.
Their models have always been fraudulent – ClimateGate proved that – a fact that the BBC retards never reported on.
The cult of boiling is as stupid and fascistic as the cult of the stabbinations and Rona.

114
-7
Chris P
Chris P
1 year ago
Reply to  FerdIII

According to the Met Office the average temperature in England in July 2023 was the 49th warmest out of the last 139. This was not mentioned on the BBC whereas the June 2023 average being the warmest might have been mentioned once or twice.

52
-1
JXB
JXB
1 year ago
Reply to  FerdIII

And heat moves from warm to cool as long as 2C difference in temp. Heat is therefore continually moving from the surface towards the boundary of the atmosphere and into Space which has no heat.

Last edited 1 year ago by JXB
12
0
JohnK
JohnK
1 year ago

A one year range is a bit narrow for identifying some of the notorious ones. The one I can remember is the 1987 one, when the presenter said something along the lines of “don’t worry, it’s not going to happen here…” After which there were strong winds, with many trees toppling in the London area. They had a bad press after that, and I think it might have had something to do with a defensive attitude in many forecasters, even now. The psychology of forecasting may be an interesting topic to pursue!

43
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The old bat
The old bat
1 year ago

The failure of MSM to mention the Hunga Tonga eruption, and the amount of water vapour it put into our atmosphere, is shocking. This could affect global temperatures for up to five years, but nooo…it doesn’t fit with the narrative. (Interesting article on ‘Watts up with that’.)

111
0
DickieA
DickieA
1 year ago
Reply to  The old bat

The IPCC acknowledges that water vapor is the most important and abundant greenhouse gas. In the 2007 Report they wrote:

“Water vapour is the most abundant and important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere”.

They then explain why they are going to ignore it:

“However, human activities have only a small direct influence on the amount of atmospheric water vapour.”

So there we have it – water is by far the most abundant greenhouse gas – but they ignore man’s role in atmospheric H20 levels. More importantly, they haven’t a clue as to whether water vapour provides a positive feedback (accelerates warming) or a negative feedback.

Here’s a couple of articles for anyone interested:

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/10/24/water-vapour-the-big-wet-elephant-in-the-room/

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/21/atmospheric-water-vapor-tpw-and-climate-change/

57
-1
NeilofWatford
NeilofWatford
1 year ago

‘who is editing all this “fake reporting”? Where are the highly paid executives who let all this continue?’
I’m a serious BBC watchman, have been for many years.
Whether its daily (literally) demonisation of Israel, promotion of greenism, indoctrination of children with LGBT, soft touch on Islam or hatred of anything on the right, this is deliberate policy.
The ‘editors’ are paid to push this agenda, not establish if output is factual.

118
-3
7941MHKB
7941MHKB
1 year ago
Reply to  NeilofWatford

And don’t forget that, supported by the State’s powers, anyone with a TV must pay for their lies, watch them or not.

Increasing numbers refuse to do so.

Note also that the BBC is also staunch supporters of the barefaced nonsense that Ruinable Energy is cheap and effective, that white people are incurably racist, that the British Empire was Genocidal.

It is also interesting that China, that emits 30 times as much CO2 as the UK, is according to the BBC an example of a State that is doing a great job for the Climate.

74
-3
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago

Well it looks like the sea levels are rising in this part of the world. Quite a bit of flotsam and jetsam being washed ashore here! 😮

https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1687835695509889024

9
0
StickyWicket
StickyWicket
1 year ago

The BBC is doubling down on the climate hysteria because they are detecting that the political wind has changed direction.

https://davidturver.substack.com/p/political-support-for-net-zero-cracking

135683148.jpg
24
0
Marque1
Marque1
1 year ago

I am horrified that so many of you sarcastic, AGW denying buggers are allowed on a decent site like this. You continue to steal my dreams and childhood. How dare you, how very dare you! Shame on you!
OK, at 66 the childhood bit may be a teensy weensy bit inaccurate.

38
0
DickieA
DickieA
1 year ago
Reply to  Marque1

Not inaccurate at all; if you self-identify as an 11 year old, from my understanding – despite being 66 – that’s enough these days.

26
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago

But…but… BBC Verify™️ so anything they say must be true.

27
0
CHRIS
CHRIS
1 year ago

If the entire planet went Net Zero today it would not start to drop CO2 levels for 100 to 300 years. BBC’s woke “Verify” should probably point that out.

Also worth pointing out that CO2 levels won’t make a jot of difference to the climate. What changes in climate there are (and we would be foolish to deny that some change is happening) are mainly as a result of natural causes plus a bit of human help from our own mass deforestation of the planet and the construction of 100’s of concrete heat-trapping mega-cities needed as a result of out of control population growth, to wit, 2 billion extra people in just the last 23 years.

As the hacks at the BBC won’t ever point these facts out it’s fair to say they’re garbage.

18
-1
Alan
Alan
1 year ago

The issue driving all this is the first belief that the sun cannot heat the earth’s surface to the temperatures we measure and the second belief that carbon dioxide generates the missing heat. This is what you need to concentrate on.

2
-1

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