Last week saw a dramatic illustration of how far parts of the mainstream media has departed from the scientific process in its aim to catastrophise the climate and push society to accept the global Net Zero collectivisation. “London seeing more days above 30°C, experts say”, ran a BBC headline, with a reported suggestion that London must adapt to the “new reality”. But it turns out that the ‘experts’ have used “airport data for consistency across worldwide cities, including City Airport in London”. It is difficult to think of a more unsuitable dataset to promote notions of “extreme heat”, other than perhaps to take measurements next to the door of a blast furnace.
Similar versions of the story appeared in numerous mainstream outlets including Sky and the Independent suggesting the material was subbed from a circulated release. It originated from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED,) a green activist think tank that collects funding from a wide variety of governmental and private sources. The analysis is said to be part of a larger project to look at how “climate change” is affecting the world’s most populated cities. Sky said the IIAD report was just one in a raft of warnings in the last year, “about the pressing need to adapt the country to climate change”. IIED researcher Tucker Landesman claimed it was clear that the “extreme heat is here to stay and London must adapt soon to remain liveable for everyone”.
Landesman is an urban studies graduate from the LSE and he appears big on woke woo-woo. ‘Connecting decarbonisation and social justice’ and ‘Towards queer-centred urban development’, are two of his recent publications. Tucker is said to be “particularly interested in intersectional approaches to urban poverty and inequality”. No doubt these are his areas of expertise, but in collating measurements next to the exhausts of multiple jet aircraft for the purpose of making predictions of Thermogeddon, he would appear to be operating outside his comfort zone. Given what scientists have discovered about the urban heat effect, and its dramatic short-term effect on temperature measurements, it is difficult to understand why the BBC is giving house room to this ‘new analysis’. Having to pass through airports that are noticeably hotter than surrounding areas in air-conditioned buildings is hardly front page news – unless, of course, there is some pseudoscientific agenda at work.
The use of data from unsuitable sites has bedevilled the recent collection of accurate temperature measurements in most meteorological operations around the world. Earlier this year, the Daily Sceptic revealed that nearly eight out of ten of the U.K. Met Office’s measuring sites had huge scientifically-designated ‘uncertainties’ that effectively disqualified them from providing accurate data. Despite such large potential corruptions, the Met Office was able to claim to a hundredth of a degree that last year in the U.K. was only 0.06°C cooler than the year before.
The World Meteorological Organisation rates weather sites from class 1 to 5 based on the amount of human-caused heat corruption that is likely to occur next to the measuring devise. Class 4 comes with ‘uncertainties’ of 2°C and these accounted for 48.7% of the Met Office’s 380 recording stations. Class 5 comes with ‘uncertainties’ of 5°C and these applied to 29.2% of the total, with many of the stations set down the runways at local airports. For instance, frequent reference is made to high readings at the class 5 military airport at Northolt.
The BBC report claims that “really extreme temperatures” have become more frequent with seven days above 35°C in the past three decades, five of which occurred within the last five years, statistics from 1994-2023 show. Statistics also show that passenger numbers at the enlarged City Airport tripled over that period, although numbers are still well down on the years before Covid.
According to the official Met Office figures, which as we have seen need taking with plenty of salt, there has been a small rise in the average summer maximum temperature since the mid 1990s. It is about 0.8°C, but the recent rise is only 1.2°C higher than the averaged maximums recorded in the less urban heat corrupted records from around 90 years ago. Given that the global temperature has been gently warming over the last 150 years as a recovery from the Little Ice Age, this is not surprising. What would have been considered a ‘nice’ summer in the mid 1930s is now, one degree centigrade later, promoted in politicised alarmist terms with weather maps painted in hellish reds and purples.
In 2022, an insight into the heat corruptions at airports was provided by two former NASA scientists working out of the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Dr. Roy Spencer and Professor John Christy found massive human-caused heat distortions in the temperature record across the United States. Airports were found to be particularly prone to higher temperatures compared with those recorded in surrounding less urbanised areas.
The most dramatic finding occurred at Orlando airport where decadal warming since 1973 of 0.3°C is slashed to just 0.07°C after the data has been ‘de-urbanised’. The number of passengers has soared in recent years with over 50 million people passing through the ever-growing airport, the gateway to Mickey Mouse and the Magic Kingdom. Interestingly, the divergence between the two temperature datasets becomes more pronounced from the turn of the century.
Unsurprisingly, many of the Met Office’s heat ‘records’ have been recorded since the turn of the century. Almost all of them are from ‘junk’ class 5 and ‘near junk’ class 4 sites. Class 5 maximum temperature records, with their ‘uncertainties of 5°C, have been declared in Northern Ireland and three U.K. areas. The record in Central S was measured in St. James’s Park in London, site of one of the five 40°C plus recordings of July 19th, 2022. Class 4 record holders are even more numerous with the highest Scottish record set at Charterhall. Hawarden Airport is home to the highest Welsh recording. No less than five U.K. areas have records attributed to this class which comes with ’uncertainties’ of 2°C.
And, of course, who can forget the national joke record of 40.3°C declared on July 19th, 2022 at Coningsby – or more accurately, RAF Coningsby. Blink and you might have missed it since the 60-second record was caused by a 0.6°C spike either side of 3.12pm. As it happened, it appears that no less than three typhoon fighter jets were landing at or near that time.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
All Religion is mind control. And socialism grew from religion. Evil. Atheism is rhe beast course.
Lucky the world has benefited from the peaceful atheism of Mao,Stalin and Hitler.
Not to mention the current example: North Korea.
Atheism never lasts: sooner or later it transforms into two possible outcomes: nihilism (a sort of self-destructive suicidal anarchy) or totalitarianism.
Of these two outcomes anarchy does not last for very long either (it can’t as it is by its very nature dysfunctional), so eventually the only possible outcome is totalitarianism. Which is just a form of bad religion, as it replaces God with the Fűhrer or the State.
So, like it or not, the outcome is always religious, the question is who or what society worships.
Anarchy simply describes a situation where there is no leader (Greek, an archos). It does not have be bad or chaotic or violent. It depends on the people, like everything.
Anarcho-Capitalism suggests an absence of STATE, but not an absence of Law and Order.
You still have a constabulary, courts and prisons, but not centralised state control. No taxation on production, only on consumption.
Anarchy does not have to mean violence and lawlessness.
Read Murray Rothbard for explanations. Also, F.A. Hayek.
The state in principle is not bad, but the reality, as we see every single day is terrible.
Agnosticism is the best course. It’s OK to say, “I haven’t got the foggiest idea, I am going to focus on doing what I believe is right in the here and now, instead.”
Atheism is just another religion, in my opinion. “There is no God” is just as dogmatic a view as the rest.
They should stick to porridge.
good one!
At least they’d get their oats that way.
Hasn’t porridge been highlighted as a “bad” food?
Thank you, Charlotte Gill, for once again exposing the activities of the Provisional Wing of the Enemy Within. Marxists masquerading in Quaker pointed-hats, getting the usual kicks out of Telling Other People What To Do.
Chocolate Money getting up to all sorts of mischief – descendents of the filthy rich assuaging wealth-guilt through God’s Work.
Meanwhile, as ever, the real guardians of modern civilisation – farmers, food-retailers, engineers, plumbers, electricians, builders, materials scientists, software experts, etc, etc, etc – go purposefully about their daily business.
Seems as of tomorrow, steel-manufacturing notionally to continue, albeit through the usual expedient of throwing other people’s money at it.
My family knew two Quakers, they were the most genuine, serious and peaceful people. Both Master Cabinet Makers, of the Arts and Crafts movement, and both Conscientious Objectors.
Yes, it seems there will always be people ready to infect good things.
From what I have read, I don’t want these people to succeed in whatever they are doing, but phrases like “undermining democracy” make me uncomfortable. They are playing the system, perhaps sometimes with help from the system itself. But it’s up to what should be the most important participants in “democracy” to wake the hell up and act accordingly. It’s good that Charlotte Gill, DS and others shine a light – shame the information is not yet spread widely and has not sunk in.
The original Quakers were largely anti-establishment. Now that they have aligned themselves with the state and its progressive left-liberal policies and its sectarian system of governance known as diversity, they effectively have no king but Caesar.
Charities (including religious orders which enjoy similar tax and reputations advantages) must be taken in hand. They must lose status when they become political campaign groups.
Hear, hear!
I tend to think that no special privileges should be given to “charities”
There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of small local charities that do excellent work and that couldn’t exist without things like tax exemptions. My dad ran one for over two decades, helping poor and working-class people in Stoke-on-Trent insulate and heat their Victorian terraced homes so they could save much-needed money. I don’t think they particularly made it into a political cause. Then there are the small local private schools that have been forced to close because of the VAT policy, leaving special-needs children without suitable education and the state school system under serious pressure.
Perhaps more rigorous vetting is required before granting an organisation charitable status, but that status shouldn’t be abolished completely.
I’m sure you are right about lots of them doing good work. My issue is that I think it’s inevitable that the vetting process will become corrupted. In any case, my thoughts and your thoughts may differ from other people’s regarding what constitutes a good cause. An alternative is to treat them all as not-for-profit concerns which also attract some tax exemptions.
As soon as they become “political” and/or “activist” they should have their charitable status revoked, so the likes of RSPB, NT and many others should be put on notice, ditch your ideology or lose your status.
Who would decide whether something was “political” or “activist”? Who would appoint the body that decides this? To whom would this body be accountable? Whose definition of “political” or “activist” would be used?
I accept this is difficult to achieve, there is a charities commission, and this needs to be populated with non-partisan members, with no political bias, no conflicts of interest, and no political alliances. Several people on here might qualify!
The National Trust exists to preserve our national heritage and protect national and historical properties and artifacts – it does not exist to flaunt its Woke credentials, virtue signal and dismantle our history and heritage by de-colonising properties and artifacts.
If these organisations stray from their purpose, or “forget” why they exist (their mission) they should be issued with an order to either get their house in order or lose their charitable status and benefits.
I think it’s impossible to achieve. I certainly do not qualify – I am very partisan. Who appoints the charities commission?
Well done to Charlotte Gill for shining a light into the strange dark world of Quakerism. Her article inspired me to find out more about what Quakers actually believe, and it turns out that they are so extremely tolerant and welcoming that there are Muslim Quakers, Jewish Quakers, Hindu Quakers, Humanist Quakers and every other possible kind, though very few these days are Christian Quakers. They don’t like music or people singing hymns or praying aloud. You’re supposed to just keep silent and meditate, unless there’s a visiting imam giving a Muslim talk. Their main belief is in SOCIAL JUSTICE.
The Quaker ideas about sin and evil have shifted “from evil within the individual, to the Revealing of Social Evils”.
“Specific evils and sins named are personal pride, the vain use of resources and economic inequality (20.29), exploitative relationships (22.38), torture and slavery (23.31/30), homelessness and unjust land owners (23.23), unemployment (23.69), war (23.92; 24.04) armaments (24.40), and nuclear weapons (24.41).”
What does ‘Quaker Faith and Practice’ say about sin and evil? – Jolly Quaker
Well that’s a relief to know that when you become a Quaker, you don’t have to worry about repenting your own sins, or not committing adultery or any other sexual sin, but just focus on “SOCIAL JUSTICE”. You also won’t have to worry about Hell, because they don’t believe in Hell or any kind of just punishment for evil, though they also don’t believe in Heaven, so I guess you’ll be stuck in the grey mist of purgatory. But you’ll be stumbling round there with the other Lost Souls, happy to know you did your bit for SOCIAL JUSTICE on earth.
I used to go to some of their meetings in York. This was thirty years ago but I have to say that there was nothing pushy or bolshy about them then quite the contrary. We used to wait in quiet contemplation until the correct spirit had entered into us before saying anything. Any talking that ensued was conducted with great humility I remember being struck by that.
Bravo Charlotte Gill, following the money. I hope mainstream journalists start to pay attention to her investigations.
It’s a shame they can’t be bothered to look into human rights abuse in the UK