A fascinating encounter took place last Sunday when Richard Tice debated climate change with the green energy promoter and climate activist Bob Ward from the LSE Grantham Research Institute. Fascinating, because the certitudes of ‘settled’ climate science are not often debated in the public square. On his Sunday morning TalkTV show, a well-informed Tice interrogated Ward on many of his extremist positions, including the notion that humans cause all climate change.
“Do you think we can stop climate change?” asked Tice. “Of course we can,” replied Ward, seemingly ignoring the fact that climate has always changed, and always will. All of the recent warming is caused by humans, he argues. This extreme view, held by many who suggest the science around climate change is ‘settled’, downplays past large temperature movements. Ward claims much of these changes were related to long-term orbital variations. It is warmer now than at any time in the last 12,000 years, he states, despite evidence to the contrary. Ward dismissed such evidence as coming from bloggers and a single Greenland ice core. This of course is the ‘hockey stick’ argument, and has been debunked by numerous scientists. Two recent scientific studies, for instance, examining plant and animal remains, have indicated much higher temperatures in Arctic Svalbard, 9,000 years ago, and northern China 8,000 to 5,000 years ago.
Of course, the politicisation of climate science and the idea that it is somehow settled have long acted to reduce the role of other atmospheric influences. This makes it much easier to demand that humans stop using fossil fuel and sign up to a command-and-control Net Zero agenda. Faced with no choice – scientists say – submission on an increasing number of fronts is demanded, with changes required on diet, individual transport, heating and cooling and foreign holidays. Almost unimaginable amounts of money must be spent to save the planet. Mr. Ward has spent years promoting this agenda, and is the Communications Director of the LSE Grantham Institute. This operation is partly funded by the green billionaire investor, Jeremy Grantham.
Of course, the notion that you can somehow stop the climate changing is an irrational form of climate denial. As we have seen in many recent Daily Sceptic articles, there is a huge and greatly under-reported scientific discussion on the ways the climate changes. The issues range from the ‘saturation’ of carbon dioxide and its diminishing warming properties to the vast heat exchanges that have always had a vital part to play. Directly linking all warming and cooling to changes in CO2, a trace atmospheric gas, is a science hypothesis that is unproven. Not a single peer-reviewed paper exists that provides conclusive proof. All forecasts of imminent climate thermogeddon are based on climate models, but these haven’t produced a single correct forecast in the last 40 years.
Tice went on to note a number of excellent environmental news items, including record numbers of polar bears, huge coral growth on the Great Barrier Reef and a recovery in Arctic summer sea ice. “What you are doing is ignoring the trends and cherry-picking the bits,” replied Ward. Two pictures showing similar levels of Arctic sea ice on May 24th 1995 and May 24th 2022 were dismissed with the odd comment: “You take two days and try to establish a trend.” Even odder was his reply to the news that the world was getting much greener under the influence of higher levels of CO2. He replied it was good, although it hadn’t made up for deforestation. Throwing in an unconnected red herring is a tried and tested debater’s trick to deflect inconvenient facts.
Of course ‘cherry-picking’ is precisely what Ward does all the time. During the interview, he claimed that hundreds of people had died in the recent summer heatwave and ‘wildfires’ had broken out on the outskirts of London. Claiming that a number of fires igniting during a period of temporary drought on a hot English day were caused by human-caused climate change is of course absurd, and unprovable. Nevertheless, as global warming runs out of steam, with little change since 1998, a huge, well-funded academic industry has grown up trying to attribute single extreme weather event to long-term changes in the climate. It might not surprise you to learn that climate models play a major role in this highly political endeavour.
Towards the end of the interview, Ward became increasingly agitated, suggesting the questioning by Tice was putting his viewers “at risk”.
They’re the ones who are suffering. They’re the ones who are having to pay through their lives and livelihoods being damaged… It seems you don’t care more people are suffering in this country for increasing rainfall. These are the important things that are happening to your viewers.
Debunking all these single event claims can be a full time job! At this point, I will just run the rainfall graph going back to 1840. As we have noted before, there is not much change in the past 180 years – the trend, it might be deduced, is fairly stable. A little extra rain recently, but not much different from the 1870s and the 1920s.

There is no doubt Ward would have been happier in a BBC studio, where he is a frequent visitor, and the questioning is more reverential. Indeed, it was something of a surprise to see him venturing outside his ‘safe space’. Almost all of his fellow green activists run a mile from such confrontations, hiding behind an increasingly smug ‘settled’ science claim and suggesting they will not ‘lend their credibility’ by debating people they smear as deniers. But the science is far from settled, and there are increasing demands for it to be investigated in the wider public space, as the awaiting horrors of Net Zero become increasingly apparent.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
Stop Press: Paul Homewood in TCW: Defending Freedom has fact-checked Ed Miliband’s hysterical claims about the risks of fracking after he gave an interview to the Independent in he said fracking won’t reduce gas prices, it isn’t safe and renewables are the only answer to our energy woes.
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As part of the ongoing Long March through the Institutions, all these charitable organisations have been infiltrated by Common Purpose ‘graduates’. Hence their change in remit from being ‘conservative’ by protecting nature and heritage to the monotone woke DEI and ESG of every other organisation on the planet.
Yes the National Trust and RNLI spring to mind, as well as several mainstream charities. All fully paid up members of woke with blue hair and rainbow banners. A bit like the police only a bit less thuggish.
The leadership may be disciples of Woke, the membership are not all formed of the same mold. There is a fightback. https://www.restoretrust.org.uk
The RSPB should be stripped of its Royal patronage immediately. Let an NSPB try to raise funds so easily.
It’s the ‘Thunberg Effect’: write screechy abusive tweets/X-es, throw some soup at historic works of art, attack a few buildings, do some slow marches. That’s what happens when a mentally ill child is the basis of all modern campaigning: no trying to win arguments, just throw a childish tantrum and, when someone responds, clamp your hands over your ears and shout ‘Blah blah blah!!’
These idiots are more than happy to back windfalls, despite the known impacts to birds and bats
Those bramley apples can pack quite a punch on the way down.
Stop funding ANY charity from taxation. Not a single one. Allow the public to choose where they donate their own money.
Donations to charities are simply secondary taxation of the gullible.
All they seem to do is to publish a doom laden ‘Survey’ saying how many birds have been wiped out since last year. Well, my garden is chock full of the little blighters. There is a ‘Little Bird Mafia’ of finches, tits and sparrow who dart from one tree to the next in the gardens up and down the road, and apart from the odd cat victim, they are doing great. Also notice how many Red Kited and Common Buzzards there are too. Those populations seem to have grown greatly over the last three to five years. Maybe they downplay the success to try and screw more money out of everyone. Is it possible.? Would these decent upright citizens do that, I wonder..?
Of course they would.
At great expense, large charities hire research firms to write reports full of questionable statistics which ‘prove’ that things are becoming increasingly dire. Then they cite these reports in bids for more state funding.
That’s the way it works. It has no relation to the real world.
The RSPB has a fixation with raptors, and we all know what raptors do – kill and eat smaller birds. It should be renamed the Royal Society for the Prevention of Birds.
Shouldn’t the RSPB be concerning itself with, well maybe, protecting birds? Perhaps those being minced by the thousand on the blades of Pagan Idol Mobiles as sacrifices to the wind gods? Bats too, I think they fall within the orbit of the RSPB.
I used to donate to Freedom from Torture, who used to concern themselves with helping victims of actual torture. I am still on their mailing list, and got an email the other day urging me to petition the government not to use barges for illegal migrants.
Exactly what is wrong with objecting to the pollution of our rivers caused by housebuilding to accommodate hostile, economically-damaging, culturally primitive immigrants?
Whoah! It’s important to separate the Woke leadership of these charities from the fact that many of their members and volunteers don’t agree with the ideological infiltration which has occurred over time. Opposing voices have organised, certainly at the National Trust with the formation of Restore Trust, formed to get the NT back to its real mission. https://www.restoretrust.org.uk
Chris Packham, the ignorant bellend is a Vice President of the RSPB. Nuff said.
Quite frankly I would rather have Paddington Bear as a member of parliament than most of the current followers of fashion! The thought of living through the next decade is terrifying. Long live the Village Green’.
Don’t think we’re meant to LIVE through the next decade(s) merely exist if the “Powers that be” have their evil ways.