Last month a group of scientists published a paper in Nature stating that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) had shown no decline in strength since the 1960s. Helped by publicity in the Daily Sceptic, the story went viral on social media, although it was largely ignored in narrative-driven mainstream publications. The collapse of the Gulf Stream, a key component of the AMOC, is an important ‘tipping point’ story used to induce mass climate psychosis and make it easier to impose the Net Zero fantasy on increasing resentful and questioning populations. Obviously, reinforcements to back up such an important weaponised scare needed to be rushed to the front and the BBC has risen to the challenge. The AMOC “appears to be getting weaker” state BBC activists Simon King and Mark Poynting. Their long article is a classic of its kind in trying to deflect scientific findings that blow holes in the ‘settled’ narrative.
In the Nature paper, three scientists working out of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution stated that they came to their conclusion showing the stability of the AMOC after examining heat transfers between the sea and the atmosphere. It was noted that the AMOC had not weakened from 1963 to 2017, “although substantial variability exists at all latitudes”. This variability is the basis for much of the Gulf Stream fear-mongering. The BBC notes that the presence of larger grains of sediment on the ocean floor suggests the existence of stronger currents, pointing to a “cold blob” in the Atlantic that appears to have cooled of late. Thin pickings, it might be thought, to run an article titled ‘Could the UK actually get colder with global warming?’ The Woods Hole scientists note that records “are not long enough to differentiate between low frequency variability and long-term trends”.
The Nature story is not the only recent scientific finding that suggests the Day After Tomorrow alarm about the AMOC is a tad overdone. In 2023, Georgina Rannard of the BBC reported that “scientists say” a weakening Gulf Stream could collapse as early as 2025. There was no later reporting, needless to say, of subsequent work from a group of scientists at the US weather service NOAA that discovered the huge flow of Gulf Stream tropical water through the Florida Straits had remained “remarkably stable” for over 40 years.
Of course the BBC, along with most of the legacy media, has form as long as your arm when it comes to producing deflective copy seemingly designed to head off inconvenient scientific findings. The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is the largest and best observed collection of tropical coral in the world. Any sign of ill health is a boon for green propogandists who argue that warming measured in tenths of a degree centigrade will destroy an organism that has survived for millions of years in temperatures between 24-32°C. For the last three years, coral on the GBR has hit recent record levels with scarcely a mention in mainstream media. Days before last year’s record was announced, the places where journalism goes to die were full of stories from a paper that conveniently noted climate change posed an “existential threat” to the reef. “The science tells us that the GBR is in danger and we should be guided by the science,” Professor Helen McGregor from the University of Wollongong told Victoria Gill of BBC News. Professor McGregor’s statement was an opinion readily broadcast by the BBC, a courtesy that does not appear to have been extended to the fact that coral on the GBR was at its highest level since detailed observations began.
It beggars belief that the BBC and all its fellow alarmists can run this stuff with a straight face knowing that crucial scientific information is missing from their reports. Important findings from reputable sources emerge about the current stability of the Gulf Stream and the response is to blow more smoke around that raises wholly unnecessary fears.
The main concern is that the AMOC “could suddenly switch off”, state King and Poynting. To back up their statement and provide the inevitable political message they note the comment of Matthew England, Professor of Oceanography at the University of South Wales: “We’re playing a bit of a Russian roulette game. The more we stack up the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, the more we warm the system, the more chance we have of an AMOC slowdown and collapse.” Now look what you plebs have done with your steak chomping, gas-guzzling central heating and naff holidays in Benidorm, is an unpleasant subtext here.
Of course, keen and dedicated followers of climate alarmists will note a master craftsman at work. In 2023, aided by 35 million computer hours and using an improbable rise in temperature of up to 4°C in less than 80 years, Professor Matthews suggested that there was a dramatic slowdown in deep Antarctica ocean currents. Melting Antarctica ice could lead to a 40% slowdown in just 30 years. The fact that Antarctica has barely warmed in 70 years is ignored.
Who needs Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters when we have the BBC.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
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The MSM are at it this morning, running a story about last month being the warmest January on record globally. Radio 4 also managed to find someone to tell us how extreme weather events are increasing as the climate warms. (I only ever tune in for the weather forecast, but they keep moving it around, ensuring I get a chance to hear at least one depressing story about climate change or racism every day.)
Sadly, temperature extremes are defined via threshold crossing, and temperatures did increase over the 20th century, hence more threshold crossings.
But I will only worry about it when people stop going to hot places for their summer holidays.
Temperatures have been increasing for 10 000 years, and at times decreasing, then increasing again.
Temperatures decreased in the 15th to mid-19th Century – aka Little Ice Age – then started to increase again.
it does seem climate conditions are variable and unpredictable.
I am off to Tenerife next Tuesday for 6 weeks.
I keep waiting for the climate warming so I can stay at home and save some money.
I think I will be long dead before it happens. Probably several thousand years dead.
My gas usage says January was much colder then last year and there was frost again this morning in my corner of Surrey. Last February my gas usage was lower than January so it looks like a colder February so far as GB News has just mentioned this topic and that a cold snap is forecast for the weekend.
Climate and Weather are variable – who knew?
Weather trends can be measured over hours, days, weeks, months or years.
Climate trends are measured over decades.
A weather event does not equate to a climate event, unless it lasts for something like 40 years!
The BS Media happily equate weather and climate when it suits them, but will claim no relationship when it disproves their BS claims.
It is only when it is colder that climate activists will tell you that your corner of the world is “not the globe”. But if it is hotter somewhere then that is evidence of global warming and suddenly they forget that a little corner of the world is “not the globe”. —-Climate activism is basically about being a hammer that sees everything as a nail
‘USAID’ was a big funder of the fake news BBC.
I guess Soros will have to do a ‘top up’ to cover the funding loss, or maybe Kill Gates.
Wasn’t the Arctic supposed to melt by 2013/14 pace the fat climate genius Al (wh)ore ?
Musk/DOGE doing a great job. They should shut USAID permanently, it is just a money laundering outfit for the CIA. Not only does it fund GOF research, it’s been funding all the left wing media outlets for years. Politico is already in financial trouble.
Same with BBC MEDIA ACTION.
I am not certain that Politico is in financial trouble but there was a glitch in their salary payment system. They will certainly see a reduction in income. Perhaps one of the many fascist billionaires or charity fronts can prop them up.
the Doom Goblin also make some predictions that have not aged well on Twitter, now deleted. Stick to getting arrested in tight shorts love!
I was in a hotel bar the other night when the BBC climate propaganda started on the “news”. I stood up, walked over to it and changed it to another channel. I asked if anyone minded, and nope, not a murmur. One man said he was fed up of it too.
Someone please send for those old-school American wise guys, H.L. Mencken (again) and Upton Sinclair (ditto). This tosh has been going on for decades, and I for one am getting seriously bored with it (albeit only tuned in since The Pandemic That Never Was):
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
A new alarmist culture war and gravy train is likely to emerge when the next asteroid is found to be heading towards Earth (it may be as early as 2032 I believe). Cue competing model predictions from scientists with agendas.
Higher taxes and lockdowns will be required to protect us from a tiny risk of damage or injury.
Alternatively, just do nothing and accept the risk
https://www.drroyspencer.com/
The Version 6.1 global average lower tropospheric temperature (LT) anomaly for January, 2025 was +0.46 deg. C departure from the 1991-2020 mean, down substantially from the December, 2024 anomaly of +0.62 deg. Most of this cooling was over the global oceans.
The Version 6.1 global area-averaged temperature trend (January 1979 through January 2025) remains at +0.15 deg/ C/decade (+0.22 C/decade over land, +0.13 C/decade over oceans).
Thanks Jim, just what I wanted. OK, this chart justified the BBC putting its scary wildfire film on the news last evening. Except that it’s +0.46 deg.C for one month, and the graph starts in 1979. It fluctuates widely and I’m pretty sure that if if went back to the 1930s it would have been much hotter. What do you think?
And any warming in Antarctica is probably down to the 90 new sea floor volcanos that have been found recently
It’s a darn shame to know that kids have been committing suicide because of Greta Thunberg, I hope she will sleep well at night for the rest of her life! (Which, opposite to her rantings, will probably be long and comfortable)
Oh look, the longer term past, not just the cherry picking bbc past!
The BBC will always twist the story to fit in with their narrative.
Remember the drought of 2012?
The BBC said we would have to grow drought-resistant crops. Massive canals would need to be built to bring water from Scotland. We would have to get used to permanent dry weather. Britain will be like the Sahara desert. Climate crisis!
Then a few years the floods came. But of course! Warm air can hold more water. Climate crisis!
We are all doomed but nonetheless we must all install heat pumps and solar panels.
In 2004, the BBC et al said that by 2024 the UK will be like Siberia…..that was last year. Are we Siberia yet?
Politically, perhaps…?
When it’s convenient these so called experts say “follow the science” and then do the exact opposite when it suits them. They (and various governments and others) then call people far right fascists for pointing out the “inconvenient truth” whilst employing fascist type propaganda to silence, and these days, imprison dissenters.
How on earth did we get to this point!
Because our post-war, giddy ancestors voted in Marxist-Socialism in 1945 because… lots of free stuff, cradle-to-grave welfare State – just sign here and sell your souls – and then have kept voting for it since, because only recently have people woken to the fact we have a single de facto Socialist Uniparty political system with one wing saying tomayto and the other saying tomahto.
And… Labour’s behaviour since last July has come as a complete shock – shocked the poor we lambs are – to those who voted them in and apparently have no functioning higher brains… probably from all that pan-banging… and have never read a history book.
Another masterly hit job from Chris Morrison.
Personally I am long passed the point where I pay any attention to the MSM when it comes to climate stories and I just assume they are lying which neatly saves the bother of reading their tripe.
The climate is in perpetual flux, take that on board and there is no problem. Mankind altering the global thermostat is the most ridiculous, most hubristic nonsense ever spouted and makes the alchemists of history look like serious scientists.
I’ll put the kettle on.
This morning the BBC said next year may be a bit cooler after El Nino has reached its peak, funny they didn’t mention the El Nino when claiming the hottest on record. January was hottest on record apparently, tell that to freezing pensioners, they might just ask….What are you smoking, sit back down!
And looking at any statistical analysis of meteorological condition in anything other then 10 000 year chunks is meaningless.
Ah, but if the Gulf Stream did die off, we would experience the ice age I was promised as a kid and UK would then again be buried under 3 to 5km of snow and ice.
In preparation for this the government will now no doubt realize that all those solar panels and wind turbines make absolutely no sense, so can we have our coal, gas and nuclear power plants back, please?
“Record January warmth puzzles climate scientists” says the BBC.
If they’re ‘puzzled’ it can only because of the faith they have in their nonsensical models.
In any case, as others have pointed out, the lower tropospheric temperature dropped significantly in January.
Moreover the statement (by a Dr Burgess of the European Commission’s Climate Change Service) that “Unless we turn off that tap to [greenhouse gas] emissions, then global temperatures will continue to rise.”
What she doesn’t say, though, is that if we turn off the tap to greenhouse gas emissions, civilisation will collapse.
But never mind, the elites will be OK, even if the rest of us starve to death.
But… eisewhere “scientists” report that warmer temperatures are due to decrease in sulphur particulate emissions from shipping as a result of new marine emissions rules, and thus more infra-red is reaching the surface. It seems that Big Lamp Belong Jesus in the sky regulates Earth’s temperature, not what Man does or doesn’t. Surprise.
It seems that trying to control the Earth and its climate is a tricksy business. It’s almost as if the system is too big, too dynamic, too chaotic, too unpredictable, too little understood to be controllable. And worse… just won’t do as it’s told!
No no. We’ve got it. If we just tweak this and adjust that we’ll have it back under control in no time. Now, where did I put the manual? Ah. somebody’s spilled coffee on it. Is that cable greyish green or greenish grey?
Climate Change as a Service? CCaaS? Where do I sign? I’ll save a fortune! Greek Islands climate please!
I know. Hard to make it up, but this is Euroland, don’t forget.
The “service” is offered to businesses, so they can mitigate their “climate impact”.
Or participate in some carbon trading grift, more likely.
The collapse of the Gulf Stream has been continually imminent along with: Peak oil, climate tipping point, commercial fusion reactors, green hydrogen, huge grid back-up batteries, virtually free renewable energy, submersion of London, New York and certain Pacific islands by rising seas, heat wave summers, warm/dry/snowless winters, increased floods, increased droughts, increased hurricane activity and severity, plagues of malaria-carrying mosquitos in northern latitudes, mass migration caused by climate change…
Have I missed anything?
Williams F1 finishing on the podium in 2025; the Y2k bug; covid being a deadly pandemic; AI – there’s a host of hobgoblins around! Except the Williams one – that’s for real
Williams always talk things up over the winter, but in the last 15 years have rarely bothered the points score, podiums are occasional for no good reason.
It’s either going to be scalding hot and the seas will rise. Or it will be freezing cold and we’ll all be killed by snow. But whatever is going to be happen will be terrifying. And it’s definitely all your fault for eating a bit of meat or driving to the shops.
There’s absolutely no chance that nothing catastrophic will happen. No chance it might just be a little bit warmer. Or a little bit cooler. Or a bit of both and no disaster.
What a brilliant set of replies! Gosh, I feel quite cheered up and it’s only 7.30am!
The BBC excelled itself yesterday on the early evening news. January has been the hottest ever! And this news item was accompanied by a film of raging fires. Does anyone have the exact data for January? It didn’t feel like tge hottest ever, but what do I know?
We essentially pay a license fee to the BBC in order to fund our own brainwashing.