Emma Thinks Richard Betts Is Insane!
By Paul Homewood
The Mail report on the Met Office’s Richard Betts’ reactions to the BBC’s interview with the ridiculous Emma Thompson last week:
One of Britain’s top climate scientists has launched a blistering attack on actress Emma Thompson and the BBC, accusing them of ‘scaremongering’ over the speed of global warming – and risking a worsening of the refugee crisis.
Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the Met Office and a professor at Exeter University, launched his attack on Twitter about an interview Ms Thompson gave to Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis last Wednesday.
The actress, a Greenpeace activist who that morning had taken part in a protest against Shell’s plans to drill for oil in the Arctic, warned that if the drilling went ahead, the world would be a staggering 4C hotter by 2030.
She said: ‘If they take out of the Earth all the oil they want to take out, if you look at the science, our temperature will rise 4 degrees Celsius by 2030, and that’s not sustainable.’
Ms Maitlis did not challenge her.
In his first tweet, Prof Betts asked: ‘Who briefed Emma Thompson? Clearly not someone who actually knows about climate science.’
He added: ‘Has it occurred to scaremongers like Emma Thompson that exaggerating climate change could drive more migration unnecessarily? Irresponsible.’
Top climate expert Emma soon put Mr Betts in his place!
Ms Thompson hit back yesterday, saying: ‘I’d like to say to him [Richard Betts]: Are you insane, have you been to the Arctic, have you seen the state of the glaciers? I’ve talked to the experts… this is not scaremongering.’
Meanwhile the BBC make pathetic excuses as to why she was allowed to get away with such risible nonsense:
A BBC spokeswoman said: ‘In a longer interview Emily would have pressed Thompson to justify her assertion.’ She refused to say whether the BBC would be correcting Ms Thompson’s statement.
The real question, of course, is why the BBC were even giving airtime to Thompson, or for that matter any Greenpeace activist. Clearly there is one rule Lord Lawson, and another for showbiz luvvies!
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
The actual interview is on iPlayer here (about 20 min. in):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0699wls/newsnight-02092015
Ms Thompson appears to think that the mere extraction of the oil will raise global temperatures.
Another quote from the interview was:
“Our refugee crisis, which let me tell you, if we allow climate change to go on as it’s going, the refugee crisis which we have at the moment will look like a tea party”.
I have heard several other people make similar comments recently and it seems to me that the alarmists are trying to scare people by linking the current refugee situation with “climate change”.
It’s *not* a withering attack by the Met man on the actress, see the bottom of the Daily Mail article containing his reply. “Fortunately, while Ms Thompson’s concerns are valid in the longer term, her timing isn’t supported by the science.”
They think there will be a lot more uninhabitable places and “CO2 refugees” some time after 2030. Climate refugees happens naturally in history, here’s a recent one:
http://www.history.com/topics/dust-bowl
“by linking the current refugee situation with “climate change”.
This had to happen sooner or later. !!
Someone should explain to the “visitors” that its get VERY COLD in winter in Germany, UK, Sweden etc..
A lot of them may wish that had stopped at the first point of safety. !
Reblogged this on WeatherAction News and commented:
Emma – have you seen the state of the snow on the Scottish mountains?
https://weatheraction.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/wpid-cnxksnwwsaavy_w1.jpg https://weatheraction.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/wpid-scottish_snow_patches_20150827t1402131.jpg
It’s worse than we thought…by 2030 Scotland will be one big glacier 😉
A BBC spokeswoman said: ‘In a longer interview Emily would have pressed Thompson to justify her assertion.’
This presupposes Emily had the wit to notice Emma was talking rubbish
It’s not so much the “airtime”, I object to. It’s the “airhead” time.
I’ve talked to the experts… this is not scaremongering.’ I have a message for Emma T. For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.
Even without the UKMO scientist’s rebuke surely people would realise that it is physically impossible for such a rise in 15 years? This is surely a common sense issue at stake?
Newsnight used to be the flagship of serious news on the BBC. I haven’t watched it for a while but it has clearly gone further downhill. On the other hand it makes the other claim (can’t remember if it is Met Office or WMO) that temperatures will rise by 5C by 2100 as easily possible. Perhaps this is the intention – to further confuse the average viewer?
Emma calls Richard insane? Another case of Warmist Pot-and-Kettle, methinks.
Emma Thompson may be in a way right when she says
Look up the definition of an expert.
Many of the experts on climate conform to the first part of the definition. They will be able to reference a lot of peer-reviewed studies, projections, opinions and even some real facts to support their arguments, along with lots of reasons for disregarding anyone who questions their expertise. There are also many climate scientists who are highly skilled at measuring and building computer models. There are also many with skills at contorting reality to fit the theory or beliefs. But when it comes to demonstrated skills in projecting climate change and refining our collective understanding of climate, these are practically non-existent.
Maybe the BBC should call on a real expert to explain the truth.
I wonder what Dr. Who is doing now….
Failing that maybe K9!
The next episode of Dr Who airs on Sept 19 🙂
What?
Ready for the Paris shindig, a Dalek barking out the directive —
“I am a climate scientist. You will obey!”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_(series_9)
As you can tell, I’m not a fan of Dr Who… much !! 🙂
I have not watch it much since William Hartnell bowed out, though IMO, Patric Troughton did a fine job with weak matterial. I can’t image the storylines have improved over the years…
The gas fitter comes and says “if you hadn’t sorted out the leak your house could have blow up”. BBC headline – all houses at risk of blowing up unless we act by end of the week.
I’m a climate refugee. I fled from New Zealand to Hong Kong almost 5 years ago. It’s 30 C here at 3.24 am. 0 C in my home town @ 7.24 am. I know where I’d rather live.
NB the aircon is not on.
The problem is Newsnight airheads think giving a celeb airhead air time is news. When all it really is, is lazy and cheap. It is amazing to observe just how manic the BBC is becoming, whilst understanding it is staring down the barrel it still manages to shoot itself in the foot.
Mrs Thompson’s time would be better spent practising her acting skills because despite having worked as an actor for many years she’s still not very good at it.
Trying to think of any role where she hasn’t played herself as a natural ditzy blond. !
Nanny McPhee?
Ok. not a blond.. you win !! 🙂
or….. evil troll !!
If we were going to get that kind of outrageous heating over the next 15 years, wouldn’t we be seeing signs of it by now? For the most places, recent weather has been stupifyingly normal.
There is absolutely no evidence to support a 4c rise by 2030.
Even CMIP5/RCP8.5 (the most extreme IPCC scenario) only predicts a .46c rise by that year.
I suspect that Ms Thompson has got the decimal point in the wrong place, or (more likely) she has been fed the figure by Greenpeace “experts”, at the same time as her visit to the arctic to see the “glaciers melting”.
Of course, merely extracting the oil will make no difference to CO2 levels, until it is used and I suspect that will have already been taken into account in the models.
Indeed Paul,
Unlike Nigel Lawson, an uninformed ex-MP, who is not allowed to comment on climate matters at the BBC as he has no science qualifications, Emma Thompson has scientific qualifications!
Along with these other scientists of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, and Frank Langella — Emma Thompson et al, was part of a fertility research project. However the only reference to their research I can find is this 1994 documentry was called ‘Junior’.
Reblogged this on Climate Collections and commented:
Regarding Emma: Empty vessels are loudest.