Harrabin Doubles Down
By Paul Homewood
Harrabin’s at it again, with the usual lies and disinformation from his hand picked “experts”:
Scientists and leading climate experts have voiced concerns about the outcomes of the COP26 climate conference, in Glasgow.
Those who spoke to the BBC praised the conference for getting countries to agree to meet again next year to pledge deeper emissions cuts. And they welcomed agreements on forests, innovation and especially methane – from fossil fuel extraction and livestock.
But the scientists fear politicians won’t deliver. And they say the hope of holding temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is far too unambitious anyway.
The experts say that with a temperature rise so far of just 1.1C, the world is already in a state of dangerous heating, with record temperatures, wildfires, floods and droughts.
Prof Sir David King, former UK chief scientist, told me: “Of course heating is already at a dangerous level. Greenland is sitting in blue sea for three months losing ice. Temperatures in the polar summer were 32C … the forests were on fire.
“Even if we cut emissions completely we’d still be in a difficult place because of the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere already.”
There’s a similar message from Prof Piers Forster, coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “People are already dying and species are becoming extinct with current temperatures," he said. "We have locked in centuries of sea level rise.
“1.5C has become the talisman for the safest we can hope for this century. But the more we learn the more we realise there is no safe limit [for emissions].”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59308958
Why the idiot King gets any airtime is a mystery. He is utterly discredited by his own past climate pronouncements. His comments this time on Greenland are another gem:
Of course heating is already at a dangerous level. Greenland is sitting in blue sea for three months losing ice. Temperatures in the polar summer were 32C
CLUE- this is what happens every year – it is called summer.
The seas in summer around Greenland look no different now than they did in 2003, the start of the DMI record. The only sea ice is around the north coast:
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icethickness/thk.uk.php
And those boiling temperatures? Summer daytime temperatures are no higher now in Greenland than they were between 1920 and 1960, both in the west (Ilulissat) and east (Tassilaq):
https://www.ecad.eu/utils/showindices.php?screen=2
It was of course the same David King who told Parliament in 2004 that the Greenland icecap would probably all be gone in 50 or 200 years.
Piers Forster is little better, claiming that people are dying because of “current temperatures”. What on earth is that supposed to mean? Lots of people die from the cold in winter, not to mention storms, floods etc.
But the reality is that weather related deaths are now a tiny fraction of what they used to be.
The BBC has now seen that most of the world does not care a fig for climate change, and certainly is not going to impoverish itself to fight it. In turn pressure is starting to build at home as the public realises whatever we do on our own will have no effect at all.
Harrabin knows he is losing the battle, and is now having to resort to disinformation from the likes of King and Forster as he doubles down.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Scary to have so many lies from “on high”,
?explanation.
“On High” never like to admit they were wrong. They’re only concern is acceptance and popularity from the others members of the so called elite. So their only way to maintain this is to lie even more. Very sad people who can’t see their nose in front of their face.
These “experts” have made very lucrative careers out of lying. They aren’t going to give up any time soon. We ought to compile a list of them, starting with the well-known ones at the BBC and then going to the universities, the Met Office, the CCC and other NGOs that the Horrorbin goes to.
Maybe because of their masks!
🤣🤣
Phillip: Further to your comment, and bearing in mind the furore in the HoC over MP as consultant, I wonder what extra-curricular (paid) activities Harrabin gets up to…
I notice that his report only mentions ‘Those (scientists?) who spoke to THE BBC’. I wonder if he would ever lend an ear to those who do not have the ear of the BBC?
That would require an open mind that had the ability to make objective judgements on scientific issues way beyond his level of expertise. It would also require an level of honesty to admit that he was wrong. It ain’t going to happen.
Read the book’1984’ !
We have always had such lies. I well remember the BBC had a little counter on its 9 o’clock news back when Thatcher was PM, showing total jobs lost. Note it wasn’t net, nor did they whos jbs created separately. Nor did they show any other relevant information, such as wages or productivity increases. It was simply “Thatcher bad, jobs lost”.
Look at the Vietnam war and the lies from JFK and Lyndon Johnson.
Blair’s lies, helped by Campbell.
Just about everything the Guardian has published for 30 years or more.
The lies about how great the USSR was from so many journalists. And on and on.
“Blair’s lies ….” Especially in relation to Dr David Kelly and events leading up to his still unresolved death and events afterwards; Papers embargoed for ?100 years? and an inquest blocked.
“Just about everything the Guardian has published for 30 years or more.”
This E-mail trail might amuse you.
Re article https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/nov/15/wholesale-energy-prices-hit-second-highest-level-in-at-least-three-years
I said:
“In the above article you state
“In August, National Grid, which manages the UK’s electricity grid, was forced to break a 55-day coal-free power generation streak as the summer heatwave becalmed wind turbines.”
This is completely incorrect and even the article you linked to does not support your claim as it relates to 2020 and not 2021 i.e. this year.
In reality coal fired plants have run almost continuously throughout 2021. Please amend as you would not want to mislead people”
And the Guardian reply was
“Thanks, Ray, I’ve removed that paragraph and footnoted the change. I don’t know how that 2020 reference got into the piece, as the article is otherwise clear on the 2021 dip in wind’s contribution to the power mix.
Regards, Leslie
Guardian readers’ editor’s office”
Well Leslie might not “know how that 2020 reference got into the piece,” but I am damn sure it was deliberately “sexing” up the article for effect and hoped they would get away with yet more lies.
I detest the Graun intensely so, as they naturally will never allow the likes of me on their comments section , I simply point out factual errors to their articles to force corrections. 17 amendments so far this year and I do not go on their site very often.
We’re now in a dumbed-down climate propaganda world where everything is wrong and nothing is right, and only the self-appointed climate fixers are able to sort it out. But of course they can’t as they have no such powers.
The sooner this farce ends and we can get back to reality, the better for all — including those poorer countries that benefit from assistance from the wealthier ones.
The GFS model is showing a short (25th-29th Nov) beast from the east for western Europe including the UK. Shame it didn’t happen last week.
Agree about the timing of the cold snap: I was making a variety of incantations to bring Snow to Glasgow, but all failed. However, they did not need snow to achieve COck-uP 26.
“Even if we cut emissions completely we’d still be in a difficult place because of the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere already.”
Nailed it!
And the solution? Carbon capture and permanent geological storage. That cannot even make a small dent into what’s already out there, never mind the 40 billion tons now being added.
THE IEA has recently estimated from all sources (including bioenergy) that by 2050 about 7,600 million tons will have to be captured. But, apparently they don’t realize how little that is. 7,800 million tons is only ONE part-per-million. Silly game over..or waste even more money? Apparently the latter.
The lunatics are running the asylum. For that bunch of crackpots to be writing UN reports and setting public policy on climate and energy is as ridiculous as it would be to put flat-earther Mark Sargent in charge of the space program, or to put Joseph Mercola, Andrew Wakefield, Jon Rappoport, RFK Jr, Mike “Health Ranger” Adams, and Alex Jones in charge of vaccinations.
‘leading climate experts’
Translation: People who agree with the BBC on future weather.
“But we are still heading for more than 2°C of global warming, which risks triggering multiple climate tipping points” — Prof Tim Lenton, reading from his 30 year old play book.
Oh, gawd, not the ‘tipping points’ again!
You cannot persuade those who believe.
The UK government has
1. Demolished power stations.
2. Ensured energy cost is rising and out of control
3. No new reservoirs since 1991
4. No action on flood prevention
You don’t have to blame green idiots just blame who you voted for.
@cookers52 You make me smile with your constant call for more water reservoirs. You deserve to be listened to then something done.
I fear that the action being taken is to actively reduce demand.
Why else reduce power stations ?
Double speak ?
It is not global warming that will do for us but quite the opposite …
Unfortunately for the UK, the political parties have agreed on everything, i.e. Brexit and Climate change, (apart from minor details). The only sources of disagreement with the madness that is being preached continually, are GB News and the internet.
Things have gone way beyond ridiculous. Take this offering from the BBC “Reality Check” today (as if the BBC knew a damn thing about reality)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59251912
We are now supposed to believe journalists who offer no evidence simply because they say so. It is getting more and more like the rise of the Third Reich every passing day.
This sort of thing has got to be stopped.
Nice to read some good news on the Beeb
We should be very clear about this. Anybody talking about POLICY is not a scientist. Science has not view on what we should try and achieve or how. It is a description of the universe as is, not a description of it as it should be. Science is not normative.
If the people Harrabin quotes have a view, great, but they should not be called “scientists” as if that gives them special knowledge or insight.
This is once again the BBC misleading people.
I fear that that battle is lost, the phrase “scientists are concerned about …” is now ubiquitous, despite the word “concern” having nothing at all to do with science.
Well stated, Mr Phoenix.
Essentially it’s a diversionary puff piece designed to deflect BBC readers from concluding FLOP26 achieved little, including zero ‘carbon’ cuts from those big emitters that could (theoretically) make some difference.
The goons have played every card going and still ended up on the losing side.
A rational PM would ditch Net Zero and probably water down or cancel The Climate Change Act, too.
“A rational PM would…” I spot a flaw there.
1. “the BBC praised the conference for getting countries to agree to meet again next year to pledge deeper emissions cuts”. How do they hope to make the current intended cuts in this year, to then make even more next year??
2. “they say the hope of holding temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is far too unambitious anyway”. They have no way of knowing the current emissions reductions programme will achieve any temperature ‘holding’, as CO2 rising causing temperature rise only occurs in computer models!!
Of course, the 1.5C was only ever a wet finger in the wind. If I remember, years ago the IPCC came up with a totally and equally unscientific number of 2.0C. But TPTB in the propaganda unit were furious because that would allow countries to easily conform – so it was reduced, not by scientists but by activists, to 1.5C.
I’m sure that other readers can confirm my poor memory.
I agree that “… holding temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is far too unambitious … We should be aiming for 2.5C at least and CO2 levels of around 600ppm!
“the BBC praised the conference for getting countries to agree to meet again next year to pledge deeper emissions cuts”
Only if it’s a really cool place.
“They have no way of knowing the current emissions reductions programme will achieve any temperature ‘holding’”
It’s worse than we thought. In 1979, the US launched a satellite to measure temperature across the globe*. Any reputed global temperature before then is a FLAMING LIE. Reporting stations are extremely limited. Oceans cover 71% of the earth. We simply don’t know what the global mean temperature was before 1979. Any declaration is a lie.
*It too has been reputed to be problematical.
I take the cynical view, “Climate Change” is a problem that can never be solved, thereby ensuring the continuing flow of goodies: money, power, prestige, and political influence. With COVID now largely history the horrific climate resumes its role in controlling the masses.
Strange how theBBC don’t seem to be reporting on jailing of the road blocking idiots
It’s in their London news…
Insulate Britain protesters jailed for defying road blockade ban
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-59307679
Bugger, my 4.37 comment was meant to be in reply to oldbrew …………………………………………………………………………………… “Nice to read some good news on the Beeb”
They have covered it but in an ridiculously sympathetic way.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-59307679
They are almost portrayed as heroes whilst protestors for other “causes” not approved by the BBC such as anti vaccine protestors are portrayed very differently like this example.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58856068
I wonder how a group of home football supporters trying to block a road to stop away fans from getting to their ground would be treated.
Re-examining the evidence for why we are doing all this, one can see that around 1900 the global average temperature was estimated at 14.0°C. Now the Guardian’s “heating” has increased by about 6% to 14.83°C. CO2 over the same time period has increased by 150%. Hard to see any meaningful relationship between the two that would warrant eliminating all of the energy that got us here… down to a net-zero goal. There must be some other reason. That seems to be little more than the dire predictions made by climate models if we don’t get rid of this “dangerous” gas… the origin of which has been those same fuels we have been using for transportation. Why is it that these policy makers don’t see that will destroy all economies if that were even begun to take place in earnest…which it now seems to be. Fuel shortages and higher prices are already taking their toll on supply chains that Mr. Biden says he doesn’t know how to fix. Others are asking him to open up strategic oil supplies. Add more CO2 to keep it CO2 out?? An eye-opening admission of failed policies beginning to take hold. Maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel (and in the halls were policy makers take naps).
Broadlands – love your contributions. However, I have a small issue with your reference to increased temperature. 0C is a useful but arbitrary temperature. Surely we should be using absolute temp, ie 14C is is 287.15 absolute and 14.83C is 287.83 absolute, making the temp increase .00997%. Wow- that’s shatteringly huge. Not
PS Biden’s first approach to the oil shortage problem was to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada – within several hours of taking office. Clearly, being chauffeured around in “The Beast” has removed him from understanding ordinary citizens’ problems.
You make a very good point that I also often stress. Using 0°C as a measuring point for percentage calculations falls into a false base argument and becomes extremely misleading.
A 10% increase on 20°C is simply NOT 2°C. After all that would make a 10% increase on the same temperate measured as 68°F come in at 6.8°F which equates to 3.78°C. Obviously the mathematics cannot be wrong rather the premise is,
Back in the early 70`s my physics lecturer would regularly come out with examples like this to demonstrate how to avoid confusion.
Broadlands — you and I have had this out before. CO2 levels have not risen by 150%. They have risen BY 50% TO 150% of what they were. Not the same thing at all.
David Wild and Ray Sanders have picked you up on the other error. Equating heat to temperature numbers only works if you start from 0°K
That’s how we can estimate “climate sensitivity” to a doubling of CO2.
If we take the baseline “pre-industrial” CO2 concentration as 280 ppmv, then atmospheric CO2 concentration has risen 49%. However, since CO2 has a logarithmically diminishing “forcing” effect on temperature, that is 57% of the forcing from a “doubling” of CO2 concentration.
That 57%-of-a-doubling occurred as globally averaged temperatures increased by an estimated 1.1°C, of which it is thought that about 2/3 of the anthropogenic component was caused by rising CO2 levels. If we assume anthropogenic causes for 100% of the observed warming (which I think is unlikely), that means measured “practical climate sensitivity” (i.e., about halfway between TCR & ECS) is about (1.1°C × 2/3) / 57% = 1.28°C per doubling.
ECS is generally assumed to be between 1.25× and 1.6× TCR. Taking it as 1.5×, we can calculate that
(TCR + (1.5 TCR)) / 2 = 1.28°C
TCR = (2.5/4) × 1.28°C = 0.80°C
and ECS = 1.5 × TCR = 1.20°C (which is about 40% of what the IPCC estimates)
Now, is there anyone in the class who still thinks that ECS climate sensitivity is about 3°C per doubling of CO2?
We should always remember that ‘Prof Sir David King, former UK chief scientist’ is the bright spark who forced us all to switch from petrol to diesel until someone whispered in his ear that diesel emissions were killing people.
Quite, the diesel issue revolved around increased NOX emissions. Now Sir David is advocating a hydrogen economy as combustion of hydrogen only allegedly produces water…..only that is if you burn it in oxygen. If you burn it in air (79% Nitrogen) there are all manner of issues to overcome particularly NOX emissions!
How closely monitored will about 25 million gas boilers, 15million gas cookers (each with at least 5 separate burners) umpteen million gas fires etc,etc?
https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/features/hydrogen-the-burning-question/
Thanks. Good link that. 👍
Meanwhile, in a real world positive news item from today.
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Rolls-Royce-submits-SMR-design-for-UK-assessment
I wonder how Mr Harrabin will report this one?
King still here? I thought he was viewing the latest real estate in Antarctica, the “only habitable continent”. Pillock.
“Greenland is sitting in blue sea for three months losing ice”
Not sure when he was referring to, but now (and some 10 degrees further South from the pole) “Authorities in the Russian Far East have commissioned two icebreakers to aid vessels currently caught in ice in the East Siberian Sea”.
https://www.arctictoday.com/two-icebreakers-are-on-the-way-to-rescue-ice-locked-ships-on-northern-sea-route/
Reality can be a bitch when you’re trying to scare the cr*p out of people! And those ice breakers are diesel & nuclear powered! Somehow I can’t see wind or solar power being up the task…
250 years ago a big weather event before AGW
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/history/how-disaster-hit-tyneside-shape-22180165