How the BBC is crushing the climate debate-Ben Pile
By Paul Homewood
I reported on a BBC article last week about “Climate Denial”
Ben Pile has now weighed in:
BBC News carried two articles last week denigrating and demonising the critics of climate-change alarmism.
The first was by Marianna Spring, the BBC’s ‘specialist disinformation reporter’. She asserted that criticism of environmentalism was being fuelled by right-wing conspiracy theorists who had switched ‘from Covid denial to climate denial’. And the second came from reporters Rachel Schraer and Kayleen Devlin, who are both part of the BBC’s ‘Reality Check’ team of fact-checkers. They claimed to have exposed ‘the truth behind the new climate-change denial’. Both articles are travesties of journalism.
Read the full story here.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
“Whether it will reduce the Earth’s global temperatures by a significant enough amount to offset climate change is up for debate…”
What is the amount that needs to be offset? According to NOAA, the total amount of global warming since the middle of the last century has been about plus 0.82°C. Why is that such an alarming amount that major efforts at reducing CO2 emissions should be put in action to lower it? Lowering emissions takes no CO2 from the atmosphere. Nor do solar panels and wind turbines. So, why is going back to 14.0°C (57°F) the target for net-zero? If that’s not the target, what temperature is?
The bulk of the planet experiences temperatures that are suboptimal for photosynthesis.
Eminent geologists have already responded. To the BBC DG and with an official complaint, as below:
BEGINS:
The Director General, Mr Tim Davie CBE
BBC
Broadcasting House
Portland Place
London W1A 1AA
Dear Mr Davies,
Many will have been shocked and disappointed at the gross impartiality shown by two of your journalists recently, Rachel Schraer & Kayleen Devlin, in their piece on climate-change.
Many scientists have genuine and well-founded views that the simplistic ‘CO2 emissions’ explanation of global warming should be opened to rigorous scientific debate, and the BBC should lead the way in that debate. We have sent the following complaint to the BBC through its complaints website, and we await their (and, may I suggest, your) response.
Yours sincerely
Michael F Ridd
================================
The COMPLAINT:
COP26: The truth behind the new climate change denial.
A response:
The under-signed scientists are disturbed and disappointed by your recent BBC News item: “COP26: The truth behind the new climate change denial”. It paints a picture of trouble-makers who simply want to disrupt the net-zero policies of the government.
The reality is that those who you brand cheaply as deniers are scientists and related professionals, many of whom have spent their careers investigating the past history of Earth’s climate and have concluded that climate-science is more complex than believed by the government and the media. Climate-change is driven by many factors in addition to variations in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, variations in solar radiation being just one of them.
We regret the lack of impartiality shown by the BBC regarding the climate. It is a topic of such scientific and economic importance that the BBC should be encouraging open scientific discussion, not disparaging serious scientists who wish to offer evidence that challenges the prevailing groupthink.
The pursuit of knowledge is not served by the phrase “the science is settled and agreed by a consensus”. Science advances by impartial discussion of evidence, and the BBC appears to have forgotten that simple truth.
Professor John Dewey, FGS, FRS
Dr Michael F Ridd, FGS
Dr Chris Howells, BA, MSc, FGS
Gregor Dixon, BSc FGS
Joe Staffurth,
Dr. Barry J. Squire, FGS
Clive Randle, BSc , DIC, FGS
Robert Heath, BSc (Hons) Physics
Michael Seymour, MA, MSc, DIC, FGS
Christopher John Matchette-Downes, BSc., MSc., CGeol.
Clive Randle, BSc. DIC. FGS
Alex Pope
Howard Dewhirst, BA Hons, MA, FGS
Chris Atkinson
David Warwick, BSc FGS
Dr. Wayne P Kraus, PhD
Dennis Paterson, BSc, MSc, DIC
Dr David. A. L. Jenkins, FGS
Graham Heard, BSc, C Geol
Philip Mulholland, B.A
Chris Pullan, B.Sc, ARSM, FGS
Dr Euan Mearns
Viv Forbes, BSc, App Geol, FAusIMM, FSIA
Pamela Matlack-Klein
Ian Magness, BSc, MSc, FCT
Dr. Cameron Davies, FGS
Trish Dewhirst, BSc
Peter Purcell
Dr Chris Atkinson, PhD
Peter Owen MA, FGS
ENDS
They could have found thousands more scientists who would have signed the complaint.
I don’t think they meant “impartiality” – quite the opposite, surely.
By using erroneous vocabulary they are undermining their own credibility. These eminent geologists meant well, but put their names to something using precisely the wrong word.
The actual complaint said ‘We regret the lack of impartiality’ MR’s letter missed out ‘lack off’
I saw the results of a YouGov poll on twitter claiming that climate change was the biggest single concern for British voters, immigration wasn’t in the top four. This was obviously in the wake of the Cop26 shindig and before the recent loss of life in the channel brought the topic up the pecking order for the tv crews. Bias in promoting the establishment view extends beyond just the media.
‘Both articles are travesties of journalism.’
Where on earth did you get such an idealistic view of journalism? From journalists?
This IS journalism.
I’m complaining too
It certainly looks like what counts for “IS journalism” in a Police State Dictatorship!
As I’ve commented many times before “Know bugger all about anything, become a (BBC) journalist”!
I decided to look up Marianna Spring’s education. https://www.pmb.ox.ac.uk/news/undergraduate-linguist-marianna-spring-becomes-news-reporter-moscow-times
My first thought was “Russia!” and then this came up on her twitter feed.
https://mobile.twitter.com/mariannaspring/status/1420077326558273537
Is it any surprise people might think she is being controlled by those who might not entirely be on our side?
I thought that these days the BBC is full of specialist disinformation reporters, from Harrabin downwards.
Ha people complaining to the BBC
as if that will stop the BBC
they just don’t care.