Matt McGrath’s Storm Clouds Gather
By Paul Homewood
Matt McGrath really is clueless!
2021 was a momentous year for climate change.
As well as a host of extreme, destructive events influenced by rising temperatures, the past 12 months have seen unprecedented political engagement on the issue, culminating in the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November.
Progress was undoubtedly made and the overall thrust of the meeting was towards more rapid action on a whole host of measures to curb emissions.
But there are now growing concerns that this momentum may dissipate over the coming months.
The most grievous blow comes from the US.
The potential failure of President Biden to get his Build Back Better act through Congress would significantly impact the ability of the US to meet the tough climate targets that the White House has committed to.
It would also hugely affect the relatively unified approach to climate change on display among world leaders at COP26.
"Everything that Biden pledged, led to this relatively good atmosphere and a sense of momentum in Glasgow," said Dr Joanna Depledge, a fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance.
"But these were just promises, he needs to get the bill through Congress. And it’s now looking increasingly dicey. He can do some things with executive orders, but that certainly isn’t the kind of sustained institutional climate legislation change that we’re really looking for."
"I think the situation to us, is critical."
The despair among many in the US over the possible failure of President Biden’s bill will also have knock-on effects throughout the world. This will certainly be the case in China, a country smarting from the perception that it flexed its political muscle in Glasgow to get its way. Biden’s political difficulties with the bill are seen as more evidence that the "West is declining".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59744522
Poor McGrath still has not worked out that the rest of the world stuck two fingers up at the West’s climate agenda at COP26.
He is of course right about the failure of Biden to push through Build back Broke. But if he had actually done his homework, he would have known that it had already been stripped of any meaningful climate policies.
What he has identified, without appreciating the consequences himself, is that it is one thing making grandiose pledges at climate summits. But it is a totally different thing to carry them out.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Of course McGrath is clueless, it’s the critical competence for a BBC ‘journalist’ reporting on ‘Climate Change/Crisis/Emergency/Armageddon’; especially one with an unspecified degree from University College cork, a MA in Journalism from Bournemouth University and a Fellowship in Science Journalism from MIT. Who could possibly doubt his expertise given that he has spent his tertiary education hearing nothing but the approved narrative of AGW and thus having no need to research the facts and empirical evidence?
Didn’t he get awarded £100,000 by some foundation a year or so back for all his BBC climate reporting. Very profitable occupation earing that on the side as well as his full time employment at licence payers expense !
The whole world is corrupt .. don’t you think ?
The world of modern day Journalism is ruled by two distinguished gentlemen . . . Pete and Repeat . . . When in doubt . . . Refer to Pete . . . he has done his homework so you don’t have to . . .
🤣🤣
I can’t even be bothered to post a rude comment about this idiocy.
I can! How do I write a raspberry a la Goon Show? I see clear parallels between Gorbel’s ministry and the BBC
Try calling Mr McGrath’s article “Solid male bovine biological waste product?”
Batty Matty gets ratty.
Love it – “Build Back Broke” – perfect summation of the new religion.
As CV19 hysteria dies down with massively reduced serious illness, lets wait for the Covid Cultists to move back to the Climate change cult, whilst Johnson blocks the real, immediate issue of pollution. Record levels of raw sewage dumped in our rivers, plastic pollution esp masks littering rivers, fields and oceans. But all that is in the “too hard to do box” and action is more difficult than restrictions on our liberties, imposition of Climate taxes, “clean energy tax scams such as Drax. How long before Climate Change Lockdowns ?
Blimey! the next thing Matt will tell us is that MP’s fiddle their expenses, and that the BBC shelter their knighted star paedophiles and make unfounded allegations against others.
He even might get around to understanding that environmentalist campaigners lie.
No they don’t. It’s just that they always speak *their truth*. Alien to the rest of us, but that’s our fault!
I have been involved in meetings (yes, more than once) where the official minutes and the participants’ notes are about 95% in agreement while the report from the local econuts suggests strongly they were at a different meeting with different people on a different planet!
The difficulty is in trying to persuade the average citizen, keen (as most of us are) to do “the right thing”, that environmentalists will swear black is white to get their own way and that their interpretation of what is best for the environment is the only one that counts.
“But surely they wouldn’t ….” Oh, but yes, they surely do!
Ah, Biden’s BBB – AKA: Build Better Backhanders.
In an impartial world (not inhabited by BBC), McGrath would be railing against the likes of China and India and their failures. But, in BBC-land, politics of the extreme left goes with the job – and your likely promotion.
We already have a huge amount invested in the climate getting warmer. About 15 years ago (I think it was) Building Regs decided that 5:1 mix was OK for mortar in England and Wales, with 4:1 still required for colder Scotland. This is absolutely on the edge, any cock-up in the mix and it collapses into a pile of sand when dry. A 5:1 mix cannot withstand very cold weather. If we are entering a GSM (still a very big if) and it gets very cold, all newly built housing will be in danger.
I had no idea that this was/is the case.
I did not even know there were formal regulations about it the mix. Now I know it is obvious there must be.
Thank you.
I am not sure if it is ‘formal regulations’ or done as some form of Memoranda to Building Control departments. Frankly I lack the dedication to read the Regs and find out. Lazy or wot? Read the Regs? I don’t need that much sleep.
It seems an entirely stupid ‘saving’ to me. The margin on the cost of a build would be peanuts. Someone will make fortune with a ‘deep pointing’ machine a few years down the line.
Most ordinary people are in despair that the “climate change” scam is still continuing. Look at it, banned products, increased taxes and regulations reducing practicality for those that escape the bans. What is wrong with politicians? Why do they HATE their own populations?
I loved the introduction: “2021 was a momentous year for climate change.”
Which just goes to show that the BBC believe that they can fool most of the people most of the time.
Slightly off topic but how are the Greens in the UK and our sheepish politicians who supported Teresa May going to dodge the bullet that is ballooning fuel costs, the result of opposing fracking and the granting of new North Sea extraction licences?
While there are no mid terms in the UK the Greens must be due for a good spanking at the polls before long. Not an outcome the science journalists at the BBC might have predicted. It will be interesting to see the printed media take stock of this outcome — eventually.
They will blame it on those foreigners and failures to building more wind and solar farms which provide free energy.
If anything the green % of the vote seems to be increasing recently thanks to all the free catastrophist publicity at COP26 and the diligent propaganda efforts of the BBC, Sky etc. All of which has been lent extra credence by every mainstream Tory MP seemingly supporting the alarmist nonsense.
Easy, it’s greedy fossil fuel companies standing in the way of clean, cheap green energy.
I happened to catch the backend of the BBC 1pm news, while looking for something to listen to in the background. A load odd teenagers demonstrating about climate, none appeared to have given up any of the trappings of modern life. Also an interview with a Portugeuse youth suing 33? nations for ruining his life, then a lawyer wanting the crime of Ecocide introduced, a nice income stream for international lawyers.
I’ve found My Fair Lady, which has some good tunes. and has reduced my blood pressure considerably.
And it’s clear the fall in the Tories poll ratings and Johnson’s approval ratings have little to do with parties and all to do with inflation, energy prices, Net Zero, higher taxes, more spending, needless lockdowns and general incompetence.
And if Labour think they are riding high because they eant more of that, they are delusional too.
Phoenix 44: O K but its nothing to crow about. It means thart we have no options when the next choice of government comes around.
Sounds like Congress has more sense than the President.
“The despair among many in the US over the possible failure of President Biden’s bill…”
Yet if the Bill fails, it will be because a majority of people in the US don’t want it. Its not being rejected despite everybody wanting it!
But of course the BBC doesn’t bother to explain that.
“it had already been stripped of any meaningful climate policies”
Are there any?
The Government today have annouinced a £3.9Billion investment (of our cash) in a Heat Network, including in Worthing, obtaining heat from the sewers to replace removed Gas Boilers in Council Buildings. Mind you I do remember a particularly good curry in Worthing so maybe the Government have got it right at last….. weblink below to Government Website is shortened as it was too long for the comments section here.
Sorry weblink to Government should have been in the text section I think. https://tinyurl.com/2p96vzwx
Thank you Paul, as always, for your wise council !
I am all about ‘data’ to oppose the false teachings of Environmentalists. Their conceptual desire to clean up Planet Earth . . . I support, in principal. The ‘Data’ they present as ‘Fact’ is absolute nonsense . . . even outright Lies as you have shown Soo many times.
What will it take for an awakening ? Obviously, you beyond any one of us, should be heard beyond the odd mention. What is wrong with society ? What is wrong among our Political Elite ? What is wrong with our Media Establishment ? Why do brilliant Scholars like you and Scientists and Historians who oppose ‘Man-Made Climate Change’ get buried out of site and deposited into ‘File 13’ ?
For 10 years I have been presenting ‘Verifiable Facts’ in reasonably well written papers Proving that Climate Change in ALL it’s facets is a natural occurrence . . . To No Avail ! Not once have I so much as had an inquiry as to my findings or my sources.
Even when I PROVED that Electric Cars consume at least 15 % more CO2 for every kilometer driven . . . No Response. Read it for yourself . . . Where did I go wrong ? This data is based on US government data and published fact . . . ??
https://www.academia.edu/62574334/Tesla_Versus_Toyota_Camry
150 Editorialists and Journalists received a copy of this. NOT ONE response ! Why Not ?
Or this one . . . Man Made CO2 is 3 % of annual contributions to the atmosphere. IPCC data and Data from an Environmentalists book on Climate Change . . . The Paris Accord recommends a reduction of CO2 into Nature by a tinny 0.6 % . . . No Response ! Why Not ?
https://www.academia.edu/49537285/Climate_Change_A_fresh_Perspective
Co2 in the atmosphere has been stable at 280 PPM for 10,000 years. Since about 1850 CO2 has been rising . . . OK . . . More Now than ever . . . OK . . . so rising CO2 is what is causing Climate Change . . . IF that is true today then what caused the other 8 warming periods in the last 10,000 years or the 9 cooling periods in between those other Warming Periods ?
https://www.academia.edu/49421861/CO2_Cradle_of_Life_on_Planet_Earth
Nature alone has RULED Planet Earth for billions of years. There must be a development towards Honest debate, where two sides can find a Convergence of thinking or at least come away from the exchange with a renewed understanding of the issues surrounding Global Warming, Global Cooling, Climate Change and our Planet’s role in all of this. Science and history are calling . . .
Will any one stop to listen . . .?
This is Not Politics, this is, quite simply, Science. New findings that unceremoniously dispel old views are hard to accept for Environmental Researchers who have spent a lifetime forming strategic positions – sad but true. We must move forward and leave the Old Self-Fulfilling Propheses behind. Leave every kind of Politics out of this issue and let Science do its job, without picking sides. We need to re-invigorate what has become a Sociological, Pseudo Religious Debate over Right and Wrong rather than an Unbiased Scientific Discussion founded on research and fact. We must Disavow Environmentalist Theology as expounded from upon high.
It’s time for clear heads to evolve. Sound, Un-Biased examination of Science, and of History!
Thank you for reading . . . please, feel free to comment . . .
Is there a running sum anywhere of the total costs for these green/netzero policies. As Frank says they are pushing up the costs all the time. Grants for batteries, hydrogen production, EV factories. Subsidies for Drax, windmills, solar panels etc.
Bit by bit and unseen to the UK taxpayer. Perhaps a smoke and mirrors trick!
Support for modular nuclear is a plus, but dwarfed by the obscene handouts to Drax for wood burning that even green types oppose.
Quite right cj001muller, above.
There has been enough robust info from Paul and others to justify the production of a cumulative digest or handbook of all that has been challenged and proved false in the past.
What is missing is an editor and the funds to produce a handbook on the lines of Rosling’s book “Factfulness”. Paul’s latest trio of graphs setting out life expectancy, infant mortality etc in Portugal is a compelling example of what needs to be used to confront the BBC and the others unwilling to apply intellectual rigour.
But I am repeating myself.
Momentous news! PROOF of Climate Change?
For the previous 17 years while I’ve been living in the Adelaide Hills the agapanthus** has flowered in the week before Christmas (with ± a day or 2) although those in slightly warmer positions (e.g. along tarred roadsides) may be 1 or 2 weeks earlier. This year the agapanthus didn’t flower until Dec. 28 or 29. Quite noticeable all those purple flowers suddenly appearing a week or so late.
I am sure that Matt of the BBC will be able to list this as due to rising temperatures.
** sometimes called the Nile Lilly although its not a lilly and is from South Africa originally.
‘As well as a host of extreme, destructive events influenced by rising temperatures’
[citation needed]
‘Progress was undoubtedly made and the overall thrust of the meeting was towards more rapid action on a whole host of measures to curb emissions.’
Nah. Not really.
How long is McGrath’s nose now? He appears to be just like Jen Psaki, or CNN news anchors: paid to lie. They have no soul.
There was further one sided praise of COP26 “achievements” in a long interview with Zak Goldsmith on Climate Change on the Today programme on Radio Four this morning, With no questions asked or clarification requested with any data by the BBC interviewer…….. surprise…….