Saturday 16 July 2022

A WELL MADE COMPLAINT

Here is a well-worded serious complaint made to the BBC by the Global Warming Policy Foundation. It highlights a typical situation where a programme seems to be used to further a political agenda, instead of providing balanced information. It is unusual for a so-called public service broadcaster to be so one-sided not only on the science, but also on the political policy where balance is normally taken for granted.  

Complaint-A-Perfect-Planet.pdf (thegwpf.org) 

8 comments:

  1. As heat waves increase in intensity, so do droughts. All you have to do is look in findings and see that there is a projection of change in our climate to more extremes.


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPCC_Sixth_Assessment_Report#Important_findings


    Increase in frequency and intensity of extreme events with global warming



    1*C Wrming 2.8 times more often, 1.2 °C hotter
    1.5*C warming 4.1 times more often, 1.9 °C hotter
    2.0*C warming 5.6 times more often, 2.6 °C hotter
    4.0*C warming 9.4 times more often, 5.1 °C hotter

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  2. I find the argument of no evidence of global warming silly. It just isn't true. Your country is in the middle of a heat wave now setting records. There is plenty of evidence that is being ignored by gwpf.


    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/18/humanity-faces-collective-suicide-over-climate-crisis-warns-un-chief


    Wildfires and heatwaves wreaking havoc across swathes of the globe show humanity facing “collective suicide”, the UN secretary general has warned, as governments around the world scramble to protect people from the impacts of extreme heat.

    António Guterres told ministers from 40 countries meeting to discuss the climate crisis on Monday: “Half of humanity is in the danger zone, from floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires. No nation is immune. Yet we continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction.”

    He added: “We have a choice. Collective action or collective suicide. It is in our hands.”

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  3. Along with enormous wealth of the fossil fuel segment comes enormous power. This is costing the world already. As we further delay, the costs will only rise. Nothing gets smaller about this until we get our GHG pollution under control.



    https://grist.org/climate/us-emissions-cost-other-countries-1-9-trillion-in-economic-damages/


    US emissions cost the world $1.9 trillion in economic damages
    A new study pinpoints the economic cost of emissions, paving the way for international legal action.

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  4. Its almost like bizarr timing that gwpf comes out with a statement criticizing BBC when Europe is going througha heat wave and wildfire time.


    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/07/16/heat-wave-2022-uk-europe-wildfires/10077156002/

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  5. We are all being bombarded with constant images of wild fires, as though the world was burning up, but this is something which happens every year and in the past it received little or no coverage. Yes we have had a couple of extremely hot days with new record temperatures due to freak conditions which we may not see again for some years. This is no more proof of global warming than an extreme cold event would be proof of the onset of an ice age. I accept that we have experienced a rise of about one degree celsius over the past 150 years, so it is not surprising that we are getting an increase in some records.

    However we simply cannot stop using fossil fuels, even if that was the right thing to do, because we would destroy our standard of living. It would be madness to panic over a few extreme weather events. In any case there is absolutely no prospect of the whole world agreeing to do this. Unilateral net zero CO2 policies are pointless and costly. We know that unilateral disarmament is pointless for similar reasons.

    My favourite moment of the news today was when a small boy, when asked if he had ever seen heat like this before said "Yes, when we went to Spain for our holiday." He neatly summed up why all the insane warnings were simply hysterical nonsense. Yes it's been extremely hot, but many parts of the world face this heat regularly and cope with it.

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    Replies
    1. You are correct in that we can't stop fossil fuels right away. But it could easily be faster than it is today.

      Out west in the United States fire season went from just summer time to year around. In dry areas of the world, fires are more frequent and larger.


      And dry soils become more susceptible to fire. "The areas where wildfires are taking place are always areas that [have become] drier and hotter, and where spring has come earlier," said Funk. Drier conditions and higher temperatures increase not only the likelihood of a wildfire to occur, but also the duration and the severity of the wildfire.
      www.dw.com/en/how-climate-change-is-increasing-forest-fires-around-the-world/a-19465490
      How climate change is increasing forest fires around the world

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  6. Despite all the media attention to wild fires the reality, as shown by data, is that they are now less prevalent than in the past. See this article: https://climatescience.blogspot.com/2020/04/predictions-of-increased-drought-and.html

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  7. Europe is experiencing an unusual increase in fires now. During the stronger droughts that the earth is experiencing now drys out the land faster and longer. Hence more dry fuel that very easily ignites.


    Heat records are far outpacing cold records across the globe so far this year.

    It comes as the U.S. and Europe brace for a wave of dangerously high temperatures.

    According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, around the world, 188 all-time heat records have been broken so far in 2022, compared with just 18 cold records.

    A climate scientist at Princeton University says the record imbalance is a sign of climate change.
    Studies have shown extreme heat will increase in frequency, intensity and duration because of global warming, and that extremes will occur more frequently on the hot side compared to cold.

    https://www.westernmassnews.com/2022/07/18/global-heat-records-are-outpacing-cold-records-by-10-1-data-shows/

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