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A Weblog monitoring coverage of environmental issues and science in the UK media. By Professor Emeritus Philip Stott. The aim is to assess whether a subject is being fairly covered by press, radio, and television. Above all, the Weblog will focus on science, but not just on poor science. It will also bring to public notice good science that is being ignored because it may be politically inconvenient.

Thursday, July 22, 2004

'Global warming' theory is collapsing all around us.....

The conservationist, Professor David Bellamy, has just called the whole 'global warming' paradigm "poppycock". Serious new research at The Max Planck Institute has indicated that the sun is probably a far more significant factor than any anthropogenic emissions, Dr Bill Burrows, a climatologist and a member of the Royal Meteorological Society, concluding: "Perhaps we are devoting too many resources to correcting human effects on the climate without being sure that we are the major contributor." The so-called recent temperature 'spike', known as 'the hockey stick', has been unmasked as a statistical artefact, while 'The Medieval Warm Period' and the 'Little Ice Age' have been 're-discovered'. Moreover, the very latest research has shown that there has probably been no real warming, except that which is surface driven. And in Russia, 'global warming' has been likened to Lysenkoism.

Study after study is bringing the global warming' paradigm into disrepute.

Now, I would like all readers of 'EnviroSpin' to monitor the British media to see if these new studies and doubts are being fully and accurately reported. It is important to remember that politically-hegemonic myths are extremely powerful in their sub-conscious ability to exclude evidence and research that undermine their essential power. If you find that these new studies and doubts are not being reported satisfactorily, then I would ask you to write simple, quiet letters to editors and producers asking precisely why they are not being reported in the UK?

As a long-time observer of the 'global warming' scene, it is interesting to watch what has been happening lately. It feels a little bit like sipping Earl Grey tea on the terrace of the famous Foreigners' Club at Sorrento and looking out across the seemingly serene-blue Bay of Naples at the brooding silhouette of Mount Vesuvius. As with all paradigm shifts, the initial tremors are often difficult to detect, but then, suddenly and unexpectedly, there comes a Plinian event that causes a true 'Vesuvian' eruption and a dramatic paradigm shift.

The 'global warming' corrective volcano is currently spewing out only minor lava flows and plumes of smoke. Nevertheless, I predict that, in the none too distant future, 'global warming' will be buried, like Pompeii and Herculaneum, beneath an eruption of Plinian proportions. I would advise you to look to the very basics of the theory; from where precisely did many of the most fundamental assumptions and statistics for 'global warming' models derive?

The political and scientific fall out could be spectacular. I do hope Dr. David King sees it coming first, or, like Pliny the Elder, he could crumple, amazed, before the 'terrorism' of scientific reality.

Unfortunately, in the meantime, the government is hell bent on promoting a ludicrous energy policy that is destroying valuable habitat, all in the name of this great 'global warming' myth. The eruption can't come soon enough.

Philip, just watching and waiting. "Another cup of Earl Grey, my dear?" "No, time for a bottle of Lachrymae Christi, I think." "Grazie, Antonio!" "Just look at that wonderful wine red sky across the Bay....."

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Home Sweet 'Home Planet'.....

Our new Series of the critical environmental programme, 'Home Planet', starts today on BBC Radio 4. This Series will run for 13 Tuesdays from now.

If you are in the UK, the programme is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 every Tuesday afternoon at 15.02 BST, directly after the news summary; if you are outside the UK, you may still listen to it, online, via the BBC 'Home Planet' Web Page:

(a) on the day in question at 15.02 BST, choose the 'Listen Live' button; or, (b) for one week after the first broadcast, choose the 'Listen Again' button; or, (c) after one whole week, select the relevant date under 'Previous Programmes'.

This first week's topics include desalination, cold-water reefs, fertilizer, and electric eels - as ever, therefore, a 'sparky' programme. Don't miss it!

Philip, happy to be back on the 'Home Planet'! "In a galaxy, far, far away....."

Monday, July 19, 2004

It's the Sun wot's done it, M'Lud.....

New scientific research has cast serious doubts on the current hegemonic myth that 'global warming' is primarily driven by anthropogenic emissions of 'greenhouse gases'.

'The truth about global warming - it's the Sun that's to blame' (The Sunday Telegraph, July 18):

"Global warming has finally been explained: the Earth is getting hotter because the Sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1,000 years, according to new research.....

A study by Swiss and German scientists suggests that increasing radiation from the sun is responsible for recent global climate changes.

Dr Sami Solanki, the director of the renowned Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, who led the research, said: 'The Sun has been at its strongest over the past 60 years and may now be affecting global temperatures.....

"Dr Bill Burrows, a climatologist and a member of the Royal Meteorological Society, welcomed Dr Solanki's research. 'While the established view remains that the sun cannot be responsible for all the climate changes we have seen in the past 50 years or so, this study is certainly significant,' he said.

'It shows that there is enough happening on the solar front to merit further research. Perhaps we are devoting too many resources to correcting human effects on the climate without being sure that we are the major contributor.' [my emphasis]"

"The research adds weight to the views of David Bellamy, the conservationist. 'Global warming - at least the modern nightmare version - is a myth,' he said. 'I am sure of it and so are a growing number of scientists. But what is really worrying is that the world's politicians and policy-makers are not. Instead, they have an unshakeable faith in what has, unfortunately, become one of the central credos of the environmental movement: humans burn fossil fuels, which release increased levels of carbon dioxide - the principal so-called greenhouse gas - into the atmosphere, causing the atmosphere to heat up. They say this is global warming: I say this is poppycock.'"

"Poppycock" indeed! Piece of research after piece of research is now undermining the whole mythical construction of human-induced 'global warming'. It's time the British government, and David King in particular, started to listen.

Philip, "The Sun has got its hat on, and it's coming out to play!" I fancy a new Summer cocktail called 'Sunspots'- orange juice, eau de vie de marc, and a touch of blackcurrant. That should raise the temperature a bit! Off to the Great Wen.

[New counter, June 19, 2006, with loss of some data]


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