Even as the circulation of The Express collapses, the newspaper continues to lead the way to oblivion with the sort of conspiracy-driven journalism that wouldn't look out of place in the National Inquirer. Highlights of the last few years have including suggesting the McCann's killed their own daughter, an obsession with Diana conspiracy theories, and increasingly erratic front-pages including the recent (withdrawn) claim that HPV jabs are as deadly as cancer. Earlier today, they added another glistening cherry to their fruitcake of journalism with the glorious front page: "CLIMATE CHANGE IS NATURAL: 100 REASONS WHY."
The story concerns a 'dossier' of 'evidence' released by something called the European Foundation, which consists of 100 statements. I was planning to work my way through debunking them all, but others have gotten there first and my broken hand makes me reluctant to replicate the effort. New Scientist have done a nice fisking of the first 50 here, but after that it gets, frankly, a bit repetitive.
In fact the list uses the same tactics deployed by the British Chiropractic Association and British Homeopathic Association in recent times, where the reader has a metric crapload of 'evidence' spewed into their faces which, after wiping themselves down with a hankie and inspecting the contents turn out to be largely irrelevent, misrepresented or even internally contradictory.
Blogger Rob Hinkley has done some nice work picking through this over at Bad Science, pointing out that:
39 have nothing to do with whether GW is natural or not (13, 14, 25, 26, 28, 40, 43, 44, 45, 49, 50, 51, 53, 56, 58, 59, 60, 62, 65, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 77, 82, 86, 87, 88, 89, 93, 94, 95, 96 and 97).
3 (1, 55 and 79) are basically just restatements of the claim that climate change is natural.
2 (41, 46) are claims that higher CO2 levels and/or temperatures are beneficial.
3 (31, 33, 34) are perhaps best categorised as "miscellaneous WTF?"
That leaves only 53 of the points that actually have anything to do with supporting the assertion made. Many of those look like something a child would have come up with, or appear to have been written by somebody trying to be deliberately obtuse, so for example point 55 simply states:
"The argument that climate change is a of result of global warming caused by human activity is the argument of flat Earthers."
While point 8 puts forward the bizarre suggestion that "The IPCC theory is driven by just 60 scientists and favourable reviewers"; and point 63 raises the straw man that "There is no convincing empirical evidence that past climate was unchanging." Well no, and no scientist claims that.
Leaving this cesspit of pseudoscience for others to play in, where did this come from? Apparently something called the European Foundation, a Eurosceptic think tank (rather than, say, a scientific institution).
The Foundation is an odd one to make out. As well as familiar nutters like Roger Helmer, members include prominent Tories like John Bercow, David Davis, and Iain Duncan-Smith. Worryingly, they also include Oliver Letwin, the former Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and in the event of a Conservative win possibly the next Minister in charge of the Environment will likely play a key role in Cameron's climate policy, as he has done in the past (ETA: I was embarassingly mistaken about Letwin's position, thanks for the comment pointing this out below.).
Now, Letwin's credentials on climate are apparently pretty rock solid - indeed, he is the man behind Conservative policies to reduce carbon emissions, and he has an exemplary voting record on climate, as does John Bercow.
So it seems that the European Foundation is not a climate denialist movement, just a Eurosceptic one that happens to have a few cranky and vocal members. This in itself is interesting as it provides further evidence of an overwhelmingly strong correlation in UK politics between Eurosceptic views and climate denialism, noted by myself in blogs passim, and by Richard Corbett MEP.
Still, this looks poor from the Conservatives. Although I've no real doubt that the Conservative leadership are committed to action on climate (dissent seems to be confined to the fringes of the party), it should be a source of major embarrassment for Cameron and that prominent Tories are associated with the group behind this abysmal piece of journalism.
And finally, the Express too should be embarrassed. Taking a self-evidently loony press release from a pressure group and presenting it as proof that climate change is a myth represents a new journalisitc low for a dying tabloid rag.
The DEFRA shadow is Nick Herbert; Oliver Letwin's not had that role since Cameron took over. Still worrying that a lot of prominent Tory MPs (though mostly influential backbenchers, rather than shadow cabinet) are involved with a group which would produce such a shoddy piece of denialist nonsense. I think the author of the 'report' is a ConservativeHome contributor, too.
Epicly stupid of me not to double-check that, I've updated the article to reflect this. Doh!
Martin is the editor of layscience.net.
Follow Me!
RSS | Twitter
The circulation of the Express has only 'collapsed' at the same rate as most other papers; http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/14/national-newspapers-sales-decade#
Climate change is natural in the sense that it is made by humans who are part of nature. Perhaps that's what they mean.
The link embedded in "picking through this over at Bad Science, pointing out that" is wrong, pointing to 'http://layscience.net/node/I count 39 of the Express's' - I suspect a copy/paste error
Interesting.
I suspect that CO2 is a natural by product of our resperation, That all mammalian life produce it in some form or other. That prior to our year of 2000, that there was "more CO2" then in 1990, 1950? or have the actual records have been destroyed? By the same colleges that produced the false data.
You dont make 4 by the following equation, 2+2+/-1= ?.
there is no justification for fudging the figures. They put climate science back 50 years just by the destruction of the records. By the lack of peer review, which is supposed to find the fudgery, so what is left.
We start today not with a treaty justified by the wrong figures, that gives money to china, and takes away our lifestyle of the west, to limit our future, to grubbing for food from plants, and grasses of a barren plain, but create a new open science study, that those shows what is happening is natural.
Anonymousity:
"I suspect that CO2 is a natural by product of our resperation, That all mammalian life produce it in some form or other. That prior to our year of 2000, that there was "more CO2" then in 1990, 1950?"
I don't quite understand your question, but you seem to be asking whether we know that there's more CO2 in the air now than previously. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has been measured for a long time at sites as far apart as New Zealand, the Antarctic coast, the Hungarian countryside, an Italian mountaintop, Hawaii, the South Pole and others. All these sites show a steady increase.
The European Foundation a "euro sceptic think tank"?
Shouldn't that read a "euro septic tank"?
Your website should be called 'the pseudo scientist'. It is a collection of emotional garbage driven by the desire to attempt to gather 'evidence' to support the emotional/politcial stance that you have taken - presumably to protect cuddly polar bears - which actually are enjoying a peak in population numbers and doing just fine, but lets not allow any actual fact into the argument hey?
When have humans ever, in the history of the planet been able to control climate? NEVER.
We are recovering from a glaciation - ice left UK shores 11,000 years ago. Guess what happens when you take 1 mile depth of ice off you - YOU WARM UP.
CO2 is a trace gas in the earths atmosphere close to its historically lowest ever atmospheric leves. FACT
CO2 is not the main greenhouse gas - water vapour is - FACT
There is no linkage of CO2 level to global temperatures over th last 1000 million years FACT.
Close the website and find something more intersting and worthwhile to do.
Greener:
"CO2 is a trace gas in the earths atmosphere close to its historically lowest ever atmospheric levels. FACT"
That is only a fact if by "close to its historically lowest ever levels" you mean "significantly higher now than at any time in at least 650,000 years"
Its gone up slightly in the last 1/9th of the earth's history, but is still close to its historic minimum over the 4.6 billion years of earth history-still a fact wheter you like it or not.
You guys just don't like the facts - henc the East Anglia debacle.
Greener, that the CO2 level now is lower than it was hundreds of millions ago is irrelevant. What matters is that it's significantly higher than it has been for hundreds of thousands of years. The current climate and sea levels are in no way objectively better or worse than those of the past; they just happen to be those which we've built our civilisation around.
It interests me that people have forgotten what they learned in third grade. If you want to reduce CO2 then plant some trees. Speaking of which what happened to the global cooling scare 30 years ago and um the rain forest? I guess that is ok now? In addition we have obviously fixed the hole in the ozone layer. None of these things are spoken of anymore.. what comes after global warming, Florida lizards turning into Godzilla? casino online
Gina:
Speaking of which what happened to the global cooling scare 30 years ago
I refer you to the 'global cooling scare of 30 years ago' post.
and um the rain forest? I guess that is ok now?
Various rain forests of the world are in a poor state.
in addition we have obviously fixed the hole in the ozone layer.
Ozone is replenishing now that we've slashed the amount of CFCs we're dumping into the atmosphere. There's an idea; science identifying a problem and actions to resolve it, and the problem reducing because we take corrective action!
None of these things are spoken of anymore.
I think you mean "I never hear about these things anymore". That could be because you don't try to find anyone talking about them. They are certainly talked about.
what comes after global warming, Florida lizards turning into Godzilla?
I'm not aware of any lizard/godzilla threat, and evolutionary theory predicts any such threat would be extremely remote.
I have been informed and kept me updated about weather conditions on Earth, and contrary to what many journalists (who consider themselves connoisseurs of anything, but who know nothing) that temperatures are increasing (heating), scientists have proved otherwise That the Earth is cooling going toward a new ice age.
Great article, thanks!
Marcos from group,
Desentupidora & Grafica
To hell with them 4 this kind of cash splash parça kontör in this credit crisis. There are a lot issues to deal with kontür as to regards money and will be appreciated not to hear this from parça kontör the media 4 its publicity stunts. A lot people are dying just because they can't afford it and Kalou from a very poor African country and background can't use the oppurtunity 4 charity. 4 the bayan arkadas good samaritan Terry, that money would save countless lives if you had donated it to Kanu's Heart Foundation arkada? Celebrate what?!!!!.....birthday?.when u guys knew u have a decisive n test of superiority match against man utd ds weekend. If u all lyk drink n get drunk n perform woefully against man utd n c wat i'll kizlarla sohbet do 2 u ppl.y dnt k?zlarla sohbet u jst yemek tarifleri postpone d celebratn till after our parça kontör victory over man utd n i'll u guyz in getting drunk in my own arkadaslik siteleri domain..Up until my mid-20s, my ability to reproduce had seks been almost entirely a burden: the cost of contraception, the worry of pregnancy, the unsettling presence of blood. With dul kadinlar that track record, padding my bank account seemed like the least my ovaries could do for me. My mother cried when I sold my ova. Friends said, "I would never do that." Older women swore I'd regret it. But I do not miss those 12 eggs, hardly ever think of them, wouldn't know them if I passed them in the street. I think instead of the long, thrilling trips I took with the money—to Bangkok, Istanbul, Cape Town. indir Devaluing my body, you say? It sure didn't feel like that in first class.