BBC investigated after peer says climate change programme was biased 'one-sided polemic'
By Tamara Cohen, Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1063110/BBC-investigated-peer-says-climate-change-programme-biased-sided-polemic.html)
The BBC is being investigated by television watchdogs after a leading climate change sceptic claimed his views were deliberately misrepresented.
Lord Monckton, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, says he was made to look like a 'potty peer' on a TV programme that 'was a one-sided polemic for the new religion of global warming'.
Earth: The Climate Wars, which was broadcast on BBC 2, was billed as a definitive guide to the history of global warming, including arguments for and against.
During the series, Dr Iain Stewart, a geologist, interviewed leading climate change sceptics, including Lord Monckton. But the peer complained to Ofcom that the broadcast had been unfairly edited.
'I very much hope Ofcom will do something about this,' he said yesterday.
'The BBC very gravely misrepresented me and several others, as well as the science behind our argument. It is a breach of its code of conduct.
'I was interviewed for 90 minutes and all my views were backed up by sound scientific data, but this was all omitted. They made it sound as if these were just my personal views, as if I was some potty peer. It was caddish of them.'
Ofcom confirmed it was looking into a 'fairness complaint' about the documentary.
A BBC spokesman said: 'We stand by the programme.'
Lord Monckton, 56, a former journalist and Cambridge graduate, says scientific data shows the world is cooler today than in the Middle Ages.
He appeared alongside other sceptics including distinguished Florida-based meteorologist Professor Fred Singer, John Christy, a climate change expert and adviser to the U.S. government and the climatologist Dr Patrick Michaels, of the University of Virginia.
All their interviews, he claims, were heavily cut so that they appeared as personal views.
'We do not dispute that there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but we do dispute its effects', he said. 'The data shows that 2008 is the same temperature as 1980 and that the effects of these changes in the atmosphere are not negative but more likely to be beneficial.'
Lord Monckton played a key role in a legal challenge heard in the High Court in October 2007 in an effort to prevent Al Gore's film on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, from being shown in English schools.
QuoteDuring the series, Dr Iain Stewart, a geologist, interviewed leading climate change sceptics, including Lord Monckton. But the peer complained to Ofcom that the broadcast had been unfairly edited.
The climate change faithful are quick to point out the lack of relevant qualifications of those who criticise or question the modern orthodoxy. In the light of that, is it not fair to ask how qualified a geologist is to be presenting a so-called definitive scientific analysis of the 'problem' of climate change?
QuoteAll their interviews, he claims, were heavily cut so that they appeared as personal views.
Such devious editorial techniques are not exactly uncommon in the BBC.
Quote'We do not dispute that there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but we do dispute its effects', he said. 'The data shows that 2008 is the same temperature as 1980 and that the effects of these changes in the atmosphere are not negative but more likely to be beneficial.'
Scientific data also shows that CO2 levels follow temperature levels, lagging by several hundred years. The global warming... climate change faithful have deliberately reversed the cause and effect in this particular equation.
Also, CO2 makes up 0.383% of the atmospheric gases, a level that is between one quarter and one tenth of previous CO2 concentrations - long before the industrial revolution ever took place. Indeed, records show that temperature fell after the onset of the industrial revolution.
QuoteLord Monckton played a key role in a legal challenge heard in the High Court in October 2007 in an effort to prevent Al Gore's film on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, from being shown in English schools.
Good on him. This blatant piece of climate change propaganda is decidedly unscientific and should come with a health warning.
We need a global tax to stop it haha f'n morons with their climate change nonsense
They want to tax everything :!:
It's a way to rise the tax, but while saying it's for your safety and future..;.
they won't tell us where that money will go or for what it will be used, probably to buy weapon anyway...
Even the food that is considered to fat, they want to put a special tax on it, great :|
Quote from: "razorback2000"they won't tell us where that money will go
When do they ever tell us where the money will go or has gone?
Quote from: "sullivan"When do they ever tell us where the money will go or has gone?
Oh wait ...I know - CARBON CREDITS! :mrgreen: .......WTF IS THAT????!!!! Tell the Rothschild bankers and their agents to get the hell out of my sight!!! :!:
Quote from: "sullivan"Quote from: "razorback2000"they won't tell us where that money will go
When do they ever tell us where the money will go or has gone?
That's not far from the truth indeed :mrgreen: