The BBC has perfected the use of weasel words to create alarm. They have a lead story today :
The collapse of a major polar ice sheet will not raise global sea levels as much as previous projections suggest, a team of scientists has calculated.
Writing in Science, the researchers said that the demise of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) would result in a sea level rise of 3.3m (10 ft).
“It has been hypothesised for more than 30 years now that the WAIS is inherently unstable,” he explained.
And how many other global catastrophes have been forecast over the last 30 years? Seems like a new one nearly every week. The article goes on –
“A sea level rise of just 1.5m would displace 17 million people in Bangladesh alone,”
But the author wants us to worry about 200 years from now.
In other words, if the global average was one metre, then places like New York could expect to see a rise of 1.25m. Responding to Professor Bamber’s paper in Science, British Antarctic Survey science leader Dr David Vaughan described the findings as “quite sound”. “But for me, the most crucial question is not solely about the total amount of ice in West Antarctica, because that might take several centuries to be lost to the ocean,” he told BBC News. “The crucial question is how much ice could be lost in 100-200 years; that’s the sea level rise we have to understand and plan for.”Even with this new assessment the loss of a fraction of WAIS over those timescales would have serious consequences and costs that we’ve only really just begun to understand.”
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WilkinsIceSheet/images/wilkins_avh_2007.jpg
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The British Brainwashing Corporation is at best just another political organ of the state.
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I find it amazing as well that after all this time, the citizen/subjects of the U.K. must =STILL= pay a yearly license to own a TEE VEE set, and that includes a license for each one!
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So, not only is the ‘corporation’ as taxing device, it is accountable to NO ONE save its masters in government.
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Imagine: The citizen/subjects of the U.K. must PAY to be inculcated with propaganda.
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The BBC – Social Engineers of the Twenty First Century?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-419125/The-Archers-An-everyday-story-BBC-propaganda.html
First – Rural England.
The planet’s climate next (But – will Nature comply?)
Meanwhile, a Golden Globe for hypocrisy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7517101.stm
Many of us here in the UK treat the state of the BBC as extremely sad. We’ve grown up with it, with its ‘say-it-as-it-is’ journalism, and radio programmes like ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ – which is still good. But it’s really, really disappointing to see environmental journalists bring it down. The latest example regarding the absurd Catlin debacle is a perfect case of very poor reporting, downright lying even. We are embarrassed because the BBC has always been held in high esteem around the world. We once had a mighty empire here – almost certainly the greatest in the world, and will never be bettered. We ruled the seas, and despite our tiny size, influenced politics across the world. Our language will become the standard world language in the near future. The BBC was/is the last standing. It’s very sad.
Yeah well, let’s face it… if the current crop of 20-somethings is any indication, maybe they WON’T be smart enough in the future to adapt to that slooooowwwwllly rising sea level… or even do something so basic as to, you know, move out of the way.
Weasel words abound in every AGW story I’ve seen. I keep trying to point out to believers that what they read does NOT say “will”, it says “could” or “might”. They just don’t see it, and think I’m being fussy. In my line of work, when you say “could” or “might”, you actually mean “probably won’t, but hey…”
Why let facts stand in the way of a good scare? Then again, I’m one of those people who laugh at the stupidity of “horror movies”. Seriously, I’ve never yet seen one that could actually scare me. Now, “The Day After Tomorrow” and “The Day The Earth Stood Still” both scared me. I’m sure most readers here know why they did.
(PS. I also usually cheer for the killer in the teen slasher movies 😉 Some of those kids just deserve to be whacked by an insane nutjob.)
“NASA can’t even figure out if Antarctica is cooling or warming.”
So science is not supposed to be updatable? [snip]. Do you still use the periodic table of 1919 as opposed to today’s?
“Another “if things continue the way they are” story…”
Unfortunately, most reputable sources seem to show “things” are not likely to continue linearly and we should but wish they COULD remain the way they are. Feedback will see most systems, especially ice loss, permafrost melt and sea level changes accelerate over the coming decades.
“The BBC long ago lost any sense of scruples or integrity ..”
[snip]
Reply: There, I just snipped the offensive parts out instead of deleting the whole post. I cannot decide which would have been a better course of action. ~ charles the moderator.
dhogaza
Think yourself lucky you can post your malevolent views here. Your chums at Realclimate certainly don’t allow anyone with views contrary to theirs to post. Why is that do you think? Fear mybe? Definitely an own goal in the credibility stakes. At least WUWT is free to all and not s*** scared of contrary views. See if you can get gutless Gavin to follow Anthony’s example. No chance!!
Reply: I have been contemplating being tougher on dhogaza since his/her obvious and active participation in the slander of Jeff ID during the Steig et al kerfuffle. Since it is possible the dhogaza was an unwitting dupe of the editorial manipulation of the RC moderators, some slack has been allowed. ~ charles the moderator
Dhogaza
At least you can publish your contrary views here without fear of censorship which is a lot more than can be said for the situation at Realclimate. Have you ever stopped to wonder why Gavin Schmidt is so scared of contrary comments? In the credibility stakes his redusal to publish such views reallt y is an own goal
There was a time when anything announced by the BBC, was taken as gospel, it was fiercely defiant of politics, wholly independent. Sadly that went a long time ago when it was infiltrated by greeny marxists with an agenda. They are riddled with believers, hence the unprecednted bias towards AGW without a single question being asked. The coup is complete! Having said that at least one of the worst offenders Roger Harrabin has been sacked. Richard Black should be next, follwed by a “night of the long knives” throughtout management!
On a more scientific point & something I’ve touched upon before, who the hell wants to measure the rate of sea-level rise to three decimal places. 2.378mm/yr is rediculous & I challenge this level of accuracy of measurement of something that isn’t level or flat at any point in time, it’s meaningless. That is the ability to measure overtaking the logic to measure. If it’s rising at a rate of 2.3mm/yr, it’s a about 2mm/yr. If it’s rising at a rate of 2.51mm/yr, then it’s about 3mm/yr! At the risk of repetition, it reminds me of when I worked with “scientists” who would issue drawings for setting out of machinery bases to 8 decimal places, which as explained to them was totally impractical from a structural engineering viewpoint because we just cannot set out to those tolerances (we were looked at as though we came from outer-space), because the concrete expands & shrinks through the curing process as a result of exo-thermic reactions! A classic picture of calculating a theoretical distance, that practically is pointless, we’d be lucky to get it done to the nearest millimetre in reality! Then again I’m an engineer not a scientist. Next time you scientists out there look at a steel structure that looks tall & straight, think again, it’s like a dog’s hind leg in reality!
Andrew,
As other comments have inferred, the BBC is disgracefully alarmist and partial for an organisation that is taxpayer funded. You clearly missed their reporting of the pickup of the “successful” Catlin crew. The subliminal images that accompanied the report were blatant propaganda of the worst sort.
You should try and see the BBC1 10pm news (on whatever day Catlin was heroically completed) – you will probably find it on BBC i-Player. You’ll love it!!!
Keep up the good work – you keep me and, I suspect, many others, sane.
Does the time period suggested for inundation of Bangladesh due to rising sea levels consider the sedimentary deposits of the Ganges that are increasing land mass there? One would offset the other.
Also, sea level does not rise uniformly across the globe. Here’s a link to the University of Colorado – Boulder Sea Level Wizard:
http://sealevel.colorado.edu/wizard.php
I input the coordinates 20N, 90E to approximate the location of Bangladesh. The altimetry-based sea level rise for that part of the Bay of Bengal is approximately 0.33cm/year since 1992.
http://i39.tinypic.com/2myc5zk.jpg
But there is another source for sea level trends, though: NOAA’s Tides and Currents (Mean Sea Level Trends for Global Network Stations) webpage. This data is based on tidal gauges:
http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_global.shtml
Unfortunately, they don’t have a site listed in Bangladesh. The closest gauge they have appears to be in Vishakhapatnam, India. The data there runs back to the late 1930s and provides a linear trend of 0.54mm/year, considerably less than the others.
http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_global_station.shtml?stnid=500-101
N people COULD die of natural causes when X happens, where X is just about any fear you desire to pick and N is any sufficient number of people that are needed to raise the alarm into political action and folly.
We are living in the shadows of the Soothsayers. Words are their specialty. Predictions that they can’t be held accountable for are their trickery. Time is their friend as people forget their predictions as they put so many of them with variations out over time… to saturate people… who don’t want the details anyway given their busy lives… http://pathstoknowledge.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/living-in-the-shadow-of-soothsayers/
Snap
Yes there is a lively blog devoted to exposing the various biases of the BBC – global yawning being one of many.
The BBC has been hijacked by ‘progressives’ who really believe that it’s OK to distort reality if it’s done for the right reasons. The problem is that it’s a closed feedback mechanism so they then start to themselves believe that their own worldview is objective reality. And it’s a primary source of information for the political classes who then base policy decisions on propaganda.
In years to come it will be in psychology textbooks as a classic study of group-think.
Here is a lone voice from the BBC daring to ‘speak truth to power’:
The Catlin Arctic Survey: daring, yes, but is the science any good?
I wonder if Richard Cable (author) will be invited to the BBC office party this year ?
Like Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and others, the BBC has been subject to entryism, by left wing, anti capitalistic, anti globalizationists. The BBC is different in that it is funded by an enforced tax and receives over £3 billion pounds a year from this. I barely watch it now as it stopped providing an objective view years ago. Its selective views on climate change, support for the EU, Palestine, ethic minorities, Islam, are all in accord with this doctrine. What used to be a fine organisation is now a national disgrace.
What naffs us Brits off is that we are legally obliged to fund this BBC bilge via the Licence Fee. Currently, the BBC seems to be the broadcasting arm of New Labour. It’s just not funny. Not funny at all.
Brief recent history.
New Labour signed up to the Kyoto agreement, not because it believes in green issues, you understand, but because of the potential revenue that carbon credits will raise. Any verbal government concern about AGW is pure greenwash for the benefit of the proles and eco-Nazis. Hypocrisy is prevalent. One spokesman suggested that people should not fly away on holidays because of aircraft pollution. The government doesn’t think there’s a conflict signing off on an airport extention at Stanstead, the third largest airport in the UK. We’re expected to reduce our carbon footprints to prevent huge sea level rises yet the government is proposing to build several nuclear reactors around our coastline. Spot any inconsistencies here?
New Labour holds the purse strings of the BBC’s budget. So we get AGW biased, science-lite, dishonest reporting. Mission aim: frighten the proles into accepting the AGW taxation fraud. The rest of the main stream media jumps onto the alarmist bandwagon with unholy glee. The problem is, the proles are starting to question the alarmism and are beginning to fight back. Newpapers are losing circulation because of the dumbed down garbage they foist on us. The current Parliamentary expenses scandal rocking the House of Commons was outed by the blogosphere, not the Daily Telegraph.
Philincalifornia suggests that the commonsensical Christopher Monckton be given a place in the forthcoming Conservative government. I wish! This welcome eventuality would require some shrewd political nous on the behalf of David Cameron. So far, such a useful skill seems to have eluded Cameron. Even hard nose Tories are briefing against him. Lord Tebbit, party chairman and Minister for Trade and Industry under Margaret Thatcher, came out and suggested that Tory supporters vote for the anti EU party, UKIP in the forthcoming EU elections. An eminently sensible man, Tebbit understands what the anti-nationlist EU and its suicidal carbon credits legislation will do to the UK.
Cameron is currently considering booting Tebbit out of the Not-the-Tories party. You might note that Monckton served as Thatcher’s science advisor which is another reason Cameron will overlook Monckton. Cameron sees himself as the heir to Blair and wants to be “at the centre” of Europe. 55% of the UK electorate want out of Europe (they won’t give us a referendum because we’ll tell the EU and Parliament to get lost) which is the reason why this erstwhile Tory voter will be voting for UKIP in June.
Having seen Cameron’s Shadow Chancellor’s unworkable green pretentions, savaged by Tory voters you will note, ( http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2009/04/george-osborne-announces-ten-new-green-policy-initiatives.html ) I’d say that Monckton’s face simply won’t fit in on the Tory front bench because he’d make them look like the idiots they are. And Cameron seems set to have us ratify the Lisbon treaty (aka the EU Constitution but let’s not digress further) one can only assume he’s quite happy to continue perpetrating the AGW carbon credits fraud on the British people. He is useless in Opposition. He’ll be a disaster as Prime Minister.
And the reason for not rising up and slaughtering them all is…?
philincalifornia
The profoundly commonsensical Christopher Monckton would make a welcome addition to David Cameron’s front bench. Sadly it’s unlikely to happen. Here’s why:
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2009/04/george-osborne-announces-ten-new-green-policy-initiatives.html
The BBC used to be a world class organisation. Millions of people in non-democratic countries used to rely on the BBC for information on what was happening in their own countries.
I doubt that is true today.
In the UK today Sky News is now considered to be what the BBC used to be. Unfortunately, will still have to pay for the privilage of financing BBC via the Television Licence fee.
On the topic of the West Antartic Ice Sheet “slide” into the sea. The implies that all of West Antartica is sloping downhill. For hundreds of miles. Is this correct?
This seems a bit unlikely.
Short news cycle = recycle latest fake CO2 doomsday science piece.
The poles will always be cold and full of ice no matter what these people say. The equator low latitudes will always be hot.
Why? Because of the sun angles.
Maybe we can adjust the tilt of the earth’s rotation a few degrees and cause the winters be just a little bit colder. Now that might be cheaper then Cap and Trade.
philincalifornia (20:39:53) :
I sincerely hope that Lord Monckton will be given a role in the next British government, if only to rearrange the British Bare-faced-lying Corporation from the top down.
Unfortunately Phil, although his party may well get elected, its leaders, Cameron et all, seem to be on message with the rest of the warmists. So, little chance I’m afraid.
You should add “former” in front of the Wilkins ice shelf.
Whoops, UK Sceptic beat me to it.
papertiger (22:26:48) : “a picture is worth 1000 words”
Anthony I’m designing bumper stickers out of papertiger’s Antarctica pix and other material today. I’ll see if I can make it into a post for you, for everyone to join in – if you would like.
Personally I think it’s a brilliant idea…
Matt Bennett,
Do you find it credible that Antarctica could be heating rapidly over the last 30 years, yet four years ago NASA believed it was cooling at a long-term rate of 10C per century?
If you believe that, then I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn, and a House Speaker who was lied to by the CIA.
In the actual case, the “collapse” (a word chosen for implying suddenness) of the West Antarctic ice sheet would take at least 500 years. To get alarmed about this is like the Woody Allen character who decided life was pointless because the universe was going to end in 10 billion years. Sorry it is just so crazy.
The BBC must really really hate “Top Gear” which openly ridiculed the whole AGW business, with their drive a couple of Toyota Hiluxes to the magnetic north pole.
perhaps all is not lost at the BBC?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/climatechange/