From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
h/t Tim
There’s been an interesting follow up to this story about the Pakistan floods at the end of August:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62712301
Readers will recall that the claim that one third of the country was under water immediately set off my BS detector, and I did a full analysis here, totally debunking it.
But just a couple of days after my piece, the BBC’s More or Less radio programme also looked at the claim, after some viewers had complained:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001brmm
They interviewed an environmental scientist who checked out what the various satellite records indicated. His conclusion was that the true figure was that about 10% of the country had been affected by floods, and much of this was short term.
In fact, all the BBC had to do was what I did in a few minutes, and check what NASA were reporting:
It was plainly evident that nothing like a third of the country had flooded. Indeed a simple look at the map would have shown them that much of Pakistan is either mountainous or desert, which would be impossible to flood.
They could also have checked with the UN disaster agency, OCHA, who were publishing regular reports on the flooding.
According to them, the area affected was 75000 sq km, or 9% of the country:
In fact, these are precisely the sort of checks the BBC should have carried out before making their absurd claim. One which anybody with an ounce of common sense, or integrity, would have immediately suspected was wrong.
It is doubly ironic that the BBC’s defense was that the one third claim had been widely reported across the media. This shows just how utterly corrupt most of the media is nowadays.
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Innumeracy is a near requirement to be a green.
We should always look for multiple working hypotheses when analyzing MSM newsfeeds.
You are surely correct that the media are largely innumerate; many are completely incapable of anything other than parroting their daily talking points.
But we now live in the Age of Propaganda; our modern misinformers make those guys in the silly uniforms from the 1930s and 40s look like amateurish pikers!
I was referring to sincere greens. The political types who consider greens as useful idiots are another issue.
Tom,
I was in no way trying to criticize; I was merely emphasizing how the Green nutters are so blissfully ignorant in their zealous attempts to hasten glacial onset! Your comments are always valid and to the point.
Yes. Innumeracy is the central problem. Being able to do quick back-of-an-envelope calculations is what allows people to call out BS before it is ever allowed to make the front pages.
Part of the problem. Too often they’re not even interested in verifying things that much.
one , many, lots!
Terry Pratchetts wee free men? is it ran tan titheroe?? only read it the once a while back
I’ve seen many Twitter posts from alarmists repeating the one third assertion as fact.
And amazingly they did not get ‘fact checked’ despite being a lie.
In a few months, anyone who disputes the 1/3rd claim will get Pinnochios, because of the BBC story.
Probably were fact checked but since most media source were reporting it as fact at the time the check passed. Fact checking doesn’t delve too deeply where the orthodoxy is concerned.
Well they quoted the Pakistani climate minister as saying that one third of the country was flooded, turned out to be an unreliable source.
Typical Climate Minister! Just like james Shaw in New Zealand – lies every time he opens his mouth!
You know they’re lying because their lips are moving.
James Shaw does not need to open his mouth to lie .
How did we get a minister of climate .
Does he tell the climate to behave and if not he will put climate in its place .
Man cannot control the climate not even one tenth of a degree.
James Shaw would have the largest carbon footprint of any New Zealander .
Oh I forgot that it is absolutely essential that he travels to very COP meeting .
According to the More or Less show that was referred to above the line, the Pakistani Climate Minister clarified what they meant.
They meant that 1/3 of all districts in Pakistan had flooding that was considered to be a natural disaster.
This was true. It just does not mean that any of the districts were entirely underwater.
More or Less is a great radio show.
of course
he wants MONEY
only fact checked and diverted when you say its WRONG
all else Pro panic is allowed a free pass
When a story is just too good to check.
Thats the real reason . Instant click bait which feeds their narrative
If you were to respond to any of them with this “correction” they wouldn’t accept it and would still believe that it was one third. And they would block you. After calling you names.
Yes, and today, the ex Irish president, Mary Robinson (present day climate expert all of a sudden) cited the 1/3rd flooding claim, for impact to emphasise the urgency needed to tackle climate change. She’s an embarrassing idiot with no background in the subject.
“It was plainly evident that nothing like a third of the country had flooded.”
Obviously, the BBC uses the new math.
Regards,
Bob
It’s only a third of the area where people live. Since only Al-Quada live in the mountain caves, they don’t count.
But it’s tomorrow night that they will be learning about fractions….
Hooray for New Math
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W6OaYPVueW4
The legacy media are an incompetent corrupt joke these days. There is never any challenge made to the tantrum toddlers of Just Stop Oil when they claim millions will die if we open some new gas or oil wells. Where is the evidence to back up their claim? But no, TV interviewers are stupid enough to agree that they have a valid point.
In the media TWO WRONGS DO MAKE A RIGHT!
What they never examine is how gossip and rumors are spread. When the GRAPEVINE (media) says something, accountability goes out the window. No accountability is a big section in the devil’s workshop!
The message still hasn’t got through to JSO’s jet-setting Indigo Rumbelow. In a rare recent car-crash interview (about 5 minutes in) on Sky News she trots out the official “one third of Pakistan” nonsense, which is what the BBC have been saying for weeks. It’s rare because the BBC/Guardian complex rarely challenge JSO, XR or the Climate Change Cult on a face-to-face live television interview.
However, JSO-UK’s tactics may have backfired: a few hours after this interview JSO-UK High Command declared a ceasefire, or at least an end to the motorway disruption.
Birds are dropping out of the sky due to the response to supposed climate change – i.e. WINDMILLS.
same old, same old-
“Urban flooding: the case of Karachi
Governments are quick to blame devastating floods on climate change. But many reasons for these floods are to do with what governments have not done. Arif Hasan reviews why disastrous floods are taking place in Karachi and what is needed for this to change”
https://www.iied.org/urban-flooding-case-karachi
1954- “At 2000 feet all I
could see was a lake extending
to the horizon. Only here and
there a few treetops jutted out
of the water. It looked just
like a sea.”
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/57335923?searchTerm=deaths%20from%20floods%20in%20pakistan
Breaking News: The MSM Lies
In other news: Water, Wet
it’s groups like Inside Climate News who are responsible for the rapidly growing dissemination of climate propaganda.
To quote from their website,
ICN’s environment reporting network launched in 2018. We have opened four regional hubs in two years, and have developed a network of media collaborators in each region. We provide training to reporters and ongoing consultation with their newsrooms; and we lead large collaborative projects across regional newsrooms. We also make the work of our reporters located in the region available for co-publication. Quite often, they end up on the front page of partners’ print editions, as well as online. Here is snapshot of our hubs by region.
https://insideclimatenews.org/impact/
In other words, they have created a propaganda machine that reaches deep into existing media networks to spread lies and misinformation.
The propaganda works on Western leaders but apparently not on people who live in Western nations as Climate Change is way down on the list of priorities for most people.
Billions of dollars and enormous efforts are being put forth to Lie to us about CO2, a benign gas, essential to life on Earth.
Future generations will be amazed at the Human-caused Climate Change Mass Delusion.
The Delusion has a lot of people promoting it. Lots of money pushing the idea.
But all that money and all those lies can’t change the facts and the facts are there is NO evidence showing CO2 is detrimental to the Earth’s atmosphere or to humans. It’s a delusion perpetrated by Liars.
“”BBC Admit Their Pakistan Floods Claim Was False””
Did they?
Well, if they did it was probably the most obscure admission of all time
Where exactly was it published?
If it’s reported on the Beeb, it’s probably best to assume it’s untrue.
The BBC have a responsibility and duty to report accurately, honestly and fairly, it fails to live up to its commitments and in doing so the lies they tell are used as fact.
Since this story broke, I’ve heard the same claim many times on radio and TV, and it goes unchallenged by interviewers who clearly believe it to be correct, or want to believe it is.
Shame on you, BBC.
Technically it was the Pakistani Climate Minister who made the 1/3rd claim, but the BBC should not have let that pass unchallenged.
Back in the 60s Sparrows ( small bird ) used to be everywhere in the UK , but now I hardly see any . When I go to much warmer Spain and Portugal they are every where , which is nice as I like the cheeky little chaps. Same with Swifts and Swallows , I see very few now but much warmer Spain they are abundant . So much for climate change
I think theyre all here in Aus mate, I have a flock of 100 at least living in my bl**dy cieling in Victoria, Id love to post em back!
Yes, responsible media outlets would start inserting those notices into stories like these that advise suicidal readers that if you are disturbed by stories like this that HELP IS AVAILABLE – CALL 999 123 4456.
The surprise will be when the BBC tells the truth.
I read they are planning a major expansion of their US presence. More journalists, more output. So it is as well to be forewarned of their real lack of integrity. They will 9f course claim to tell the truth even as they purvey fake news. It’s the nature of propaganda.
“The surprise will be when the BBC tells the truth.”
Yes.
The BBC has a political agenda. They are not about the truth.
That can be said for about 97 percent of the rest of the Western news media, too. They are all a bunch of propagandists trying to shape public opinion to favor their political beliefs.
Only believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear from the radical, leftwing media. Question everything they say and you will be on a sound foundation.
Surprised no one challenged the assertion that melting glaciers because of climate change contributed to the floods. Pakistan’s glaciers are not melting and, in any case, are far from where the flooding took place.
Good post! There were so many things wrong and manipulative with the media’s fear mongering. I posted an analysis of why the floods were natural and had nothing to do with climate change here and at https://perhapsallnatural.blogspot.com/2022/09/are-pakistans-floods-your-fault-and-you.html
Propaganda doesn’t care. Once the fake truth bomb has been dropped their job is done.
Someone leave a message with the botBBC bias handlers.
In the early 1960’s the Narmuda flooded in what was probably a 100 year flood. The river usually rose about 30′, but that year it rose 66′. Needless to say, lots of mud-brick houses were destroyed in hundreds of villages. However, the north-south main road built by the Brits in the 19th C was 6′ above the mass of surging muddy water, and the culverts were all intact.
Whenever I read about flooding in the MSM, they never indicate what percent of the entire flood plain is under water. Even if it’s the entire flood plain- it’s just nature doing what nature does and has done countless times which is why there is a flood plain there. If a century ago there were few people living in the flood plain and now there are millions – and now the MSM uses that flood to complain about climate change- I find that absurd. It’s as if the MSM doesn’t understand that flooding is natural and has occurred almost since the birth of the planet. Regarding flooding in the Indus Valley we just need to think of the ancient city of Mohenjo-daro. It has been shown that that city was flooded many times thousands of years ago- and that the river has changed its course frequently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohenjo-daro
Floods are nothing new- vast numbers of people living in flood plains is new. The MSM claim that most flooding proves climate change is crazy.
Integrity? B.B.C.? You surely must be joking!
Two months ago the BBC admitted they hadn’t checked the facts, so why haven’t they corrected the lie?
(No need to answer)
I’m old enough to remember when the BBC was a trustworthy balanced truthful entity that adhered to sound journalistic principles and its international broadcasts were the beacon of democracy for oppressed peoples all over the globe.
Oh, how far has the organization fallen?
The rot was initially slow and barely perceptible but has grown exponentially to the point that I now have zero faith in hearing any truth from the BBC ever again, if I read or hear anything that is attributed to the BBC my BS antennae start to vibrate so hard, I get a headache.
The organization has become just a mouthpiece that is used by greedy globalist interests to incite useful idiots into action.
The talking heads that are presented as newscasters and the horrendous cesspit of the BBC editorial department both disgust me.
What has happened in the sceptred islands of my birth.
Unfortunately, Orwell was a philosopher extraordinaire.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah walked away from proffered opportunity in 1947 and instead caused terrible conflict and bloodshed when he founded a nation that for most of its existence has been and continues to this day to be a thinly veiled military dictatorship.
Well said
Disband the BBC.
They are funded by the eney of the British people.