Auntie’s Tall Tale Of Daddy Long Legs

It's always fun to trace the chain of Chinese whispers between primary research and scary news stories about the ravages of climate change. Many BBC science stories are particularly easy to trace back to source, based as they are on a single scientific paper, from...

Climate Criminals to the Naughty Step

It's not easy watching It's Not Easy Being Green, BBC2's show about how easy it is being green - if you are a professional environmentalist. After the first episode of the new series, we mentioned that edgy yet ethical rock chick Lauren Laverne had been trying to...

Penguins Are Killing the Polar Bears

This week has been a PR disaster for the North Pole. No sooner had scientists shown that the Antarctic really had been warming up a bit, actually, probably due to climate change and everything, than it was proved that Emperor penguins are more screwed even than the...

Cut and Paste Journalism

BBC bosses today tried to make excuses for the cut-and-paste job by BBC science journalist, Susan Watts, as discovered by Tony at Harmless Sky recently. Answering criticism on Watts' blog, Newsnight Editor Peter Rippon said: We did edit sections of the speech to...

Biased Broadcasting Climate – Part 2

Over at the Harmless Sky blog, the sharp-eyed, and quick-minded Tony N has spotted an alarming piece of journalistic interference with Obama's inauguration speech. It would seem that someone at the BBC had taken the trouble to splice the tape so that half a sentence...

Munich ReDux

Further to our post on the love-in between Munich Re insurance the BBC and Professor Lord Sir Nicholas Stern... Over at Prometheus, Roger Pielke Jr presents statistics that contradict Munich Re's statements on increases in the human and economic costs of natural...

…Unless You're Filthy Stinking Rich

You can just imagine the editorial meetings that led up to BBC2 commissioning It's Not Easy Being Green: BBC executives: This grass-roots environmental movement is all very well, but we're never going to save the planet if the middle classes don't join the revolution....

Prosperous New Fear

Before we get stuck into 2009, we missed a spillage from the festive period that needs mopping up... In a remarkably gullible news item, the BBC covered a new report revealing that 2008 was a 'Huge year for natural disasters': The past year has been one of the most...

Last BBC Show Standing?

Even the curmudgeonliest of climate realists need a break from complaining once in a while. So, no moaning about how BBC2 somehow managed to force a lesson in sustainability into a documentary about the behaviour of pygmy marmosets. No grumbling about how BBC R4's PM...

Cold is the new warm

When is a short term trend not a short term trend? When it's an upward anomaly. James Randerson in the Guardian tells us that, This year is set to be the coolest since 2000, according to a preliminary estimate of global average temperature that is due to be released...