EnviroSpin Watch

2007-10-13T18:06:00.001+01:00

Philip's New BlogPlease note that, officially, from Sunday, October 14, 2007, I have started a completely new blog at a new site. This has just gone live. I do hope you will visit:Global Warming Politics: A Hot Topic BlogThe battle against so much 'global warming' claptrap must continue.Philip, off to his new home.

2006-11-06T14:53:00.000Z

Full Stern Ahead to Much Waffle and Weeping, Hype and Hubris.....My apologies for not having commented on the Stern report - I have been immensely busy, including broadcasting and writing about the report in the press. At last, however, I have a moment, stimulated also by what must surely be the nadir of tear-stained right-on comment, inevitably by Our Madeleine of the Sorrows in today's The

2006-10-05T15:30:00.000+01:00

Do I detect the first tiny rumblings of a paradigm shift in climate-change science?"The greenhouse effect must play some role. But those who are absolutely certain that the rise in temperatures is due solely to carbon dioxide have no scientific justification. It's pure guesswork." [Henrik Svensmark, Director of the Centre for Sun-Climate Research, Danish National Space Center, joint author of the

2006-07-18T11:07:00.000+01:00

Time to shuttle off to that 'Home Planet' again.....Our 11th Series of the critical environment programme, 'Home Planet', begins today on BBC Radio 4 at 15.02 pm BST. The Series then runs for 12 more Tuesdays into October, and, as with the last Series, it will include some Gardeners' Question Time-type 'out-and-about' slots (the first in Swansea). These are great fun, and most rewarding.If you

2006-07-11T14:33:00.000+01:00

Going nuclear.....At last, we are to get a reasonable UK Government energy policy, and one that includes a new generation of nuclear power plants and a strategy for clean coal, exactly what 'EnviroSpin' has been proposing over the last two years [see: 'Nuclear plants set for go-ahead' (BBC Online Politics News, July 11)]:"Number 10 says 'wishful thinking will not keep the lights on', as ministers

2006-07-09T11:46:00.000+01:00

Where farming is concerned, beware romantic European nationalisms.....Recently, there have been a spate of alpine flower-tinted articles on old-fashioned European farming by middle-class journalists just home from their continental holidays, as well exemplified by Magnus Linklater writing in The Times ('Picturesque little farms, delicious local produce ... Obvious clue: not Britain' - apologies,

2006-07-07T16:53:00.000+01:00

The 10 final proofs of 'global warming'.....You should believe in 'global warming' when.....(1) apocalyptic academics stop flying round the world to conferences and for their extended summer holidays - er, sorry - 'field research';(2) The Guardian and The Independent stop advertising cheap flights and holidays;(3) the Cameroonian middle classes give up their holiday villas in Provence, Tuscany,

2006-07-07T11:58:00.000+01:00

From Pooter to Lowry: saving the humble British house from wheelie bins and solar panels..... If some latter-day Nikolaus Pevsner were to arise with a penchant for recording the Victorian and Edwardian terraced house and villa, every book in the series would, sadly, have to contain the following entry: "Anytown: Victoria Street - a road of humble, but honest, terraced houses, once with

2006-06-29T13:51:00.000+01:00

Europe's hypocrisy and shame needs to be thrown in the Manneken Pis.....For 10 years, ecochondriac Europe has been lecturing and haranguing the rest of the world about 'The Great Global Warming Scare'. Its hypocrisy knows no bounds. The reality is truly shame-making:(a) Germany, Europe's biggest emitter of so-called 'greenhouse gases', has just announced that it will permit an increase in

2006-06-29T10:16:00.000+01:00

The 'global warming' industry (mafia?).....The excellent John Brignell over at Number Watch has produced a wondrous list of everything that the 'global warming' industry, or mafia, has concocted as media scares (and all on 0.6 degrees C over 100 to 150 years): 'A complete list of things caused by global warming'.If you think John has missed any of the rampant nonsense (there is so much!), he is

2006-06-27T22:37:00.000+01:00

Europe's climate policies fall apart.....As long-predicted on 'EnviroSpin', Europe's blatant hypocrisy in constantly claiming the moral high ground over climate change is being revealed for all to witness. It is not a pleasant sight.Europe's leadership is in tatters, as economic reality catches up with the rhetoric. Let's hope that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of European hype and

2006-06-22T14:27:00.000+01:00

Coming clean over climate change.....In their political heart-of-hearts, all Governments (including those in Europe) know that there is absolutely nothing we can do predictably about climate change, and, indeed, extremely little practically to curb the rise of 'greenhouse gas' emissions. Unfortunately, through a type of tabloid-hysteria in the old broadsheet world, including the BBC, the

2006-06-21T18:11:00.000+01:00

New Mini Poll.....After much testing and searching, 'EnviroSpin' has, at last, a new Mini Poll service [with Pollhost]. This carries no adverts on the blog, but only on the results pages, and I approve entirely of Pollhost's policies, which reject web sites that exhibit racism, hatred, harassment, adult content, obscene material, nudity, and pornography. I thus feel confident that the advertising

2006-06-20T12:00:00.000+01:00

News without those pesky ads.....I am delighted to say that 'EnviroSpin' can now offer a regular 'Science News' ticker (courtesy of ABC) [opposite], without the danger of any uncontrolled pesky ads. The ticker checks for stories regularly (around every 10 minutes) - just click on the 'Headline' for the full story.Philip, so glad to have dropped those ads. A celebratory coffee is needed. I hope to

2006-06-19T19:52:00.000+01:00

An apology: the sudden removal of certain services.....I must apologise for the precipitate removal from this blog of certain services which I know were valued by visitors to 'EnviroSpin' (e.g. the daily 'Science News' and the Mini Polls). Very sadly, some of the advertisements put up by the service providers have become increasingly unacceptable for a Family Friendly Site, like 'EnviroSpin', and

2006-06-19T16:18:00.000+01:00

Middle-class panics from MMR to 'global warming'.....Not being a medic, I have refrained from commenting on the disastrous 'yummy-mummy' panic over the MMR vaccine and its [seemingly non-existent] link with autism [see: 'Misplaced autism worries fuel measles outbreak' (The Guardian, June 16)].As you may recall, confidence among the professional and media-type middle classes in the MMR (measles,

2006-06-19T10:09:00.000+01:00

'Sceptical Landscapes' back on air.....I hope it is not too solipsist to let you know that the five programmes of my little radio Series, 'Sceptical Landscapes', are being repeated, one after the other, each day this week on BBC Radio 4 at 3.45 pm (BST).You can listen in live each day here [select: 'Now on air', and click the Listen Live button].Philip, 3.45 pm? Why not have tea in the garden

2006-06-18T11:03:00.000+01:00

Political ecology and environmentalism: Marxism through the back door.....For a long time now, there has been an uneasy feeling that the grand narrative of environmentalism is morphing into the grand narrative of Marxism, but in a new guise. Of course, this is rarely admitted, or made transparent, the deep faiths of environmentalism being cleverly dressed up in pseudo-scientific gobbledygook,

2006-06-09T11:11:00.000+01:00

Wow! Animals evolve in response to climate change.....Many newspapers, including some which should know better, are getting over-excited about the 'discovery' that bees, butterflies, birds, and "b....." squirrels might actually adapt to climate change, a story more sensibly reported here: 'Recent, rapid climate change is driving evolution of animal species' (EurekaAlert!, June 8).Not to be

2006-06-08T10:23:00.000+01:00

Wishful thinking versus the petrolheads.....Only recently, Sir Jonathon Porritt, he of the boringly-PC 'Sustainability Commission', called Jeremy Clarkson, he of the highly-successful television show, Top Gear, an "outstandingly bigoted petrolhead" [see: 'Scourge of the greens: Clarkson branded "a bigoted petrolhead"', The Independent (May 31)]:"He has insisted there is almost certainly no such

2006-06-07T09:46:00.000+01:00

In the UK, just another day of carbon claptrap.....Yesterday was a classic for carbon claptrap in the UK, from BBC Television, from scientists, and from big business. What nonsense is being peddled in the name of 'global warming'!BBC Television, as ever, was the worst, with yet another gloom-mongering effort, 'Five disasters waiting to happen' (BBC 2). The only disaster is that we have to pay a

2006-05-31T07:14:00.000+01:00

Despite the tabloid vitriol, in the real world Bjørn Lomborg is winning.....The most recent ad hominem attack on Bjørn Lomborg ("Not again!", I hear you groan) by Johann Hari in The Independent (May 20) [available at Hari's web site] is one of the more disgraceful for some time, and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Such vitriol represents the worst type of tabloid journalism masquerading as

2006-05-29T14:22:00.000+01:00

Is the EU totally Cnutters?.....In its infinite wisdom, and with God-like power, the EU has today decreed that we can STOP climate change, and that "YOU CONTROL CLIMATE CHANGE" [BBC Online Europe News, May 29] (I bet you are pleased!)King Canute (Cnut) I, Canute the Great, Knútr inn ríki, Knud II den Store, Knut den mektige (994/995 – 1035) would most graciously beg to differ:[Copyright: Philip

2006-05-26T15:31:00.000+01:00

Music to your ears.....Now I don't spend all my time battling the forces of irrationality.You might like to visit my new web site, just up on the Web, to see what I get up to in my spare time: Philip Stott's Music Box.I hope you enjoy Stotty's efforts. The first time you load the site, it may take a minute, as it includes a full Clarinet concerto. I have checked the speed on my own system,

2006-05-25T07:46:00.000+01:00

'Your Auntie Beeb NEEDS YOU!'.....Climate Chaos Comic: Page 2 [as threatened: Page 1 was yesterday!]:[Copyright: Philip Stott, 2006]Philip, "Now get to it you procrastinating proles and 'Save the Planet'!" "Wot! No windfarm on your roof yet? You lazy laggard! Three showings of Climate Chaos for you then!" "I'm orf for brekkers! WHERE'S MY COFFEE?!! Get marching there, Man!"

2006-05-24T14:11:00.000+01:00

'The BBC plans climate chaos??'.....Apologies to Auntie - but here's my special Climate Chaos Comic. Enjoy [Page 2 tomorrow!]:[Copyright: Philip Stott, 2006]Philip, great program for the Mac that Comic Life. Came all bundled too. Knew it would prove useful one day. Just a bit of fun among the media chaos..... Coffee with a comic?

2006-05-23T12:12:00.000+01:00

The Tinkerbell vote.....Yesterday, David Cameron, the new, fresh-faced leader - the Peter Pan - of the Conservative Party was asking us: "Do you believe in fairies?" He....."..... flung out his arms. There were no children there, and it was night time; but he addressed all who might be dreaming of the Neverland, and who were therefore nearer to him than you think: boys and girls in their nighties

2006-05-22T19:47:00.000+01:00

Some clear thinking in the fog.....Excellent comment piece from Ruth Lea in today's 'Business Section' of The Daily Telegraph (May 22) (and not just because yours truly gets an honourable mention): 'Climate change policy is as clear as good old London fog':"..... But adaptation, for all its obviousness, is not the chosen option of the UN's environmental policy makers. They have chosen the '

2006-05-22T11:15:00.000+01:00

Canada starts to change the "upholstery buttons".....It was the Freudian psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan (1901 - 1981), who argued that the way a society thinks is governed above all by what he termed the points de capiton, the "upholstery buttons". These fix the fabric of current hegemonic meaning onto the structure of our signs, or language, just like the buttons which attach the leather covering

2006-05-21T11:17:00.000+01:00

BBC's 'Climate Chaos': mark the Series out of 50......Somebody asked me recently to list the main factors that drive climate changes. I thought it might be useful to repeat the exercise here to demonstrate once and for all that, by trying to reduce climate change to carbon dioxide and temperature, the myth of 'global warming' illustrates to perfection the serious sin of monocausal explanation (a

2006-05-20T10:24:00.000+01:00

Video common sense re 'global warming' (downloadable too).....Do not miss this excellent series of sound-byte interviews with Richard Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - just up on Fox News. To watch the short video, go to:Fox News, and select the Video Box: 'It's not so simple. An MIT professor sounds off on popular theories

2006-05-18T13:36:00.000+01:00

Carbon claptrap attains new heights of madness.....I always knew that the fundamental nonsense of 'global warming' would, in the end, be demonstrated by political attempts "to do something about it", rather than by any science or logic. This is not, perhaps, unsurprising, because 'global warming', as a religion, has morphed into the classic grand narrative - a Barthesian myth or Latourian hybrid

2006-05-17T12:13:00.000+01:00

Quotes of the Day.....First, wise words from India: "Removal of poverty is the greater immediate imperative" than global warming, Prodipto Ghosh, Secretary of India's Environment Ministry, yesterday before the 1,600 delegates at the 189-nation U.N. climate meeting - er, talking shop.Secondly, no scientific evidence for significant sea-level change in the UK:Evidence from a new study [.pdf]

2006-05-15T13:51:00.000+01:00

Protean capitalism 'sequesters' carbon as only it can.....Marx rightly stressed the protean nature of capitalism, which is, of course, one of the hallmarks of its evolutionary and adaptive success. It is this protean nature which helps capitalism to absorb - nay, 'sequester' - any radical challenges to its dominance, turning a seeming stumbling block into opportunity knocks, although attempted '

2006-05-07T10:20:00.000+01:00

New EnviroSpin Mini Poll.....Vote Now!Here is the result of our last Mini Poll (just archived) on Mr. Blair and climate change:Can Mr. Blair control climate change predictably? Yes: 42 votes (3%); No: 1548 votes (96%);Don't know: 18 (1%).Total votes cast: 1608.Many thanks to all our readers who participated.Well, EnviroSpin readers were pretty unanimous on Mr. Blair.Now, for your democratic

2006-05-05T16:25:00.000+01:00

Those council election results.....The English council election results are extremely fascinating, and they have a bearing on the relevance of David Cameron's 'Green' posturings as discussed frequently here on 'EnviroSpin'. The Conservatives have gained 11 councils, while Labour has lost 18, some to NOC (No Overall Control). But it is far from all good news for Cameron, and nothing like the

2006-05-04T10:20:00.000+01:00

If you can't bear the nonsense about the demise of polar bears, just read this.....In all the hysteria over climate change, there is more nonsense talked about the imminent demise of the polar bear than about pretty well anything else (though the competition is strong).Time to read this excellent corrective piece from a polar bear biologist. [Opposite: Ursus maritimus, Pooh's chilly cousin. Image

2006-05-01T17:04:00.000+01:00

Opposition to the so-called 'climate-change consensus' is growing rapidly.....Following the 61 scientists who signed an 'Open Letter' to the new Canadian Prime Minister, criticism of the so-called 'global warming consensus' is growing rapidly, from scientists to business leaders to journalists and commentators. Here are just three examples taken from the media during the last few days:(a) 'Group

2006-04-27T14:57:00.000+01:00

Thatcher's old spin doctor gets it right.....In many ways the first modern spin doctor, Sir Bernard Ingham, Thatcher's former Press Secretary, professional Yorkshireman, and columnist for the Yorkshire Post gets it absolutely right re UK energy policy in this excoriating piece: 'We need brave politicians to win this vital power struggle' (Yorkshire Post, April 12):"Is Tony Blair our last hope? I

2006-04-26T12:48:00.000+01:00

The Euston Manifesto.....I should like to recommend a read of the admirable, and much-needed, Euston Manifesto:"We are democrats and progressives. We propose here a fresh political alignment. Many of us belong to the Left, but the principles that we set out are not exclusive. We reach out, rather, beyond the socialist Left towards egalitarian liberals and others of unambiguous democratic

2006-04-26T12:06:00.000+01:00

Canada cools on Kyoto - why not our Mr. Cameron?.....Now, here is something the British Conservative Party should be doing, Cameron of the Huskies please note. As predicted on 'EnviroSpin', the new Conservative administration in Ottawa is starting the mental, and practical, moves away from the Kyoto Protocol to the new Asia-Pacific Pact : 'Gov't looking at joining U.S. led Kyoto rival. Agreement

2006-04-25T09:51:00.000+01:00

As Cameron completely loses it, 'Our George' starts to get it.....I have to say that David Cameron, as the Green Guru, makes me wince. He is embarrassing, a kind of middle class Coriolanus dinner party 'See my wounds' type of host, with yummy mummy in tow. Melanie Phillips is just the right sort of commentator to 'out' the red-faced Boy Wonder on his sled: 'Even greener than he thinks' (April 24)

2006-04-24T16:44:00.000+01:00

Four downpours of good sense cool climate-change hot heads.....I am encouraged - four most sensible sets of comments on climate-change hysteria for you to sample:(a) First, in the excellent The Scotsman newspaper (April 24): 'Common sense must top green agenda':"The most bizarre sight of last week was that of David Cameron driving a team of huskies across the Norwegian snows. If it is hard to

2006-04-19T17:09:00.000+01:00

This says it all about climate models.....Oh me! Oh my! The BBC's Great Climate Change Experiment has bitten the dust, so to speak: 'BBC climate change experiment cocked. Garbage in, garbage out' (The Inquirer, April 18):"The BBC's Climate Change Experiment started in February and almost 200,000 users [the Good Wife among them] around the World have signed up. With supercharged computers winding

2006-04-17T11:23:00.000+01:00

The unsustainability of 'sustainability'.....If I hear the word 'sustainability' again, I'll reach for my imported 'organic' cranberry juice [Sweden via California via... - 'tonnes' of air miles per sip]. We have heard it all before. Remember Limits to Growth, Small is Beautiful, and The Blueprint for Survivial? These were the utopian 'flower power' of the dire 1970s. The most recent New

2006-04-11T09:40:00.000+01:00

Canada faces up to the reality the UK media doesn't want to hear.....Except for the Sunday Telegraph ('Kyoto is pointless, say 60 leading scientists', April 9) and The Daily Mail [story not available online], the silence in the UK has been deafening. As far as I can see (do please correct me if I have missed something), there has been nothing from The Guardian, from The Independent, nor, sadly,

2006-04-02T14:35:00.000+01:00

Apocalyptic climate change? We've heard it all before.....On August 27, 1974, the Christian Science Monitor carried the following dramatic headline: 'Warning: earth's climate is changing faster than even experts expect'. Beneath this warning, they reported that the world's glaciers "have begun to advance", that "growing seasons in England and Scandinavia are getting shorter", and that "the North

2006-04-02T10:58:00.000+01:00

That Sunday Colour Supplement lifestyle.....There is a most engaging piece of ironic parody from Oliver Pritchett in today's Sunday Telegraph (April 2): 'Recycle your Dijon or the planet's toast'.Oliver captures to perfection the metro-tweeness of the Notting Hill Green bunnies and of all those yummy mummies. Among his more gushing suggestions are:+ Eat paler toast [*for image];+ Wash-up in the

2006-04-01T08:08:00.000+01:00

Comment of the week: more, indeed Moore, on religion and 'global warming'....."If I am right, the politics of climate change are bad. They attract the self-righteous and the self-flagellating, the controlling, the life-denying, the people who don't like people, the people who, like Private Fraser in Dad's Army, think we're 'all DOOMED'. And when I listen to many of the scientists who join in the

2006-03-30T11:40:00.000+01:00

'The Druid' and 'global warming'..... Since the abject failure of Marxism, the collapse of the socialist model following the end of the Cold War, and the steep decline in the relevance of most Christian denominations, 'environmentalism' in the West has increasingly become a refuge for those who yearn to intervene in society for other people's good. Such ecochondriac neophytes want to '

2006-03-30T00:53:00.000+01:00

Whoops! Up, up, again.....Poor old Margaret Beckett! It just gets worse and worse. Further to my Tuesday blog (below), 'Weathering the inevitable Green storm', we now have this: 'UK carbon emissions rise again' (BBC Online Science/Nature News, March 30):"Britain's CO2 emissions have risen for a third successive year, according to government figures......The government says the rise was caused by

2006-03-29T21:37:00.000+01:00

If I hear once more in the media........that wind farms are carbon free, I'll turn on my patio heater! The idea is culpable casuistry. The base of a single, near-shore wind turbine requires around 500 tonnes of cement, 550 tonnes of sand and aggregate, and 100 tonnes of steel. For the cement alone, the fuel used and the calcining of the calcium carbonate emit some 625 tonnes of CO2, and this does

2006-03-29T21:23:00.000+01:00

"Open Sesame" on the limitations of wind power.....Don't miss this excellent little article in the latest issue of the Open University magazine, Sesame (Spring 2006, Issue 229, pp. 18-19): 'Running on empty?' [.pdf: scroll down to article, and look at the second piece by Peter Bennett]:"Can alternative sources such as windfarms supply all our future energy needs? OU student Peter Bennett, a

2006-03-28T11:59:00.000+01:00

Weathering the inevitable Green storm.....When poor Margaret Beckett, the UK Environment Secretary, has to admit today that Britain will not achieve New Labour's ill-judged three-manifesto target of a 20% cut in carbon dioxide emissions on 1990-levels by 2010, expect a cacophony of self-righteous Green bleating and a load of nauseating pious waffle from the metro media, the Cameroons, and the

2006-03-24T09:24:00.000Z

Don't be green about the budget.....The most extraordinary thing about Gordon Brown's tenth budget is the fact that so many seemingly intelligent people believe with staggering naivety that it might do something predictable, however minuscule, about world climate change - talk about the triumph of hope. In truth, even if one argues that we can manage climate change predictably, surely a notable

2006-03-24T09:02:00.000Z

Letter and Article of the Week.....It's the cosmic rays wot done it! Recommended for your weekend reading (a real corrective to the usual 'global warming' hype):Letter of the Week: 'Finally, an open-minded report on climate change' (The Ottawa Citizen, March 23).Article of the Week: 'Cosmic rays set climate change on Earth, expert says. Scientist challenges greenhouse-gas theory' (Edmonton

2006-03-22T13:54:00.000Z

Peel redux: will free trade be Cameron's Achilles heel?Recently, 'two-brains' MP, David Willetts, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, presented a talk to Conservative Campaign Headquarters on the modernising of the Conservative tradition. He was clearly speaking as David Cameron's tame party theologian. His speech was noteworthy for four things - the air-brushing out of Margaret Thatcher (

2006-03-13T11:19:00.000Z

A Monday must read (and wash day).....Richard S. Lindzen, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), brilliantly washes global warming's dirty linen and hangs it out to dry: 'Understanding common climate claims' (Draft of a paper to be published [.pdf]). Here is the Abstract:"The issue of man-induced climate change involves not the likelihood of

2006-03-12T12:33:00.000Z

'Global warming' is "Good News" for US agricultural profits, while 'global warming' fundamentalism terrifies Europe.....Where 'global warming' fanatics are concerned, any Good News about the impacts of potential climate change is never popular. Here is a timely Report showing that 'global warming', as predicated on the Hadley 2 Model, could well be good news for American agriculture: 'The

2006-03-05T11:17:00.000Z

Why are BBC Radio 2 presenters more balanced on the environment than their Radio 4 counterparts?.....I am currently so fed up of the crass agenda-setting on Radio 4's(*) flagship Today programme (06.00 - 09.00, weekdays; 07.00 - 09.00 Saturdays) that I have turned at breakfast to Radio 3's Morning on 3 (07.00 - 10.00, every day) instead for a more enriching diet of Bach, Beethoven, and Bartok. If

2006-03-03T10:18:00.000Z

Sanctimonious drivel over the rejection of the Whinash wind farm proposal.....The idea that yesterday's rejection of the Whinash wind farm proposal by the UK government [see blog below] will put the world's climate at risk is so farcical that one wonders whether everybody has passed Through the Looking Glass with Alice. This gratuitous claim is simplistic, sentimental drivel spouted without

2006-03-02T12:38:00.000Z

Bravo the government: beauty wins over the beast.....It is not too often that one can laud government with unqualified praise, but today's rejection of the monstrous proposal for a wind farm on the edge of the iconic Lake District National Park is a triumph for the real environment over environmentalist hysteria and hype: 'Giant wind farm plan thrown out' (BBC Online England News, March 2):"Plans

2006-02-22T09:21:00.000Z

The Constant Groaniad: time for British films to grow up.....I was delighted that Bafta presented little but the wooden spoon to The Constant Gardener. I relished even more the ensuing hissy fit from the luvvies. Stephen Pollard has it exactly right in his blog this morning:"... its student agitprop message - they're worse than gun runners, those nasty drug companies - and preposterous plot [less

2006-02-19T10:28:00.000Z

The real climate-change correlation.....First, an apology: over the last couple of weeks my poor, limited brain has been full to overflowing with debates and broadcasts, and there has been no room in it for blogs of any value. Mental exhaustion housed my computer mouse, much, I am sure, to the delight of the febrile world.At last, however, I feel there is, once again, just enough space in my tiny

2006-01-17T12:38:00.000Z

It's time to land on that 'Home Planet' again.....Our 10th Series (how tempus fugit, as it says on Rochdale Townhall Clock) of the critical environmental programme, 'Home Planet', begins today on BBC Radio 4 at 15.00 pm GMT. The Series then runs for 12 more Tuesdays into April, and, on this occasion, will include some Gardeners' Question Time-type 'out-and-about' slots. These should be fun.If you

2006-01-16T08:41:00.000Z

Our Madeleine of the Sorrows.....Today must be Weeping Monday for The Tall Order of the Green Bunnies, and they have put out the bunting and the washing for two of their most lachrymose of saints, Saint Madeleine of the Groaniad and Saint James of Gaia.As they peg out their dirty linen in public, it is, at last, dawning on these unhappy souls that people just won't do what they are told to do

2006-01-13T12:33:00.000Z

Methane research creates a stink in the 'global warming' farmyard.......... and even in the august Financial Times (January 13): 'Beware how you meddle with climate change':"Climate scientists would have us believe there is no doubt about the basics of global warming and the time for action is now. The recent spate of large revisions of the facts tells a different story. Yet politicians are still

2006-01-13T09:55:00.000Z

Carbon claptrap from left to right, and in the centre....This week the climate-change caravanserai sensibly bypassed Europe with the first Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (AP6) held in Sydney, Australia.By contrast, in the UK, the wishy-washy political consensus over climate is sapping adult, serious debate, especially with regard to economic decision-making and energy

2006-01-09T10:30:00.000Z

"Selling tampons to men!" Let's hope The Independent heeds its own report.....As one of the worst scaremongering rags on the market, I find it somewhat amusing that The Independent carries the following media report: 'Green issues: It's not the end of the world' (The Independent, January 9):"Journalists have a responsibility to cover climate change, but make the pieces too gloomy and readers will

2006-01-08T16:04:00.000Z

The Lorenz paradigm and the limitations of climate models.....EnviroSpin Essay of the Week:'A Skeptical View of Climate Models'By Hendrik Tennekes[retired Director of Research, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute; reproduced with kind permission from here]HERE in the Netherlands, many people have ranked me as a climate skeptic. It did not help much that I called myself a protestant

2006-01-05T15:53:00.000Z

"Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Men of Monmouth win second Battle of Agincourt - French windfarm scythed down".....The people of Monmouth and the Welsh longbowmen have done it again: the Battle of Agincourt (Azincourt) has been won for a second time, just as Henry V (r.1413 - 1422) did nearly 600 years ago. The Monmouth-born king famously used the devastating power of his outnumbered archers to destroy a

2006-01-05T10:20:00.000Z

Go and debate at 'Crooked Timber'.....Why not join in the great 'global warming' debate over at the 'Crooked Timber' blog - 90 comments already (10.20 am GMT)? Put a bit of stick about the 'global warming' faithful. The original posting is already receiving a roasting over at the 'Tim Blair' blog."Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made" (Immanuel Kant, 1784) - in

2006-01-04T17:30:00.000Z

Never undercook 'global warming'.....This has to be the wurst 'global warming' story ever: 'Warm weather "to boost food bugs" (BBC Online Health News, January 4):"Britain could see a dramatic increase in food poisoning cases and waterborne disease as the warmer, wetter weather linked to climate change takes hold.Hotter summers could lead to more salmonella cases as people opt for more barbecues

2006-01-04T09:38:00.000Z

Energy policy? What energy policy? Britain's worst political failure (along with pension policy).....We predicted it on 'EnviroSpin'; I predicted it in The Times, last April. And on Thursday, December 29, it nearly happened - most worryingly, some two years early. Britain was on the brink of running out of energy. Between 4.30 pm and 6.30 pm, on what was a cold day, the National Grid was forced

2006-01-03T17:17:00.000Z

Global warming? The stuff of Hollywood, not of the lab.....Let's herald in 2006 with a reminder - a quite superb and unexpected piece from the important German magazine, Der Spiegel (January 24, 2005): 'Exaggerated science: how global warming research is creating a climate of fear':"Because of our short attention spans, we will experience how the prophets of doom paint the dangers of climate

2005-12-31T11:40:00.000Z

EnviroSpin's New Year's 'Honours and Horrors' List for 2005.....EnviroSpin's 'Triumphs and Turkeys' for 2005 Scale: [*****] = Outstanding environmental/science reporting - to - [!] = Unmitigated ecohype____________________{From the Triumphs.....The Times [****]: the only outlet currently worthy of four stars. Balanced, critical reporting, largely free from ecohype. Strives to distinguish clearly

2005-12-30T11:31:00.000Z

The house that David built.....The House that David Built(or 'The Compassionate Tory's Ecotoff Dream': as reported in today's The Times, p.27 - apologies, no link for copyright reasons)[With the deepest bow to Flanders and Swann]David: When we started running Tories,Samantha: When Zac started making friends,Both:We built a home as soon as we were able to.David: We planned this PC residence for

2005-12-23T09:33:00.000Z

Our Christmas message: the sin of presentism and the state of fear..... A volcano erupts killing 92,000 people. Drastic climate change afflicts Europe, laying waste to summer. Some 200,000 people die from hunger and cold. Frosts end in June and begin again in August. Mighty storms, unleashing abnormally-high amounts of rainfall, lead to severe flooding on many rivers, including the Rhine. War has

2005-12-18T14:37:00.000Z

The UK: end-of-term political review with respect to climate change and carbon claptrap.....Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, seems to be exhausted, and he is currently fighting for his 'legacy' on many fronts, with both Old Europe and New Europe; with the anti-Iraq War brigade, who will never forgive him, whatever else he achieves; with the rumbling Left of his own Labour Party; with his

2005-12-14T17:29:00.000Z

Manic-depression and 'global warming' hype.....I have already commented on the manic-depressive tendencies presented by participants and camp followers at major 'global-warming' meetings, such as those held in The Hague (2000), in Marrakesh, Morocco (2001), in Edinburgh around the G8 Summit (2005), and in Montreal (this month).The 'meeting' is first reported to be 'failing drastically', with

2005-12-12T18:13:00.000Z

And in a parallel world.....The Narnian Chronicle12 Winterval, Year 100'Drastic global warming threat from Pantheron Dileoxide': Chief Wolf speaks outBy Our Own Correspondent, Digdirt the DwarfToday, the Wolf Council of the White Queen, Imperial Majesty Jadis, Empress of the Lone Islands, Queen of Narnia, Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, the Witch of Narnia, ('May She Freeze Forever!'), howled an

2005-12-12T08:10:00.000Z

Canada goose bumps the British press.....Unlike the remiss UK media (see Saturday and Sunday blogs, below), the Canadian media reports Clinton's Montreal speech with a tad more nuance - 'Clinton, echoing Bush, says climate change can be curbed by voluntary efforts' (CJAD, December [9] 12):"Former U.S. president Bill Clinton sounded a lot like George W. Bush in a speech to a UN conference Friday,

2005-12-11T12:31:00.000Z

Biased reporting in the UK - the bit conveniently left out of Clinton's Montreal speech....Today's little blog [please read Saturday's blog, below, for my serious analysis of Montreal] should worry every good soul in the UK. It illustrates that our reporting on climate change - including to my knowledge by the BBC - is some of the least reliable. In the feeding orgy over Clinton's impromptu

2005-12-10T09:57:00.000Z

Deconstructing Montreal.....The Montreal conference on climate change has been an eye-opener. It has demonstrated a truth which for a long time has been only partially apparent: namely that, for many delegates and Green 'hangers on', punishing America for electing George W. Bush is far more rewarding and important than tackling climate change. Listening to the commentators on this morning's Today

2005-12-08T09:29:00.000Z

David Cameron: our latest ecotoff makes a naive start on Kyoto.....At Prime Minister's Question Time yesterday (December 7), the new, fresh-faced Leader of the Opposition, the Right Honourable David William Donald Cameron, MP, Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford, might have wounded Mr. Blair over education policy, but he was lamentably naive over climate change and the Kyoto Protocol, allowing Mr.

2005-12-06T17:00:00.000Z

Wind farms blown off course by punitive costs.....As long-predicted on 'EnviroSpin', a chill wind is beginning to blow through Utopia: 'Windfarm failure fuels energy doubts' (The Daily Mail, December 6: scroll down to internal link):"Fresh doubt has been cast over Britain's ability to meet renewable energy targets after an offshore windfarm project pioneered by Germany's E.On [Scarweather, off

2005-12-06T12:39:00.000Z

Dispelling those environmentalist myths.....I thought you might enjoy seeing a picture of your 'EnviroSpin' host speaking at the latest Adam Smith Institute ISOS Conference held at the Tate Britain last week: "...students are pictured above, listening to Prof Philip Stott dispel some environmental myths"... Just so.It proved to be a most lively and rewarding day, and the students were excellent.

2005-12-06T10:46:00.000Z

Article and quote of the week.....Occasionally (thank goodness), one has no need to blog and one can just sit back, drink coffee, smile beatifically, and listen to Brendel or Rostropovich playing Schubert. Today is such a day, because that great ol' bruiser, Mark Steyn, writing in The Daily Telegraph, has said it all in a piece which ruthlessly exposes the whole farago of nonsense that is 'global

2005-12-03T17:20:00.000Z

Most hubristic name of the moment.....The organisers of today's 'global warming' marches (see blog below) call themselves, most hubristically some unkind people might say, the 'Campaign Against Climate Change'. Oh me! Oh my!I await eager volunteers to cap volcanoes, to wrestle with the Earth's axis, to dampen down sunspots, to adjust the cosmic ray flux, to divert ocean currents, to MOP (in joke

2005-12-03T14:03:00.000Z

Vital statistics..... and the 'X' factor?Likely attendance on the London 'Climate Change March' today [organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change - see blog above re the name], kick off around 12.00 noon: <15,000 [Not even in the top three BBC News 24 items at 14.00];But:Attendance at football legend George Best's funeral in Northern Ireland, kick off 11.00 am: "tens of thousands". They are

2005-12-01T10:15:00.000Z

"My goodness! Climate changes! And dump those sandwiches.....One just despairs at the lunacy of it all. Have the Greens gone entirely loopy? The nadir came this morning - before breakfast too - when a claim was made on the increasingly lugubrious Today programme that eating sandwiches is devastating for the environment (you know all those potted shrimps and pastrami 'curlers' destroying the

2005-11-29T09:56:00.000Z

Kyoto fetishisation and other topical charivari.....Yesterday evening, I was given a 2 minute slot on the ever-stimulating BBC World Service to explain, in the simplest of terms, why I thought Kyoto-like attempts to control climate change were fundamentally flawed. This is what I said:"Humans have always feared climate change and developed myths that our sinfulness is its cause. Accordingly, we

2005-11-28T09:55:00.000Z

Montreal and Kyoto: more work for the undertaker.....Today marks the start of yet another climate-change conference (deepest of yawns), the ludicrously-named '11th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP11 and COP/MOP1)'. This time the Kyoto Protocol caravanserai has descended on the city of Montreal, with some 10,000 delegates and officials, not to mention

2005-11-25T11:04:00.000Z

No energy for climate change.....Today, there is a must read - Roger Harrabin of the BBC rhetorically deconstructs Tony Blair on climate change: 'Q&A: Blair's climate strategy' (BBC Science/Nature News Online, November 24). I would simply highlight two key comments:(a) First, this telling revelation:"[Government officials] privately complain that he [Blair] is increasingly beset by domestic

2005-11-24T09:35:00.000Z

The sky is indeed falling in on the Chicken Littles.....Poor Malcolm Wicks! First he was Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, and now he is Minister for Energy, the two deepest black holes in Labour's galaxy of policy-making. Wicks spent yesterday rushing around the studios looking a tad like a bemused Gimli the Dwarf at the great Council of Elrond. I wouldn't have been

2005-11-22T09:51:00.000Z

Some sea-level sanity.....As we know, there is an awful lot of spume sprayed about over sea-level rise. If you would like to get some salty common sense on sea-levels, then you should read the following balanced review, just published:Robin Edwards: 'Sea levels: abrupt events and mechanisms of change.' 'Progress Report' in Progress in Physical Geography 29(4), December 2005, pp. 599-608.[Right:

2005-11-21T10:30:00.000Z

'Global warming' = civil nuclear power.....I do feel a tad sorry for the naiver 'Green' bunnies - they just didn't see it coming from their narrow burrows. They thought that their nice ecohype about 'global warming' would mean that we would all have to go back to living in thatched cottages built of straw bales with little wind farms on the roof and an organic patch by the side. Instead, they are

2005-11-19T16:54:00.000Z

UK climate-change politics.....Now, I can't often, as 'EnviroSpin' regulars know, stomach The ["We're All Doomed!"] Independent, but today the newspaper carries two articles which it is very much worthwhile your deconstructing and comparing, for they reveal, perhaps inadvertently, much about the politics of climate change in the UK.The first piece is under the byline of Tony Blair, the British PM

2005-11-17T09:38:00.000Z

Two 'Commentaries of the Month'.....Today's blog is simple: a chance to hear voices of difference, voices too often excluded from the Northern environmentalists' self-important cacophony. Here are two commentaries that have just appeared which cannot be bettered; I am designating them 'Articles of the Month', and they should help us to hear, if softly and if through Northern pens, those excluded

2005-11-14T10:17:00.000Z

The UK media: time to grow up over 'climate change' politics.....The mantraic criticisms of Mr. Blair just made by the ever-whinging WWF UK are rich indeed: 'Blair "failing" over environment' (BBC Online UK News, November 14). Leaving aside, for the moment, the sheer fatuousness of the concept of 'tackling climate change' (explained ever-so wearily, over and over again, on this blog), whatever