In the months leading up to the recent climate change conference in Copenhagen, politicians and the media were pretty quiet about global warming. Not any more!

It is difficult to resist the idea that this conference was a high profile vehicle for launching a coordinated campaign to bring climate back into the news. Many observers seem to believe that the next conference in Copenhagen, in December this year, may be the last chance to get a worldwide deal on CO₂ emissions, and for the first time things are not all going the alarmist’s way. Very real economic turmoil has trumped speculation about climate catastrophe.

So how does one set about assessing what happened at Copenhagen?

Well the first thing to remember is that it is unwise to try and reach any conclusions while the conference is taking place or in its immediate aftermath. A glance at the organiser’s web site reveals that among their ‘Media Partners’ were Time magazine, Scientific American and National Geographic, all of which have very definite positions on climate change. We can be sure that so far as media coverage is concerned, the main stories will have been carefully planned well in advance and that the conference will be promoted by a very high profile PR campaign. One might ask, however, why what purports to be a scientific conference needs ‘Media Partners’?

We can also be sure that these stories will carry precisely the spin that the organisers wish and that they will also be dramatic. The Media Partners would be very disappointed if they were not. Continue reading »