The BBC Trust Finding on Hot Planet by the Complainant
After taking into account the BBC Trusts reply and after consulting with two other members I have changed the article below.
My experience of complaining to the BBC will appear in Spacesignl the Newsletter of the Space special interest group of Mensa, sometime around April or May.
A Complaint on behalf of Members of the Space special interest group of Mensa to the BBC about its abuse of Astronomy in the Climate Change Debate.
The Climate Change debate in Mensa has hotted up within the last three months with the latest three Mensa magazines having ten letters from AGW sceptics and only one warmist who was calling for the debate to be silenced, some of the letters have criticised the BBC.
My complaint to the BBC was about the Climate Change program “Hot Planet” transmitted in December of 2009. My complaint was “Ice Core data shows that CO2 levels rise about 800 years after Global temperatures rise, and therefore this fact makes the whole Documentary misleading and biased“. The BBC seemed to agree with me that astronomical events cause the warming and that CO2 levels increase about 800 years later. But this correlation was not shown in the program. Obviously this was because it would have been seen by the Viewer to contradict the context of the programme and therefore was left out so as to mislead the audience and not contradict the context of the program, therefore giving a misleading impression to viewers who are not aware of the full facts. The context and intention of the program misleads the viewer into thinking that the CO2 increase causes the warming. I suggested that this was a serious and specific breach of the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines. After a convoluted reply which seems to be mainly replying to other peoples complaints they did eventually touch on my complaint. The complaint was not upheld, but no clear reason that I can understand was given. One of the other peoples complaints in the BBC,s reply was about the CO2 Hockey Stick controversy. The BBC continues to use statements withdrawn by the Royal Society on the insistence of the fellows, this one has been proven to be false. Over the first 80 years that Ice Cores are formed CO2 is absorbed by cold water, there has been 180 years of Atmospheric CO2 gas analysis by chemical methods (Beck, 2007). This means that from 1810 to 1930 we have both Ice core and direct measurements of CO2 in the Atmosphere. This shows that ice cores have CO2 levels about 40 percent lower than the original atmosphere (Jaworowski, 2007). This also shows that CO2 levels were 470ppm in 1828 and 290ppm in 1888. The Royal Society was also quoted “carbon dioxide from human sources is almost certainly responsible for most of the warming over the last 50 years. There is much evidence that backs up this explanation and none that conflicts with it” This is also false and has also been removed from the Royal Society website (Carbon cycle modelling and the residence time of natural and anthropogenic atmospheric CO2, Segalstad) proves this cannot be the case. Surprisingly the most blatantly biased statement by the BBC said that “Anthropogenic Global Warming is a fact” the IPCC using an assumption says “very likely” and the BBC which claims to be impartial says “fact“. This also does not come from the Royal Society. This evidence proves that the BBC takes a more extremely Biased view than the IPCC or the Royal Society and conflicts with the BBC Trusts claim that impartiality is important. This also now leaves open the possibility of legal action against the BBC Trust which has continually refused freedom of information requests for details of how this decision was made by what the BBC calls “the best scientific experts“. I suspect the decision was made by Environmentalists not by Atmospheric Physicists. The BBC also claims to do independent investigations and then only talks to the scientists that make the program. The senior scientific advisor for the program was Professor Peter Cox. The BBC has had trouble with Professor Cox regarding the predictions of a Barbecue Summer and Mild Winters and his prominent role in the Climategate Scandal and with the IPCC. The BBC has no scientific investigative journalists and also it claims that it has access to 4,000 Climate Scientists but not one of these was used as an Independent Scientific investigator into Professor Cox or the program. Professor Cox did not mention water vapour, confused the southern ocean with the deep ocean and has not heard of the science of Cosmoclimatology. I suggested to the BBC that it should investigate the quality of its Scientific advisors in this case.
After this complaint and 1,600 other complaints about the less than academic one sided promotion of the Global Warming scare by the BBC, the BBC Trust gave out 15,000 new editorial guidelines to its staff when obviously the people appointed to the BBC Trust are part of the problem. If the Editorial Standards Committee of the BBC Trust is overtly biased then it is not fit to dictate Editorial Standards to BBC staff. In response to the above comments the BBC Trust said that they change the Editorial Standards at least every five years, which gives you an idea why BBC Staff just ignore Standards of Impartiality. My complaint was to be published in the BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee Bulletin for October, but was pulled at the last minute after I gave them the comments above. The BBC Trust said that they would reply shortly and publish their findings in November. Nothing happened, my complaint remained in a twilight zone, the BBC unable to either uphold, or reject my complaint for fear of legal action I have no intention of wasting my time and money on, That is for others to consider. Finally after a most amazing excuse that although the evidence that the BBC is overtly biased was provided to me by the BBC in its communications with me, it was not mentioned or referred to in the BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee’s finding. That is like saying we know we are biased but you can not take legal action against us because we will not include this in the monthly bulletin of the BBC Trusts Findings.
Finally the BBC Trust published the finding in December’s bulletin just before Christmas. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/esc_bulletins/2010/nov.pdfhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/esc_bulletins/2010/nov.txt
TonyN on Harmless Sky is back!: “Barry Many thanks, and it's good to see your name still appearing above comments here and there around the more…” Aug 24, 11:57
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The BBC Trust Finding on Hot Planet by the Complainant
After taking into account the BBC Trusts reply and after consulting with two other members I have changed the article below.
My experience of complaining to the BBC will appear in Spacesignl the Newsletter of the Space special interest group of Mensa, sometime around April or May.
A Complaint on behalf of Members of the Space special interest group of Mensa to the BBC about its abuse of Astronomy in the Climate Change Debate.
Finally the BBC Trust published the finding in December’s bulletin just before Christmas. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/esc_bulletins/2010/nov.pdf http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/esc_bulletins/2010/nov.txt
The Climate Change debate in Mensa has hotted up within the last three months with the latest three Mensa magazines having ten letters from AGW sceptics and only one warmist who was calling for the debate to be silenced, some of the letters have criticised the BBC.
My complaint to the BBC was about the Climate Change program “Hot Planet” transmitted in December of 2009. My complaint was “Ice Core data shows that CO2 levels rise about 800 years after Global temperatures rise, and therefore this fact makes the whole Documentary misleading and biased“. The BBC seemed to agree with me that astronomical events cause the warming and that CO2 levels increase about 800 years later. But this correlation was not shown in the program. Obviously this was because it would have been seen by the Viewer to contradict the context of the programme and therefore was left out so as to mislead the audience and not contradict the context of the program, therefore giving a misleading impression to viewers who are not aware of the full facts. The context and intention of the program misleads the viewer into thinking that the CO2 increase causes the warming. I suggested that this was a serious and specific breach of the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines. After a convoluted reply which seems to be mainly replying to other peoples complaints they did eventually touch on my complaint. The complaint was not upheld, but no clear reason that I can understand was given. One of the other peoples complaints in the BBC,s reply was about the CO2 Hockey Stick controversy. The BBC continues to use statements withdrawn by the Royal Society on the insistence of the fellows, this one has been proven to be false. Over the first 80 years that Ice Cores are formed CO2 is absorbed by cold water, there has been 180 years of Atmospheric CO2 gas analysis by chemical methods (Beck, 2007). This means that from 1810 to 1930 we have both Ice core and direct measurements of CO2 in the Atmosphere. This shows that ice cores have CO2 levels about 40 percent lower than the original atmosphere (Jaworowski, 2007). This also shows that CO2 levels were 470ppm in 1828 and 290ppm in 1888. The Royal Society was also quoted “carbon dioxide from human sources is almost certainly responsible for most of the warming over the last 50 years. There is much evidence that backs up this explanation and none that conflicts with it” This is also false and has also been removed from the Royal Society website (Carbon cycle modelling and the residence time of natural and anthropogenic atmospheric CO2, Segalstad) proves this cannot be the case. Surprisingly the most blatantly biased statement by the BBC said that “Anthropogenic Global Warming is a fact” the IPCC using an assumption says “very likely” and the BBC which claims to be impartial says “fact“. This also does not come from the Royal Society. This evidence proves that the BBC takes a more extremely Biased view than the IPCC or the Royal Society and conflicts with the BBC Trusts claim that impartiality is important. This also now leaves open the possibility of legal action against the BBC Trust which has continually refused freedom of information requests for details of how this decision was made by what the BBC calls “the best scientific experts“. I suspect the decision was made by Environmentalists not by Atmospheric Physicists. The BBC also claims to do independent investigations and then only talks to the scientists that make the program. The senior scientific advisor for the program was Professor Peter Cox. The BBC has had trouble with Professor Cox regarding the predictions of a Barbecue Summer and Mild Winters and his prominent role in the Climategate Scandal and with the IPCC. The BBC has no scientific investigative journalists and also it claims that it has access to 4,000 Climate Scientists but not one of these was used as an Independent Scientific investigator into Professor Cox or the program. Professor Cox did not mention water vapour, confused the southern ocean with the deep ocean and has not heard of the science of Cosmoclimatology. I suggested to the BBC that it should investigate the quality of its Scientific advisors in this case.
After this complaint and 1,600 other complaints about the less than academic one sided promotion of the Global Warming scare by the BBC, the BBC Trust gave out 15,000 new editorial guidelines to its staff when obviously the people appointed to the BBC Trust are part of the problem. If the Editorial Standards Committee of the BBC Trust is overtly biased then it is not fit to dictate Editorial Standards to BBC staff. In response to the above comments the BBC Trust said that they change the Editorial Standards at least every five years, which gives you an idea why BBC Staff just ignore Standards of Impartiality. My complaint was to be published in the BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee Bulletin for October, but was pulled at the last minute after I gave them the comments above. The BBC Trust said that they would reply shortly and publish their findings in November. Nothing happened, my complaint remained in a twilight zone, the BBC unable to either uphold, or reject my complaint for fear of legal action I have no intention of wasting my time and money on, That is for others to consider. Finally after a most amazing excuse that although the evidence that the BBC is overtly biased was provided to me by the BBC in its communications with me, it was not mentioned or referred to in the BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee’s finding. That is like saying we know we are biased but you can not take legal action against us because we will not include this in the monthly bulletin of the BBC Trusts Findings.
Finally the BBC Trust published the finding in December’s bulletin just before Christmas. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/esc_bulletins/2010/nov.pdf http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/appeals/esc_bulletins/2010/nov.txt