One of the most prominent of the harrabinieri at the BBC (apart from Roger himself) is David Shukman,  the environment correspondent who seems to spend most of his life flying off to exotic locations to promote the green cause.

His most recent article is about some Canadian scientists who have found evidence that the Ward Hunt ice shelf is breaking up. He quotes Dr Derek Mueller of the Trent University, Ontario:

"I was astonished to see these new cracks. It means the ice shelf is disintegrating, the pieces are pinned together like a jigsaw but could float away."

Pretty frightening stuff then. And just in case we don't understand the point that he's making, David Shukman tells us

The fate of the vast ice blocks is seen as a key indicator of climate change.

I'm certainly terrified.

Let's find out some more about the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf then. Wikipedia has a page dedicated to Ward Hunt, which is "the largest ice shelf in the Arctic". It was discovered in 1875, although at that time it formed part of a larger ice shelf which broke up during the twentieth century. No doubt that was itself a portent of global warming to come.

And what's this?

The Ward Hunt ice sheet began breaking up approximately 100 years ago.

David? Why doesn't your article mention this?  Isn't this relevant? 

Let's be charitable though. Maybe Dr Mueller didn't tell you. Maybe he forgot, although let's face it, it's odd for a scientist to forget such a simple fact about his specialism.

Except it isn't really his specialism. After obtaining his bachelor's degree in biology, he studied polar algae for eight years and only recently has he switched to studying the effect of climate change on ice shelves. He's not even faculty at Trent University - he's a post-doctoral researcher. So to describe him as an expert on ice shelves would appear to be pushing a point. Perhaps this is why he was astonished by the cracks he found.

It may be that David Shukman just reckons he reliably toes the environmentalist party line. How else to explain the fact that this post-doctoral researcher has now been honoured with two Shukman reports on his work in the Arctic?