Tuesday
Apr232013
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill More signs of the times
Apr 23, 2013 Climate: other Brian Micklethwait, writing at Samizdata notes what may be the beginnings of another significant phase of the climate wars: comedians are starting to laugh at alarmism, or at least those in charge of ITV's series Plebs are.
Britain’s telly comedians are following public opinion on this rather than shaping it. Until a couple of years ago or so, they were constantly going on about how stupid climate non-alarmists were. Then they went quiet on the subject. Are they beginning seriously to see sense?
Reader Comments (28)
Plebs is one of the better comedies to appear on the telly in recent years. By a strange quirk of fate I have just finished watching episode 6 on the itv player. For what it's worth I didn't think the utterings of the mad soothsayer were aimed at the climate alarmists in particular, more at the end of the world nutters generally. But what do I know?
Signs of the times - further disarray at the Met.Office
13/04/2013
Met Office chief scientist Julia Slingo said climate change was “loading the dice” towards freezing, drier weather — and called publicly for the first time for an urgent investigation.
Prof Slingo said: “If you look at the way our weather patterns have behaved over the past four or five years, we’re beginning to think that there is something happening.
“Our climate is being disrupted by the warming of the Arctic that we have observed very dramatically since 2007.
“We should pull together the best scientists to see how we can detect the influence of the Arctic on the jet stream, and on weather around the world.”
AND
22/04/2013
http://www.thegwpf.org/met-office-admits-arctic-sea-ice-cold-winter/
Obviously that investigation was URGENT, it took just a week to come to the same conclusion that Bishop Hill and commenters had already come to.
I look forward to hearing Marcus Brigstocke recant. He hasn't been on the Now Show much lately - I wonder if they've seen the comic potential and he hasn't..?
From Beyond the Fringe, circa 1961:
(This was before Mark Lynas won the Royal Society prize for best science writing)"we’re beginning to think that there is something happening" (Slingo)
Or possibly not happening. It must be nice to have such a keen intellect.
I wonder who the soothsayer woman could be a reference to?
Somebody better tell Graham Linehan.
I have tried to slip "And will there be a mighty wind?" in many a comment on some of the Guardian's more apocalyptic pieces but sadly the moderators do not find it nearly as funny as I do.
Mostly, they’re laughing at the alarmists, or to put it more bluntly, taking the piss out of them. Sure, the usual bedrock stream of articles debunking the Manny Mouse science is there but increasingly there’s a feeling of flogging a dead horse – the science is so laughably crap, what the hell, you might as well have a lark and poke some fun at it.
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/a-postcard-from-warmer-climes/
Pointman
Don't get me started on the "Now Show". It's about as funny as running out of toilet paper. Leftist rants with occasional outbreaks that would be funny if they were ad-libbed but they are are not, they are scripted so .... meh.
In fact it's more entertaining reading Polly Toynbee and her weekly effort to look like a golden labrador using only mascara and hair dye.
geoffchambers,
I'm a bit young to remember 1961, but I do remember Peter Cook and Rowan Atkinson in The Secret Policeman's Ball from ~1979:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hJQ18S6aag
Jack Hughes
If there was any justice in the world you’d have a permanent job on BBC Radio 4 for that comment on Polly Toynbee. (but there isn’t).
Brigstocke - ship's boy of the Antarctic survey, along with Dara o'Briain and the third musketeer Brian Cox [physicist and sometime showman] won't be finding much relief in this sketch.
There are plenty of climate deniers in the alarmist crew of campers. But they've not got the individual bottle to raise their white flag - and it is the same with all of the luvvie mob, plus the intelligentsia of the left wing [aren't they all darling?].
Certainly - they're getting nervous but the 'consensus' is maintained, albeit in a cracked and a jaded united front, "united stand at the mo', divided they will fall".
Anyone remember this skit from Armstrong and Miller, December 2010? It doesn't directly mock the alarmism, but it does mock the authoritarian attitudes of alarmism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQlHaGhYoF0
Often comedians won't touch stuff like global warming, but there will usually be a few that are willing to take the risk of never working for the BBC again and tackle it.
+1 Spence_UK
+1 Jack Hughes's neat example of zoomorphism :-) worked for me.
Well found, Spence. I was thinking of that same piece. Refreshingly funny.
In politics, the end is in sight once the comedians start taking the piss.
No reason why this should be any different.
Can I recommend the Sintef report, which is especially good on the psychology of Alarmism, describing Hulme's Four Myths -- 1) Lamenting Eden, 2) Presaging Apocalypse, 3) Constructing Babel, 4) Celebrating Jubilee, which could be summed up as: We once were pristine(1), now we're heading for disaster(2), but we have the power to turn things around(3), but only if we do the 'right' thing (4).
An excellent assessment.
http://www.sintef.no/upload/Teknologi_og_samfunn/Teknologiledelse/SINTEF%20Report%20A24071,%20Consensus%20and%20Controversy.pdf
"Until a couple of years ago or so, they were constantly going on about how stupid climate non-alarmists were. Then they went quiet on the subject. Are they beginning seriously to see sense?"
Actually, a couple of years ago we had this:
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2011/2/20/more-heresy.html
Since then, we had a couple more threads here or perhaps in the comments where the discussion was how the joke was now on the doomsayers. This is certainly the case with cartoon satire. As our own Josh grows stronger, the doomsayers' fav cartoonist Marc Roberts threw in the towel. We discussed that too in the past.
So a hearty Meh! from me to whatever the Samizdata blogger just discovered. He should read BH more often.
Perhaps Julia Slingo is the reincarnation of Senna the Soothsayer?
Up Pompeii!!
Lurcio said:
"Perhaps Julia Slingo is the reincarnation of Senna the Soothsayer?"
Well, I wouldn't be surprised if the "time series analysis" discussed in the latest posting on this blog consisted of:
Woe, woe, and thrice woe!
After all, the word thrice would prove that it is a time series analysis, wouldn't it?
I enjoyed the stage version of 'Yes Prime Minister' at our local theatre at the weekend. Not as side-splittingly funny as some of the TV shows, but enjoyable nonetheless with the unexpected bonus of digs at the EU, the pompous BBC and 'global warming scientists'. The embattled PM eventually deciding that he must do 'something popular' to win votes and the most achievable route is to focus on global warming policies because 'nobody knows if it's real or not', 'we'll all be dead by then anyway'.....Those bits to chortles of laughter from the audience. Nice!
Marcus Brigstocke wears Ben Elton`s old underpants.
Picks up a cause at every street corner.
If we`re lucky he`ll write a best selling novel,turn it into rom com
and like Ben Elton.....vanish
Having worked out the quite simple physics of the negative feedback control system that stabilises climate via clouds, I am not surprised at the comics attacking the warmists.
After all, just as climate oscillates about a set point with the effect of CO2 rise on OLR exactly offset by more IR in atmospheric window and H20 IR bands, humans also self corrects and it do so by taking the Mickey........
Here is material for more humour. An active member of the climate faith goes on a guided tour of one of the great temples of his religion, and is promptly told this by his tour guide:
What a hoot! Naturally, our man is so shocked he is rendered incapable of the theological retort, the recitations of the catechisms that would put the tour guide to rights. But the guide himself senses he is with the faithful, and very politely tells them what they want to hear - it is all due to humans (where 'it' is of course anything bad you care to name, especially meteorological) while politely refusing to volunteer to throw himself under a racehorse or the like by way of civil disturbance in order to get arrested like the saintly Hansen has done.
Get to this jewel in the crown of modern humour, via Tom Nelson: http://tomnelson.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/met-office-tour-guide-says-that-warming.html
Spence and Gixxerboy
Don’t be too pleased with that performance of Armstrong & Miller. These people are pure warmists and were so cocksure about the science, that they were confident enough to take a pop at their own side.
Miller is the driving force behind this duo’s climate science politics. He is a failed physicist who dropped out of his studies at Cambridge. But that is good enough for the BBC to make him an expert in the style of that other expert, the failed rock star and physics teacher. A couple of years ago, Miller fronted a Horizon programme called “What is one degree.” Like that other Horizon programme “Science under Attack” fronted by another amateur, Sir Paul Nurse, the real reason for the programme was telegraphed from the beginning and sure enough, all was revealed. Also revealing was Millers statement in a Mail on Line article in which, he discusses the programme. He says “But my personal opinion is that the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change has it right; that there is a 90 per cent chance that greenhouse gases are responsible for most of the temperature rises we have seen since the middle of the 20th century.” So there you have it. When he does eventually realise he was 90% wrong, he will rightfully be able to claim that he took a pop at Climate Science in his comedy show back in 2010.
Another comedian who may be having a go now is Lee Hurst, who made his name on “They Think It’s All Over.” He has just one date left of a UK tour where the theme is “Too scared to leave the house.” The publicity says :-
“Acid Rain, Global Warming, Bird Flu, Mad Cow Disease.
Just a few of the things Lee Hurst ponders as he takes to the road with his latest stand up comedy tour.
He takes us through the 'disasters' that have been predicted to destroy us along with the dangers facing us from everyday life.
Ultimately you choose your own fate. You can stay indoors, hoarding cans of beans, clutching a Ray Mears book or you can go out and laugh in the face of doom!”
I cannot see that as being anything but derisory of the science, but unfortunately I missed him when he was in my area, and so don’t know just how he plays it. If his views are sceptical, that may be the reason we never see him on the BBC these days. If anyone is interested, his last engagement is at “The Lights, Andover” on Saturday evening.
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/posts/view/305377
Hows the Mrs Marcus.Smug Git