Bishop Hill The BBC: an advertising agency for greens
Mar 5, 2015 BBC Climate: WG2 Once again demonstrating the curious ability of environmental NGOs to get their press releases reported by the BBC, the corporation has today decided that the big news on the science front are claims issued by a US green group called the World Resources Institute. According to the BBC:
The number of people affected by river flooding worldwide could nearly triple in the next 15 years, analysis shows.
Climate change and population growth are driving the increase, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI).
In the UK, about 76,000 people a year could be at risk of being affected by flooding if defences aren't improved, it says.
Interestingly, there seems to be precious little on the WRI's website about these claims, but it seems that some sort of a press release has been issued, saying outlandish things about future flooding, in order to promote a whizzy new web tool that WRI has developed called Aqueduct.
Looked at this way, the BBC is merely providing advertising services - presumably free - to this particular green group. It wouldn't be the first time the corporation has done this.
Aqueduct turns out to be just an interactive map of river basins, which allows users to click on one and see some projections of how flood risk might (allegedly) change. The projections are of course based on GCMs and, as everyone outside the BBC knows, GCMs are nearly useless for anything to do with rainfall. It's therefore safe to say that this particular online gizmo is a PR tool rather than a scientific one.
This does seem to add weight to my "free advertising" point. Not that this will be of any concern to the BBC, who are, it seems, hard at work trying to ramp up the global warming alarm ahead of Paris. To our friends at the Corporation, a wild press release from a wild green NGO is what they call "a useful lead". Whether there is any science behind it is, frankly, neither here nor there.
Reader Comments (63)
Does this explain this weeks storyline on the Archers? It seems that Ambridge has been washed away by a flood of biblical proprtions.
Is their a correlation between the increasing number of global warming scare stories, with the number of months without any global warming?
All this in the run up to Paris.
It is almost like a conspiracy plot, being played out, in real time, to the whole world.
Remarkably, poor decisions by bureaucrats may have cause a great deal of flood damage in the last few years. There were the Brisbane floods where the operators of the flood control dams stored too much water in the dams above the city because of drought fears. Then in the upper Midwest and great plains along the Missouri river, the dam operators did not lower reservoir levels even though show levels in the watershed feeding into the dams was at very high. And finally there was flooding in the southwest of the UK where an active flood control system was not operated properly coupled with inadequate dredging lead to flooding in the region not seen in years. Have we gotten to the point where the consequences of incompetence in government becomes a rallying point for more government control?
I'm working on an interactive webtool. I's called FundingMental.
By carefully manipulating the subsidy and MSM sliders you can see the Green NGOs and PR companies bloat or shrivel and die.
Can I get a report on the BBC?
"If flood defences aren't improved"
Does this mean "if we don't stop abandoning and degrading those flood defences we have just now"?
While these toxic goons are the gatekeepers of the public debate agenda - the facts will be distorted or more usually simply ignored - and the high production values of The World's Best Broadcaster will be deployed at the whim or worse of their ideological fellow travellers anywhere (with pref. good hotels, cheap drugs, floozies and extravagant expenses ... ) on the planet they proclaim to be protecting.
pull the funding plug
NOW
Paul Dennis, the Archers was originally created to encourage rural England to embrace more productive farming techniques, particularly nitrogen fertilisers, in the post war period.
The producers might shy away from people dying of starvation, so that we can drive biofuel cars though, as it is under BBC control, and this would be "off message".
I am not upto speed with current plot lines, but historically, speeding the passage of water downstream from one area, tends to have bad consequences, for the areas, downstream.
The main reason some folk are at risk of flood is because the 'experts' told the local councils and river authorities that drought was the real coming problem.
Sean,
Sadly, no, that's government's standard operating procedure.
The BBC has wholly-owned commercial subsidiaries that operate in other countries, ostensibly to improve the quality of the materiel we see. But those in the UK aren't actually allowed to see all of the product they are foisting on the rest of the world, in our name.
Am I the only one on here who thinks that the biased BBC has hijacked the agenda?
Item after item on this and other blogs, takes up oodles of space in discussing the state of that state monopoly.
Luckily I did not watch either of the BBC Global Warming propaganda items.
I watched Attenborough on Monday night on BBC4 up to the point when he started ranting on about the imminent loss of all the Arctic ice.
At that point I kicked the TV and threw the cat out (or was it the other way around - cannot remember), and went to bed.
2 related stories from the same BBC news page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31728731 - a film about the origins of greenpeace
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31653765 - the Lords proposing a ban on fishing and oil exploration in the Arctic now all the ice is melting away.
Nothing at all one sided there then!
patrick healy, the BBC knows that its future, at the taxpayers expense, is more secure under a centre left government, hence its mindset, and management.
That is the answer. What was the question?
But WRI list Shell on their 2013 DONOR LISTINGS - they're not deniers, are they?
stevetauk, by donating money to green causes, some companies seem to avoid being targeted for attacks.
Bribery, donations, extortion and protection rackets, are very shady areas.
I think the BBC ramping up the propaganda has more to do with the general election than paris?
Sir David Rottenborough lolling about with penguins in Antarctica and stating categorically that the ice is disappearing. Next he'll be commentating on the birth of polar bears in the Arctic, when the actual births took place in a zoo :-)
thanks golf Charlie
I vote that we ignore the buggers ie. stop discussing them and then hopefully they will go away (some hope!).
Whilst I do not usually endorse that great old Irish invention the Boycott, I have a dream that with the power of all us sceptical bloggers, we could do real financial harm not only to the Beeb, but to all the other alarmists.
Like for instance Google, Microsoft ,Apple, Hewlett Packard, Wiki, Richard Branson etc. etc. the list goes on and on.
Just stop using their products if possible. Real ethical shopping as it were.
I seem to remember moons ago someone doing a list of search engines for instance which were not up to their eyes in the great scam.
Just a thought.
"the imminent loss of all the Arctic ice"
That seems to be stretching the meaning of 'imminent' well past breaking point.
The misanthropic work of the greens is what is to blame for the failure of flood control efforts in the first place. The corrupt NGOs then hide behind "climate change" to continue grabbing public money and avoid being held accountable.
Stacey, a forthcoming UK election, upon which the BBC's future may depend, is part of the bigger picture. Killing two birds with one stone, is no longer politically correct, when you can wipe out endangered species with a single wind turbine.
Flooding is a great opportunity for manufacturers of outdoor clothing, to get free advertising on the BBC, simply by providing test and evaluation samples to photogenic reporters.
Try playing "spot the corporate logo" anytime there is a "severe weather story" with footage from "our intrepid reporter" on TV.
Even if no cash changes hands, the whiff of cosy relationships, should be listed as a dangerous pollutant at the BBC, before it proves fatal, to the BBC. Green whiffs seem to be the most toxic.
I would like the BBC to survive, if it can be fit for purpose.
well Jamesp,
the 'impending' loss of any 'overhanging' icicles in the Arctic is an iconoclastic icon of the iconolatry of the global warming idols.
Yes Bishop, mine eyes alighted on that vapid text this morn' and thence I was awash in a torrent of equivoque. A tidal wave of useless information brings home the bacon and gets the grants rolling in and thus does al-beeb dutifully oblige.......
A conversation - Is it a phone call or an email?
WRI, "hi Roge' can we put out a stupid quote?"
Harrabin/Shukman, "surely you don't mean more warmist propaganda - [mirthful snigger]?"
WRI, "what else do we do?"
Harrabin/Shukman, "yeah you're right and after all - it's what we do here at global warming advocacy inc!"
WRI, "sure thing lads and have a nice day and fat pension pot soon!"
Harrabin/Shukman, "
global warming...........global flooding RA, RA, RA!"Slightly OT, had anyone else noticed the BBC weather girlies & boys pulling the start & finish date game yet again? Last winter was the wettest winter in recorded history, (NOT with 1929/30 beating it on all points) by asserting that Spring occured at the end of February once the rain had stopped. Yet again they implied that Spring had arrived on Monday on the evening news. It would appear that Spring, & presumably all other Seasons are now manmade also by picking a date at random for them to occur, & therefore the Vernal or Spring Equinox has lost favour with science for dictating to Humanity & Nature the arrival of Spring!
Unfortunately it isn't just the BBC that doesn't know that GCMs are nearly useless.
Here is the head of the US -EPA Gina McCarthy: "It makes no difference....."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQpyAY3J55g
Jamesp, -the imminent loss of Arctic ice is long awaited. 25+ years ago, David Steel, then leader of the LibSocDems, told his supporters to prepare for government, as they awaited the "surge in popularity" that would sweep them to power.
LSD remains a product of hallucingenic fantasy, much like the ice free arctic.
World Resources Institute, please donate money to flood victims across the world, so that members of the WRI can siphon off sufficient to support their lifestyle aspirations.
With their knowledge of fluid dynamics, siphoning liquidity, can be carried out very efficiently.
Re. the Archers:
I had an interesting correspondence with the then editor some years ago asking why, uniquely, Borsetshire seemed to be a wind turbine-free zone when the rest of the country was racked with disputes over the things.
Very strange, considering the numbers of Green Archers and rapacious rural capitalists infesting Ambridge.
I was very politely told that wind turbines didn't fit their storyline at that time, but thank you for my interest.
Ambridge and environs remain a turbine-free zone, having suffered only Borsetshire Land's anaerobic digestor to date.
This could be why they are suffering from floods, of course, not enough turbines rescuing them all from global warming/catastrophic climate change etc.
World Resources Institute was founded by James Gustav Speth; he also co-founded the Natural Resources Defense Council. and still sits on both boards. He has long called for a World Environmental Organisation. It would be another arm of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP).
Speth was Executive Director of the United Nations Development Program and he spoke of Global Environmental Governance to the World Conference on Rio +5, Rio de Janeiro, in March, 1997, a follow-up evaluation of progress on Sustainable Development after the second Earth Summit in Rio 1992, the birthplace of Agenda 21.
Frances Beinecke, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council, is also on the WRI board and is co-chair of the Leadership Council of the Yale School of Forestry, whose former Dean was James Gustav Speth. NRDC has a very well-used revolving door with the US Environmental Protection Agency. The disgraced TERI and IPCC’s Pachauri was head of the Yale Climate and Energy Institute: http://news.yale.edu/2009/03/10/pachauri-head-new-climate-and-energy-institute-yale, http://climate.yale.edu/ycei-honors-ipcc-chair-rajendra-pachauri
Jennifer Morgan is the Global Director of the Climate Program at WRI. She was previously at Tom Burke and John Ashton's E3G and has advised John Schellnhuber and Tony Blair on Climate Politics. She was for a long time head of WWF's Global Climate Change Program and a prominent figure in the Climate Action Network grouping of NGO's.
She was a review editor for AR5 WGIII and is a member of the Science Advisory board at Potsdam, along with Brian Hoskins and formerly Lord Stern. Qualifications are BA in Political Science and Germanic Studies.
Al Gore was until recently on the board at WRI, but his GIM partner David Blood, is on their Global Advisory Council, as is Theodore Roosevelt IV, Managing Director and Chairman of Cleantech Initiative, BARCLAYS, New York. He formerly worked for Lehman Bros and in February 2007, he was appointed Chairman of Lehman Brothers’ Council on Climate Change.
Also on the WRI board is Goran Persson, co-chair of the Socialist International Commission for a Sustainable World Society. Former President of WRI and current board member, Jonathan Lash, was a director of the now defunct Indian Carbon Exchange with Pachauri. They were both board members at the also defunct Chicago Climate Exchange, with Maurice Strong and Al Gore.
Who said follow the money?
Gordon, after all the flooding this time last year, it must have seemed a brilliant idea to have a storyline about flooding this year, because the science experts at the BBC predicted it would happen so much more regularly.
Mother Nature can't read scripts.
Expect the BBC to announce that illiteracy is due to global warming.
To combine advertising and the health and safety issues around global warming, expect BBC reporters to be wearing life jackets, if they have to stand near a puddle (but only if the logo on the life jacket is visible)
The puddle may have been created using bottles of carbonated water, expensively imported, from the MiniBar of an exclusive Alpine Hotel, reporting on a fact finding conference of politicians seeking to benefit from global warming.
Is it not time for someone with media clout to take a high profile pot shot at BBC alarmist propaganda and bias?
The BBC hates public criticism.
Gordon:
Borsetshire - can you guess where it is yet?
The almost total absence of windmills from Southern/Home counties (aside from token locations such as Beaufort Court on the M25 near St Albans, Green Park (sic) on the M4 at Reading or the Glyndebourne Opera House) is quite striking, and probably accounts for the lack of resistance to windfarms by the normally NIMBYs. On the other hand, solar parks now seem to be quite the thing...
dennisa, apart from all the salaries, awards, expense accounts etc, have any of them actually done anything, remotely useful, or is this a demonstration of IQs, International Quangos?
The rise in IQs shows a positive correlation with the rise in Global Warming Alarmism, great headline, wrong story.
It doesn't add up
The monotonously static wind turbine next to the M4 at Reading, is seen by tens of thousands of people every day.
In demonstrating the unreliability of windpower, it has to be seen as one of the greatest achievements of the Green Blob.
Its statuesque appearance, epitomises form over function. As an artwork it symbolises the Green triumph of aspiration over perspiration, without economic cost or loss to the Greens (which shows how jolly clever these Greenies are)
For those who sweat at work, it proves pain, without gain.
I can't look at it without laughing/crying. It is sad.
GC, whenever I see a swoop of wind turbines I automatically count the ratio that is not turning (if any are turning at all). Over the years, I reckon it is around 1 in 7, or worse.
Near where I live there is an architecturally half decent estate-nouveau opened in the 1990s by HRH Charles, which had a singular erection for many years. Similarly, its downtime seemed to be about one year/month on, to six years/months off. It finally disappeared entirely last year.
Just heard a good example of BBC collusion on the World Service, some guy being interviewed about China, the usual green suspect pushing the wonder of renewables and all those Green Jobs that supposedly go with them, concluding with the words "The numbers are on OUR side", with OUR coming across as including the BBC.
The BBC never ever mentions the intermittency and cost problems of renewables, unless it is to allow someone to spout nonsense about "Energy Storage Technology", a mirage that is spoken of as something that exists.
The Angel of the North doesn't pretend to be anything, than what it is.
The M4/Reading wind turbine, merits recognition for what it represents, perhaps its own website, with its electricity production, linked to an updated estimate of its total cost and payback period.
I no longer travel that way often, and do not know if it has a local nickname
Green Elephant of Reading?
Green Folly of the Thames Valley?
Reading Borough Council were very enthusiastic about it at the time.
Alan the Brit (3:06 PM): "...by asserting that Spring occured at the end of February..."
Perhaps March 1 is the venal equinox...
michael hart, having done a fair amount of yottie sailing, I am familiar with the power and unpredictability of the wind.
I was not taught at school about the battles (mainly at sea) between the British and Dutch in the mid to late 1600s, but one of the Dutch advantages then, was their experience and use of wind power to saw trees into planks, and they could build a warship in a third of the time.
The modern Dutch, like the Danes, went big on windpower 20 odd years ago, but have already worked out that it can be a useful top up to the grid, not a reliable generator.
Meanwhile, London and the south east must rely on French Nuclear, which will be turned off by the French, when their needs dictate. I won't blame the French, but the Greens, especially those that Dictate from Brussels
Mikky, did the chap miss out the minus sign, when he said the numbers are on OUR side?. Some of the Greens have no concept of numbers, unless they involve their earnings, which are more important than anything else.
Calling WRI a "US Green group" seems to grossly underestimate them.
With last years funding in excess of $80 million coming from a mind-boggling spectrum ranging from the Norwegian, Netherlands, Swedish, US governments to a huge list of (mostly) US corporations including Dow Chemical, Alcoa, Caterpillar Tractor, Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola, they seem to have fracked the mother-lode of all donations.
Their goal seem to be to "independently" change the world, "urgently" but of course, sustain-ably.
http://www.wri.org/about/donors
.
GC:
https://projects.ursglobal.com/M4_J3_to_J4_smart_motorway/M4%20PEIR%20-%20Volume%201%20-%20Final.pdf
Then there are the ones going on the A33 to add in as well. Allowing for commuters etc. seeing the windmill twice a day, and multiple vehicle occupancy, could we be out of the "tens of thousands" territory?
It doesn't add up, it is great to have my conservative guesstimate proved wrong! The damage being done every day that turbine is so clearly, and visibly doing nothing, is worse than the Green Blob thought possible, and it is worse than I thought too.
It would really annoy the Green Blob if this story was more widely known, so please treat it with appropriate respect and discretion.
Reading, founded at a river junction, that became a canal junction, subsequently the railways, Huntley and Palmer Biscuits and Courage Brewery, and now, possibly the most observed green wind elephant in the UK.
Hopefully it won't catch fire or fall over, think of the M4 delays and the Football Club, but will be preserved as a static exhibit to the dangers of Green thinking, for generations to come. The bearings and gearbox are probably "middle-age" already.
Betapug, it is good that Pepsi and Coca Cola sponsor WRI. Does anyone know their total production of CO2???
Couldn't they use a combination of helium and nitrous oxide instead, so you could burp in high voices, and get the giggles at the same time? Every day could be like a hen party, without the alcohol.
Golf Charlie, I'm not at all surprised about Reading BC's excitement over the Green Park folly - but presumably they declared a turf war when they found it was actually in Wokingham District?
SayNoToFearmongers, I didn't know it was in Wokingham DC! I do know that the University campus straddles the boundary, such that students in one hall of residence, vote for different councils depending on their room number.
A difficult concept for young adults living away from home for the first time, especially if they have come from overseas to study, and learn about English culture.
It should be said that Green Inc (and the "left" in general) are pushing, let's say, sexy agendas that through a combination of coercion and appeal dominate the collective delusions of the population.
I think there is a failure elsewhere in the political spectrum to provide (again, let's say) sexy agendas of substance for mass consumption.
It is good, relevant, and pertinent to criticize the current establishment. However, the fact remains that there are no ideological alternatives competing for the same space... or, more accurately, there do exist ideological alternatives of substantial higher quality but they are not being packaged adequately.
Another very good argument for mass non-payment of the Licence fee.
Isn't the BBC *supposed* to be impartial?
Like I love the way the BBC describes psychotic ISIS murderers as "fighters".
Brute the Green Blob in its various guises, has a lot of campaigning history to fall back on, from Soviet misinformation, threats and intimidation, CND, cuddle a fluffy bunny and feed it to a Panda, and clubbing baby seals.
They have been successful too, and have been underated by all the other parties, who thought they could appease by offering scraps from the high table.
Those that lived through the summer of love in 1967, see them as the modern day hippies, Libs and Labs are losing the ex CND brigade, along with the hard left socialist brigades, the tories are losing the bunny huggers, and the under 30's have all grown up with green policies indoctrinated into them by naive teachers.
Natalie Bennet demonstrated how clueless they are on policies that have to be costed, and require doing someting, rather than protesting and shouting NO!
Their reliance on rent a mob also showed them up after the Nazca lines vandalism, but they got an easy ride from the media, whereas the media pounce on any possible UKIP links to racism.
The media, especially the BBC, have most to fear from state control, which the green blob craves more than anything else, it is in the genes of their cultural history.
Well, Golf Charlie, the fact remains. Green Inc has the public space and, regardless of how undemocratic one considers its means in whole or in part, the only response possible IS democratic. Those elsewhere in the political spectrum need to do better than Green Inc and need to do better by formulating their alternatives in ways that attract the electorate.