Bishop Hill Apr 12, 2008 Nanny state The head of the Royal College of Physicians is bored with doctoring and wants to start being a nanny. Doc Crippen is not impressed.
Bishop Hill Apr 12, 2008 BBC Climate: other Roger Harrabin has finally responded to the Jo Abbess furore. Writing on the BBC News Editors Blog he claims, incredibly, that the changes were not made in response to Jo Abbess at all.
[After publishing the article I] received suggestions that the article should offer more background. The WMO wanted to emphasise M. Jarraud’s view that a slight temperature decrease in 2008 compared with 2007 should not be misinterpreted as evidence of a general cooling. Some of the feedback seemed helpful so we altered and expanded the report - improving it substantially for the general reader, in my view.
Among my e-mail exchanges was one with an environmental campaigner who published our e-mails implying that we had changed our article as a result of her threat to publicly criticise our report. We didn’t change it for that reason. We changed it to improve the piece. But we’ve stirred the wrath of some of our readers as a result.
So we are asked to believe that between 10:57 am, when Roger was still arguing that the article should be left in its orginal form, and 11:28 am when he wrote to ask whether his changes were acceptable, he had suddenly changed his mind on the basis of new correspondence he had received from, among others, the WMO.
Colour me unconvinced.
I've left a comment on the BBC thread to ask if they will publish the WMO correspondence. At the moment, it doesn't seem to be accepting comments though.
Colour me unsurprised.
Roger also responds to the argument that he should have made the changes to the story clear within the revised text. (You will remember that he failed even to change the timestamp, which would appear to be contrary to BBC policy). He claims, again apparently with a straight face, that the changes were minor and not worthy of note. By way of verifying this claim, let's just remind ourselves of the change which I highlighted in my earlier post:
Old version
This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory. But experts say we are still clearly in a long-term warming trend - and they forecast a new record high temperature within five years.
New version
But this year's temperatures would still be way above the average - and we would soon exceed the record year of 1998 because of global warming induced by greenhouse gases.
Roger, please stop digging.
Bishop Hill Apr 12, 2008 Recycling Now here is a fact to make you sit up. In the three years to last November, the city of Sheffield recorded a rather whopping (but by no means exceptional) 441,361 instances of fly-tipping. In the same period, it managed to catch and prosecute exactly one person.
That's pretty remarkable, but it's not actually the fact I am on about. The fact I am on about is this: when the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs released its latest annual fly-tipping survey, Sheffield was held up as a model because the number of fly-tipping incidents there fell from 161,000 to 108,000 over the year.
That is an improvement, to be sure, but a rather dispiriting one nonetheless. We have reached the point where it is considered cheering news when only 300 vanloads of rubbish a day are illicitly dumped along a city's streets.
And there's screeds more in the same vein. Even so, our man Bryson actually manages to miss the main reason why people take to fly-tipping. You don't have to dump your rubbish on street corners, after all. There's a perfectly legal way to do it too - take it to the council dump (sorry, recycling centre). But of course, the government has decided to make landfill prohibitively expensive by slapping lots of lovely taxes on it (all for the benefit of the environment you understand). And if you mention that then you might also have to let on that they've done this because the EU has told the UK to close most of its landfills, allegedly to encourage recycling.
And it would be most non-U to mention Brussels in a critical way, wouldn't it?
Update:
The Times reports that car owners will be fined if CCTV operators observe litter being thrown from their vehicles. Why do I now find the timing of Bryson's article a strange coincidence?
Bishop Hill Apr 12, 2008 BBC Climate: McIntyre Climate: WG2 Leading hurricane expert Kerry Emmanuel has published a new paper in which he reports that his models suggest that global warming will cause a reduction in the number of hurricanes (with a slight rise in hurricane intensity in some regions).
Steve McIntyre notes that the results have been strangely ignored by the mainstream media, and wonders if this is because Emmanuel's university - MIT- has failed to publish a press release. This is odd, because as Steve M notes, they weren't so reticent for an earlier Emmanuel paper which predicted an increase in hurricanes.
This should be a great opportunity for the BBC's Roger Harrabin to redeem his reputation by telling the world about the Emmanuel paper. Come on Roger, show us that you're not actually a mouthpiece for the green movement......
Bishop Hill Apr 12, 2008 Climate Hot on the heels of the news that global warming activists have been writing articles for the BBC comes the news that uber-global-warming-monger James Hansen of NASA has been trying to pressurise a publisher into making changes to a textbook to bring it into line with his own opinions.
He's been using his official position and official notepaper to do this, so he's opened himself up to accusations that he's abusing his position. It's not the first time either.
Bishop Hill Apr 11, 2008 BBC Climate: other I'd forgotten this post which I wrote about Roger Harrabin last year. For those who missed it, here again is a leaked email by Mr H in which he outlines his tactics on reporting climate change.
In any future reporting of Gore we should be careful not to suggest that the High Court says Gore was wrong on climate.......We might say something like: "Al Gore whose film was judged by the High Court to have used some debatable science" or "Al Gore whose film was judged in the High Court to be controversial in parts".
The key is to avoid suggesting that the judge disagreed with the main climate change thesis.
Ah yes, impartiality is all at the BBC.
Bishop Hill Apr 11, 2008 Civil liberties Education What is this country coming to? It's hard to open the newspapers these days without reading that some ancient liberty has been infringed by the government, and today's no exception:
A council yesterday admitted using laws designed to track serious criminals to spy on a family for nearly three weeks to find out if they were lying about living in a school catchment area.
And is the government outraged?
The Home Office said the RIPA legislation did not appear to have been used inappropriately.
Dear God, is it time to get out?
Update:
I wondered why so many blogs are silent on this issue (libertarians apart). Ah, I see. Labour legislation, used by Conservative council. That would explain it.
Bishop Hill Apr 10, 2008 Energy Yes folks, the day when you can start to do your bit to cause starvation in the third world is close at hand! From April 15th all fuels used for transport has to contain 2.5 per cent of biofuels. Break out the bunting!
The UK's Renewable Energy Association, which is behind Biofuels Day, has certainly got something to celebrate anyway, and it has hauled its collective snout out of the subsidy trough for long enough to set up a swanky new website where, among other things, you can listen to views on biofuels from "experts":
[B]uying British biofuels produced from crops grown in accordance with strict farm assurance standards is the best guarantee of ensuring sustainability credentials.
So says Peter Kendall, President, National Farmers’ Union. By an odd co-incidence Mr Kendall has in recent years converted his farm over "from a very traditional mixed farm to a totally arable unit" thus leaving him extremely well placed to take advantage of the relentless upward progress of grain prices while still collecting all those lovely subsidies. Some people have the luck of the devil don't they?
The REA have had a lovely time parsing the Royal Society's report on biofuels too - you may remember this one from a couple of months back - the headline in the Times was "Biofuels do more harm than good". Unabashed, Biofuels dDay has hauled out lots of juicy quotes which appear to support their case but which, if you read them carefully, are just waffle.
There's a wonderful quote from Oxfam (you know, famine relief and all that). They're in favour of biofuelled hunger too, it seems!
Under the right conditions, biofuels offer important opportunities for poverty reduction by stimulating stagnant agricultural sectors, thus creating jobs for agricultural workers and markets for small farmers.
You might have thought that a charity devoted to famine relief might be a bit more circumspect in their support. And you'd be right too - using what may be the largest font size ever used in a press release, the Oxfam report from which this quote is taken has the subtitle:
Why the EU renewable-fuel target may be disastrous for poor people.
Which is not what you'd call unequivocal support, is it? I don't think the Biofuels people can claim that they missed this bit.
Of course, the EU is in on the act too. EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs has this to say:
European consumers should be assured that the biofuels used in Europe, and receiving support, are sustainable biofuels, in other words, that the biofuels they buy do not increase greenhouse gas emissions, do not lead to the destruction of rainforests or other biodiversity-rich areas, do not exacerbate food shortages and are not unreasonably expensive.
Which is a bit odd, because just today the EU's own scientific advisers said this:
The EEA has estimated the amount of available arable land for bioenergy production without harming the environment in the EU. In the view of the EEA Scientific Committee the land required to meet the 10 % [biofuels] target exceeds this available land area even if a considerable contribution of second generation fuels is assumed.
and this
The 10 % target will require large amounts of additional imports of biofuels. The accelerated destruction of rain forests due to increasing biofuel production can already be witnessed in some developing countries. Sustainable production outside Europe is difficult to achieve and to monitor.
The timing of Biofuels Day seems to have been dictated by the timing of the biofuels obligation coming into force. It really couldn't have come at a worse time for the REA though, with food riots breaking out all over the place and the world and his wife denouncing biofuels as a monumental folly. But who knows, by the time the history of the biofuels scam comes to be written, maybe they'll have come up with some better explanations for why they thought it was a good idea.
Bishop Hill Apr 10, 2008 Civil liberties Astonishing quote from a case before the Canadian Human Rights Commission:
In one famous exchange during the Lemire case, [Canadian Human Rights Commission (HRC) investigator Dean] Steacy was asked "What value do you give freedom of speech when you investigate?" -- to which he replied "Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I don't give it any value."
If you haven't heard about the way the CHRC operates, read the whole thing.
Bishop Hill Apr 10, 2008 Education The government's trust schools policy has its latest outing today with the news that a further 115 trust schools are to be launched with sponsors from both the private sector and charities.
The government yesterday announced 115 new trust schools, including the first co-operative trust school where pupils, parents and teachers will have a say in how it is run. Trust schools are paired with businesses or charities giving them powers to appoint staff, own their buildings and set their admissions policies. Sponsors announced today include the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Barnardo's, Microsoft and Unilever.
We know that the whole trust schools thing is a bit of sham - it's a manifestation of the wrong-headed idea that the problems with UK schools are a failure of management; that all we need to do is get the right people steering the boat and it will be miraculously transformed from a leaking tub to a sleek ship-of-the-line. But it will take many more years of failure before people realise this, and only then might they deduce that the problem is lack of competition rather than lack of management.
The eye-catching thing about this announcement is the identity of some of the sponsors. I mean, the RSPB? Money is going to be diverted from twitchers to teachers? One wonders what the members will make of that. You thought you were handing over your membership fee to run nature reserves and twitching courses, but actually you were paying for a futile attempt to address education policy failures. You've paid your taxes, you've made your contribution to state education, and now you can pay all over again. Charity becomes a voluntary tax.
We can see where this will lead. If people see their charitable contributions being diverted to fund state activity, they will quickly stop giving to charity at all. That would be sad, but I can't help feeling a certain sense of inevitability about it.
Bishop Hill The prime minister has urged the G8 to take action on food prices and to stem the upward pressure from biofuels. In a letter to the Japanese PM he says:
"There is a growing consensus that we need urgently to examine the impact on food prices of different kinds and production methods of biofuels, and ensure that their use is responsible and sustainable."
In the face of further criticism from aid officials and with the World Bank now adding its voice to the chorus of warnings, it's become clear that food price inflation is being driven mainly by biofuels production. The problem for Mr Brown is that he is can't actually address the root causes of the problem directly. Biofuels usage in the UK is mandated by the EU and Brussels is digging its heels in and refusing to change its policy. This being the case, Brown is powerless to act and is forced to hide behind the fig leaf of an international aid package. The futility of this kind of gesture becomes clear with even a moment's consideration of the number of people who are affected by price rises. There is no way that an package with any prospect of being realised could make any difference to the millions affected.
Once again, the EU has shown that it puts "the project" ahead of any other considerations, including humanitarian ones. Why we should remain a member of a body which treats poor people with such contempt is something that Europhiles will have to explain.
Bishop Hill Apr 9, 2008 Labour Gordon Brown will not be attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olmpics, according to the BBC.
Why not? Does he expect to be kicked out that quickly?
Bishop Hill Apr 9, 2008 BBC Climate: other The Harrabin/Abbess story continues to reverberate. It's now crossed the Atlantic and has been picked up by Instapundit and a TV programme called the Glen Beck show, as well as a host of online commentators.
There's an interesting point at towards the end, where Beck reveals that the BBC is refusing to comment on the story, which I suppose is entirely understandable, if not forgiveable.
Benny Peiser's CCNet email newsletter is still digging away at the story too (and even includes my story about the BBC stealth editing guidelines as its headline - thanks for the mention!).
Meanwhile Peter Risdon has a whole new BBC climate story, with environment correspondent Richard Black lining up scientists to criticise Danish physicist Henrik Svensmark's cosmic ray theory of climate change, but failing to include Svensmark's reponse (if he asked for one at all). And intriguingly, Black has demanded that all of his correspondence with Risdon be kept confidential. What can he possibly have said?
Bishop Hill Apr 9, 2008 Health This is simply amazing -
Less than half of NHS staff (46%) believe patient care is the top priority at their health trust, a survey has showed.One in four do not think their trust sees it as most important, while a further 29% neither agree or disagree.
Will anyone now stand up and argue that the NHS is of any benefit to the British people whatsoever. It's the same as every other bureaucracy - run for the benefit of its staff and the politicians who run it.
Time to close it down.
Bishop Hill Apr 8, 2008 Climate: WG2 Climate: WG3 There have been more riots triggered by food price rises driven by biofuels policy and crop failures due to the cold.
Hédi Annabi told the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council that recent deadly riots in parts of Haiti over rising food prices also appear to have a political dimension, and could undermine the government as well as the public's confidence.
Ahmed Ali Hammad, 15, died from gun shot wounds Tuesday morning in the Mahalla hospital, said a security official on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. The gritty industrial city has been the scene of two days of violent clashes between police and residents angered over rising food prices.
The Times fears that unrest will spread to the Far East.