Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Martin Naylor <martinwnaylor@yahoo.com.au>]

some might be intrested on these comments regarding the lies and deciet on 
 "The Great Gobal Warming Swindle" produced by Britain's Channel 4.  It has not been shown in the USA but is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=XttV2C6B8pU 
  

MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media    March 13, 2007      MEDIA ALERT: PURE PROPAGANDA - THE GREAT GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE       The Scientists Are The Bad Guys    On March 8, Channel 4 screened The Great Global Warming Swindle, a   documentary that branded as a lie the scientific consensus that man-made   greenhouse gasses are primarily responsible for climate change.    The film was advertised extensively on Channel 4 and repeatedly   previewed and reviewed in newspapers. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph,   Christopher Booker declared:    “Only very rarely can a TV documentary be
 seen as a pivotal moment in a   major political debate, but such was Channel 4's The Great Global   Warming Swindle last Thursday. Never before has there been such a   devastatingly authoritative account of how the hysteria over global warming has   parted company with reality.” (Booker, ‘A turning point in climate   change,’ Sunday Telegraph, March 11, 2007)    Peter Hitchens commented in the Daily Mail:    “If you were worried about those snaps of polar bears clinging to   melting ice-floes, sentenced to a slow death by global warming, you may now   relax. They'll be fine. Channel 4 has paid in full for its recent   misdemeanours by screening, last Thursday, the brilliant, devastating film   The Great Global Warming Swindle.” (Hitchens, ‘Drugs?’, Daily Mail,   March 11, 2007)     Doubtless like many who saw the film, the Financial Times’ reviewer was   left bewildered:    “Not so long ago, the venerable David Attenborough on the Beeb was   telling us that human-driven
 global warming was real and was coming for us.   So that was settled. Now Channel 4, like a dissident schoolboy, is   scoffing at the old boy's hobbyhorse and I don't know what to believe.”   (’Slaughterhouse three,’ Financial Times, March 10, 2007)    The film opened with scenes of wild weather and environmental disaster   accompanied by dramatic captions:     "THE ICE IS MELTING. THE SEA IS RISING. HURRICANES ARE BLOWING. AND   IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT.    “SCARED? DON'T BE. IT'S NOT TRUE."    This was immediately followed by a series of equally forthright talking   heads:     "We can't say that CO2 will drive climate; it certainly never did in   the past."    “We imagine that we live in an age of reason. And the global warming   alarm is dressed up as science. But it’s not science; it’s propaganda.”    And:    “We’re just being told lies; that’s what it comes down to.”    The commentary added to the sense of outrage: “You are being told   lies.”     This was indeed
 superficially impressive - when several experts make   bold statements on the same theme we naturally assume they must be onto   something - but alarm bells should already have been ringing. This,   after all, was ostensibly a film about science - about evidence, arguments,   research and debate. Why, then, the language of polemic and smear?     The remarkable answer is provided by the film’s writer and director,   Martin Durkin:    "I think it [the film] will go down in history as the first chapter in   a new era of the relationship between scientists and society.   Legitimate scientists - people with qualifications - are the bad guys. It is a   big story that is going to cause controversy.    “It's very rare that a film changes history, but I think this is a   turning point and in five years the idea that the greenhouse effect is the   main reason behind global warming will be seen as total bollocks.”   ('“Global Warming Is Lies” Claims Documentary,’ Life Style Extra,
 March 4,   2007;   http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=CZ434669U&news_headline=global_warming_is_lies_claims_documentary)    Compare and contrast this with the aim as described in a letter sent by   the makers of the film, Wag TV, to Professor Carl Wunsch, a leading   expert on ocean circulation and climate who subsequently appeared in the   film:    “The aim of the film is to examine critically the notion that recent   global warming is primarily caused by industrial emissions of CO2. It   explores the scientific evidence which jars with this hypothesis and   explores alternative theories such as solar induced climate change. Given   the seemingly inconclusive nature of the evidence, it examines the   background to the apparent consensus on this issue, and highlights the   dangers involved,
 especially to developing nations, of policies aimed at   limiting industrial growth.”   (http://ocean.mit.edu/~cwunsch/papersonline/channel4response)    Wunsch comments:     "I am angry because they completely misrepresented me. My views were   distorted by the context in which they placed them. I was misled as to   what it was going to be about. I was told about six months ago that this   was to be a programme about how complicated it is to understand what is   going on. If they had told me even the title of the programme, I would   have absolutely refused to be on it. I am the one who has been   swindled." (Geoffrey Lean, ‘Climate change: An inconvenient truth... for C4,’   The Independent, March 11, 2007;   http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2347526.ece)    We will hear more from Wunsch in what follows.      Deeply Deceptive    The film presented viewers with an apparently devastating refutation of   the "theory of global warming". And these were not picky, esoteric   criticisms. Durkin insisted that the world’s climate scientists are guilty   of the most fundamental error imaginable: increased atmospheric carbon   dioxide (CO2) is not the cause of higher temperature, as the experts   claim. Quite the reverse: increasing atmospheric CO2 is itself the   +result+ of rising temperature.    As evidence for this contention, Durkin argued that global surface   temperature dropped dramatically between 1945-1975, at a time when CO2   emissions were rapidly rising as a result of the postwar economic boom.   According to Durkin, if CO2 emissions were responsible for increasing   temperature, then temperature should not have fallen
 between 1945-1975.   Clearly, then, some factor other than CO2 emissions must have caused the   subsequent global temperature rise.    But Real Climate, an internet site run by climate scientists, such as   NASA’s Dr Gavin Schmidt and Dr William Connelley of the British   Antarctic Survey, describes Durkin’s discussion of the 1945-75 period as   “deeply deceptive”. (Real Climate, March 9, 2007;   http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/03/swindled)    In this section of the film, Durkin focused heavily on a graph   depicting temperature changes. The graph, Real Climate comments, “looks rather   odd and may have been carefully selected”. It appears to show a   dramatic cooling between the 1940s and 1970s. But try flipping between the   film’s version of the global temperature record:    http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t63/izzy_bizzy_photo/capture.jpg    and the temperature plot that normally appears in the scientific   literature:    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Instrumental_Temperature_Record.png    The supposed cooling looks rather less evident in this second graph.     Without knowing more details of how Durkin may have manipulated the   data plotted in his graph, it is difficult to comment on the presentation.   What we can say is that Durkin’s "four decades of cooling", implying a   relentless temperature drop over 40 years, is not an accurate   description of the trend over this period. There was some cooling for +part+ of   this time but also some plateauing, with fluctuations up and down.    But
 why did the temperature not simply rise in line with the post-war   increase in greenhouse gas emissions?     In fact, as is well-known, the absence of a global rise in temperature   between 1945-75 is explained by the release of large amounts of   industrial pollutants, called sulphate aerosols, into the atmosphere. These   particles have a braking effect on global warming, known as “global   dimming”. By shielding some of the incoming solar energy, sulphate aerosols   mask the underlying warming effect generated by rising levels of CO2.   By the 1980s, however, stronger warming had exceeded this masking effect   and global temperature has since continued to rise. As Real Climate   notes, by failing to explain the science behind this phenomenon the   programme makers were guilty of “lying to us by omission.”       The Ice Cores    The film repeatedly gave the impression that mainstream science argues   that CO2 is the +sole+ driver of rising temperatures in the Earth's  
 climate system. But this is not the case. Climate scientists are well   aware that solar activity plays a role, though a minor one at present, as   do long-term periodic changes in the Earth's orbit, known as   Milankovitch cycles. (See:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles)    The point is that there is a vast body of evidence that very strongly   supports the hypothesis that greenhouse gas emissions, of which CO2 is   the most important, are +primarily+ responsible for +recent+ global   warming. The 4th and most recent scientific assessment of the   Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes:    "Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since   the mid-20th century is very likely [.i.e. probability greater than   90%] due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas   concentrations." ('Climate Change
 2007: The Physical Science Basis,' Summary   for Policymakers, IPCC, February 2007, page 10;   http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf)    We then come to one of the film's most misleading arguments. Antarctic   ice cores show that rises in levels of CO2 have lagged 800 years behind   temperature rises at specific times in the geological past. This,   argued Durkin, +proves+ that CO2 cannot be responsible for global warming -   instead global warming is responsible for increasing levels of CO2. But   this was a huge howler.    What Durkin's film failed to explain was that the 800-year lag happened   at the end of ice ages which occur about every 100,000 years. (See:   http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/co2-in-ice-cores)    Scientists believe that the
 end of an ice age is likely triggered when   the amount of heat reaching the Earth rises as a result of a periodic   change in the Earth's orbit around the sun. Jeff Severinghaus, Professor   of Geosciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, explains why the   rise in CO2 initially lags behind the temperature rise:    "The reason has to do with the fact that the warmings take about 5000   years to be complete. The lag is only 800 years. All that the lag shows   is that CO2 did not cause the first 800 years of warming, out of the   5000 year trend." (Real Climate, 'What does the lag of CO2 behind   temperature in ice cores tell us about global warming?’, December 3, 2005;   http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/co2-in-ice-cores/)    The best current explanation for the lag of 800 years is that this is   how long it takes for
 CO2, absorbed by the ocean in an earlier warm   period, to be "flushed out" at the end of an ice age. Once that CO2 has   been released into the atmosphere its heat-trapping properties as a   greenhouse gas lead to even stronger warming: an example of positive   feedback. (See Caillon et al., 'Timing of Atmospheric CO2 and Antarctic   Temperature Changes Across Termination III,' Science, 14 March 2003: Vol. 299.   no. 5613, pp. 1728 - 1731)    Professor Severinghaus summarises:    "In other words, CO2 does not initiate the warmings, but acts as an   amplifier once they are underway."    Durkin’s analysis, then, was way off the mark.     The film’s claim that solar activity might account for recent warming   is also without credibility. In September 2006, the Times reported the   latest findings from researchers writing in the top journal, Nature:    “Scientists have examined various proxies of solar energy output over   the past 1,000 years and have found no evidence that
 they are correlated   with today's rising temperatures. Satellite observations over the past   30 years have also turned up nothing. ‘The solar contribution to   warming... is negligible,’ the researchers wrote in the journal Nature.”   (Anjana Ahuja, ‘It's hot, but don't blame the Sun,’ The Times, September   25, 2006)    The film's other scientific claims can be similarly dismissed. Carl   Wunsch - who, as discussed, appeared in the film - comments:    “What we now have is an out-and-out propaganda piece, in which there is   not even a gesture toward balance or explanation of why many of the   extended inferences drawn in the film are not widely accepted by the   scientific community. There are so many examples, it's hard to know where to   begin, so I will cite only one: a speaker asserts, as is true, that   carbon dioxide is only a small fraction of the atmospheric mass. The   viewer is left to infer that means it couldn't really matter. But even a   beginning
 meteorology student could tell you that the relative masses of   gases are irrelevant to their effects on radiative balance. A director   not intending to produce pure propaganda would have tried to eliminate   that piece of disinformation.”   (http://ocean.mit.edu/~cwunsch/papersonline/channel4response)    For further help in understanding the weakness of the film’s claims,   see the following resources:    Real Climate, 'Swindled',   http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/03/swindled     Campaign Against Climate Change, including a rebuttal to the film by   Sir John Houghton, who chairs the Scientific Assessment Working Group of   the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:   http://portal.campaigncc.org/node/1820    Royal Society: Facts and fictions about climate change:   http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=4761      “I Was Duped” - Déjà Vu?    Many readers will be aware that Durkin has previous ‘form’. In 1997,   Channel 4 broadcast his three-part series, Against Nature, which   suggested present-day environmentalists were the true heirs of the Nazis. (See   George Monbiot, ‘The Revolution Has Been Televised,’ The Guardian,   December 18, 1997;   http://www.monbiot.com/archives/1997/12/18/the-revolution-has-been-televised/)     Several interviewees who appeared in the film felt they had been misled   about the programme-maker’s agenda. Responding to complaints, the  
 Independent Television Commission (ITC) found that the editing of interviews   with four contributors had "distorted or misrepresented their known   views". (Geoffrey Lean, ‘Climate change: An inconvenient truth... for C4,’   The Independent, March 11, 2007;   http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2347526.ece)     In addition, the ITC found: "The interviewees had also been misled as   to the content and purpose of the programmes when they agreed to take   part." (Paul McCann, ‘Channel 4 told to apologise to Greens,’ The   Independent, April 2, 1998)    Ten years on, it appears that history may have repeated itself. In his   letter of complaint to the film-makers cited above, Carl Wunsch writes:    “I have some experience in dealing with TV and print reporters and do   understand something of the ways in which one can
 be misquoted, quoted   out of context, or otherwise misinterpreted. Some of that is inevitable   in the press of time or space or in discussions of complicated issues.   Never before, however, have I had an experience like this one. My   appearance in the ‘Global Warming Swindle’ is deeply embarrassing, and my   professional reputation has been damaged. I was duped---an uncomfortable   position in which to be.    “At a minimum, I ask that the film should never be seen again publicly   with my participation included. Channel 4 surely owes an apology to its   viewers, and perhaps WAGTV owes something to Channel 4. I will be   taking advice as to whether I should proceed to make some more formal   protest.” (http://ocean.mit.edu/~cwunsch/papersonline/channel4response)    Eight of the scientists in the film - John Christy, Paul Reiter,   Richard Lindzen, Paul
 Driessen, Roy Spencer, Patrick Michaels, Fred Singer   and Tim Ball - are linked to American neo-conservative and right-wing   think-tanks, many of which have received tens of millions of dollars from   Exxon.     Greenpeace provides a fascinating online ’map’ detailing how Exxon   funds these climate sceptics. Go to:   http://www.exxonsecrets.org/index.php?mapid=831 (click ‘Launch’ then   click ‘skip intro’)    In his book, Green Backlash, environmental journalist Andrew Rowell   noted that Fred Singer has also attacked scientific and environmental   stances on other green issues such as ozone, acid rain, automobile   emissions and even whaling. Singer has worked for companies such as Exxon,   Shell, Arco, Unocal and Sun.    According to the Environmental Research Foundation, a non-governmental   organisation:    “For years, Singer was a professor at the University of
 Virginia where   he was funded by energy companies to pump out glossy pamphlets   pooh-poohing climate change.” (Quoted, Sharon Beder, Global Spin, Green Books,   1997, p.94)    Rowell wrote that a quarter of Patrick Michaels’ research funding was   reportedly received from companies such as Edison Electric Institute,   the largest utility trade association in America. Michaels’ magazine,   World Climate Review, was funded by the Western Fuel Association and a   video produced by him was funded by coal companies and distributed by the   Denver Coal Club. (Rowell, Green Backlash, Routledge, 1996, p.143)    Both Singer and Michaels represented the fossil fuel lobby’s Global   Climate Coalition and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a leader in   global warming scepticism.    Journalist Ross Gelbspan noted that in May 1995, Richard Lindzen and   Patrick Michaels were hired as expert witnesses to testify on behalf of   Western Fuels Association, a $400 million consortium of
 coal suppliers   and coal-fired utilities. Gelbspan said of Lindzen:    “I don't know very many supporters of Mr Lindzen who are not in the pay   of the fossil fuel lobby. Dr Lindzen himself, his research is publicly   funded, but Dr Lindzen makes, as he told me, $2,500 a day consulting   with fossil fuel interests, and that includes his consulting with OPEC,   his consulting with the Australian coal industry, his consulting with   the US coal industry and so forth. That's not to say Dr Lindzen doesn't   believe what he says, but it is to say that he stands in very sharp   distinction to really just about virtually all of the climate scientists   around the world.” (Tony Jones, ‘Journalist puts global warming sceptics   under the spotlight,’ Australian Broadcasting Corporation, March 7,   2005; http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2005/s1318067.htm)   
 Journalist George Monbiot wrote of Philip Stott:    “Professor Stott is a retired biogeographer. Like almost all the   prominent sceptics he has never published a peer-reviewed paper on climate   change. But he has made himself available to dismiss climatologists'   peer-reviewed work as the ‘lies’ of ecofundamentalists.” (Monbiot, ‘Beware   the fossil fools,’ The Guardian, April 27, 2004;   http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1829315,00.html)    Paul Driessen is a fellow at two right-wing think tanks in the US,   which are part of the Wise Use movement. One of the think tanks is headed   by Ron Arnold, who has spent the last twenty years attacking the   environmental movement. His fellow director is a fundraiser for America's gun   lobby. The list goes on...    By contrast, Greenpeace spokeswoman Mhairi Dunlop said her
 organisation   had been interviewed by Durkin but none of the material had been   included in the film:     "They interviewed us but I guess what we said didn't fit in with the   [story] they were peddling." (McCandless, op. cit)    Following the film’s broadcast, Professor Martin Rees, president of the   Royal Society - the government-sponsored academy of sciences for the   United Kingdom - has said that many factors contribute to global warming   but it is clear that emissions of "greenhouse gases," particularly CO2,   are to blame for most of the current temperature rise. Rees added:    "Those who promote fringe scientific views but ignore the weight of   evidence are playing a dangerous game. They run the risk of diverting   attention from what we can do to ensure the world's population has the best   possible future." (Ibid)    On March 11 the Observer published a letter from a group of climate   scientists responding to Durkin’s film:    “This programme
 misrepresented the state of scientific knowledge on   global warming, claiming climate scientists are presenting lies. This is   an outrageous statement...    “We defend the right of people to be sceptical, but for C4 to imply   that the thousands of scientists and published peer-reviewed papers,   summarised in the recent international science assessment, are misguided or   lying lacks scientific credibility and simply beggars belief.” (Alan   Thorpe, Natural Environment Research Council, Brian Hoskins, University   of Reading, Jo Haigh, Imperial College London, Myles Allen, University   of Oxford, Peter Cox, University of Exeter, Colin Prentice, QUEST   Programme, letter to the Observer, Sunday March 11, 2007;  http://observer.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,2031117,00.html)    Viewed from one perspective, Channel 4 has done a huge public   disservice in
 spreading absurd and mendacious arguments guaranteed to generate   confusion. This at a time when a fragile momentum is building on the   need to take urgent action on the very real threat of catastrophic climate   change.     But from another perspective it may well be that this film does for   climate scepticism what Tony Blair’s “dodgy dossiers” did for the pro-war   movement ahead of the invasion of Iraq. Wildly distorted propaganda   often does have a powerful initial impact. But stretched beyond a certain   point of unreality, it also has a tendency to turn on, and bite, the   propagandists.     Durkin’s grandiose prediction that his film “will go down in history”   will surely prove correct, although perhaps not for the reasons he   imagined.      SUGGESTED ACTION    The goal of Media Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and   respect for others. If you decide to write to journalists, we strongly urge   you to maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive
 tone.    Send a complaint to Channel 4:  http://help.channel4.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=C4_Author,Company={2EA1BB9C-510E-44A5-A481-01EB1DDA1669},T=CONTACT_VE,VARSET_TITLE=General    See material on 'Complaining to C4', including a model letter, at   http://portal.campaigncc.org/node/1820    Send a complaint to Ofcom:  http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/progs/specific/    Please send a copy of your emails to:  editor@medialens.org    Please do NOT reply to the email address from
 which this media alert   originated. Please instead email us at: editor@medialens.org    This media alert will be archived shortly here:    http://www.medialens.org/alerts/07/0313pure_propaganda_the.php  The Media Lens book 'Guardians of Power: The Myth Of The Liberal Media'   by David Edwards and David Cromwell (Pluto Books, London) was published   in 2006. For further details, including reviews, interviews and   extracts, please click here:    http://www.medialens.org/bookshop/guardians_of_power.php  Visit the Media Lens website: http://www.medialens.org    If you wish to unsubscribe please click on the link below:    http://www.medialens.org/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/medialens/mailproc/register.cgi?unsubscribe=x44VLIn6MHd5


Ken Hargesheimer <minifarms2@yahoo.com> wrote:

Some of you might be interested in "The Great Gobal Warming Swindle" produced by Britain's Channel 4.  It has not been shown in the USA but is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=XttV2C6B8pU

 

From article by W E Williams, George Mason University

 

Ken

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If wisdom comes with age how did we get to this situation with Global Warming, I can't wait till the wise ones start with Oil Peak 

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