Daily Express screams "conspiracy!"

With world leaders potentially deciding mankind's fate at the Copenhagen summit this December, the Daily Express has continued its brave campaign to uncover the great climate change conspiracy.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary - from pretty much the entire scientific community - some crackpots continue to peddle the myth that global warming is not man-made. Unfortunately for us, a number of this group are newspaper editors. Today's Daily Express carries the entirely misleading and sensationalist front page story 100 REASONS WHY GLOBAL WARMING IS NATURAL – No proof that human activity is to blame.

The self-styled 'World's Greatest Newspaper' - a slogan that may well breach the trading standard's act - has published the rantings of the 'respected' European Foundation; a glorified lobbying group created by the types of Tories David Cameron is hiding in his attic until the end of the next general election.

The foundation was created in 1992 in opposition to the formation of a European government and actively lobbies against the unification of the EU on trade, labour market and economic issues. It has not previously engaged in any scientific debate, but the make-up of its UK advisory board explains why it has chosen to do so now. The business leaders represented by the foundation include Roger Brooke, life president of the private equity house Candover, which currently has £141 million invested into Wellstream – a manufacturer of flexible pipeline systems for the oil and gas industries.

The report, I write this term very loosely, was written by Jim McConalogue, editor of the right-wing propaganda pamphlet the European Journal. A respected climate change scientist you might think? Alas no. Mr McConalogue received a degree in social and political theory from Birbeck University and has no background in science at all.

The 'evidence' gathered to back-up the foundation's claims that global warming is not man-made includes out-right lies, statistical misinterpretations and baseless statements that have no relevance to the issue at all.

Coming in at number 14 in the top 100 is the 'astounding' revelation that Conservative MP for Hitchin and Harpenden Peter Lilley doesn't think climate change is man-made, which sounds like irrefutable evidence to me. Number 15 is the completely irrelevant suggestion that wind farms do nothing to reduce CO2 emissions, while at 37 the sound of McConalogue desperately clutching at straws can be heard with the statement that an increase in CO2 has probably helped lengthen human life-spans since the industrial revolution.

Now you might think that the Daily Express has every right to report the views of climate change sceptics. Editors often repeat the mantra that it is essential for the objectivity of journalism to publish both sides of the story. However, objectivity in journalism is a myth. It is the role of a reporter and newspaper to make a judgement on a particular issue and present the language and angle they deem most important to the public.

In this case, a brief look at the report and a Google search would have told journalists working at the 'World's Greatest Newspaper' that it should be binned. Global warming is an issue that will affect us all and recycling is an important part of the solution, but regurgitating shit like this will not help anyone.