Groundhog Day at the Express

Ever get the feeling that you are stuck an endless, repetitive cycle of boredom and monotony? Like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day you relive the same set of circumstances day after day with no hope of ever escaping the sequence. I get this feeling solely when I read the Daily Express.

Like a broken record, the newspaper's coverage perpetually focuses on immigration, taxes, Gordon Brown and, as readers of this blog will know, the great global warming conspiracy.

Yesterday's paper contained a story entitled Global Warming: No, World's Cooling Down says Expert, which again underlined the biased nature of its reporting of the environment.

The article focused on comments made by Michael Beenstock, a professor of economic affairs at Hebrew University, who suggested that global warming is set to become global cooling this century.

In a speech to London's Cass Business School, the academic, who has no background in environmental science, claimed that the link between rising greenhouse gas emissions and rising temperatures is "spurious".

"The greenhouse effect is an illusion," he said.

Now I do not doubt that Mr Beenstock is an intelligent man, but his theories on global cooling don't stand up to scrutiny.

Last year, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies disclosed that the ten warmest years recorded since temperature analysis began in 1800 occurred between 1997 and 2008. Recently, data released by the state-run publication China Daily disclosed that temperatures in Tibet - often referred to as the roof of the world - increased in 2009 to the highest level ever recorded. India also experienced its hottest 12 months since records began last year, while Australia has just experienced its second warmest year ever.

Need I go on?

Beenstock should not be quoted when newspapers discuss global climate change science. He has no standing in the international scientific community and thus is sidelined from any reasoned debate.

But I expect no better from the Express. Its reporting of the environment always manages to maintain a delicate balance between stupidity and absurdity. Instead of interviewing anyone associated with the global climate change debate, it instead relies on a rabble of celebrities, sceptics and outright crack-pots to justify its views.

The public should know that some publications are undergoing a blatant effort to alter peoples' views on climate change. And the problem is that it is working. A recent survey of 1,000 people conducted by the BBC discovered that the number of Britons who believe the science of climate change has fallen substantially in the last 12 months. The poll revealed that 25 per cent of adults do not believe in global warming, which is eight per cent less than recorded in November.

This is serious. Our actions over the courses of the next couple of decades will determine whether the stable environment on which human civilization has depended since the last ice age 10,000 years ago continues. All reasonable data suggests that unless carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by 60 per cent by 2050, global temperature rises will surpass the tipping point of two degrees. This is going to be impossible if second-rate newspapers recklessly choose to highlight spurious stories for their own agendas.

UK rejoices as Pig Flu pandemic declared over

It's official. The UK swine flu pandemic is over. Why? Because the press says so! Millions are not dead, global infrastructure hasn't ground to halt and we all haven't turned into half-pigs, half-zombies wondering the pavements in search of Tamiflu.

This may come as a surprise to many who read newspapers in the UK. At the height of swine flu fever last year, you couldn't open a paper without being blinded by the latest prophecies of social collapse, streets littered with bloated, virus-riddled bodies and the end of the world as we know it.

But now it seems as if we all might have got a little bit carried away. The government announced yesterday (February 4th) that the flu hotline and website that make up the National Pandemic Flu Service will be closed from next week - in the clearest sign yet that the outbreak is subsiding.

Fewer than 5,000 cases of swine flu have been recorded every week for the past six weeks, which is substantially down from the 100,000 confirmed last summer. Around the world, an estimated 14,000 people have died from the virus - a fraction of the number who perished from ordinary flu in the same period.

In light of this news, some publications have sought to blame the government for mishandling the epidemic and sparking a sense of panic that "scared thousands witless". The very same press in fact that sought to drum up widespread fear over the nation's impending doom at the hands of the 'killer virus' last year.

The Daily Express has run a story today entitled Swine Flu scandal, criticising ministers for their "excessive reaction" to the epidemic and the billions of pounds spent on vaccines that will never be used.

Now I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but you would expect more from a newspaper that published the following stories at the height of pig flu hysteria last year.

*By the way, these capital letters have not been added by me for dramatic effect. The Express has a nasty habit of publishing stories in a style that makes them read like a mentally-ill man bellowing the day's news at you through a megaphone.

SWINE FLU TO KILL 350 A DAY
50,000 DEAD IN MONTHS
HAS LABOR DONE ENOUGH TO COPE WITH SWINE FLU?
SWINE FLU PANIC SWEEPS BRITAIN
ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT SWINE FLU?
SWINE FLU CAN 'PENTRATE DEEP INTO THE LUNGS'
And ludicrously, BRITTANY MURPHY: WAS SHE KILLED BY SWINE FLU?

I could go on and on.

However, other newspapers didn't far much better. The Evening Standard screamed dementedly from its billboards last summer of a SWINE FLU MASS GRAVES PLAN, while the London Lite attempted to brighten the days of up sardine-packed commuters with the hysterical headline PIG FLU MAY KILL 94,000 LONDONERS.

The fact is that thousands of people die from flu every winter and usually because of underlying health problems or old age. In total, swine flu has killed just 411 Britons.

Policy-makers and scientists tend to prepare for future events based on a range of scenarios to ensure that every eventuality is catered for. Journalists have a nasty habit of publishing the worst-case scenarios and making them look like predictions. Why? Because it sells newspapers. So the next time you pick up your paper and read of the impending outbreak of a nasty strain of goat measles that is destined to kill billions, keep calm and carry on.

Titchmarsh is a Turnip

Alan Titchmarsh is many things. TV host, novelist, horticulturist and sex symbol for the nation's toothless Countdown watchers I can just about accept. Last time I checked, however, the Yorkshire-born, ex-Songs of Praise presenter was not an environmental scientist.

Despite this, the Daily Express today decided that Titchmarsh's calls for the public to be given the "whole picture" on climate change is worthy of a half-page item in the news section of its esteemed publication.

Sounding suspiciously like a man who huddles in corners whispering conspiracy theories, the BBC Radio 2 fixture has offered his views on the 'great global warming swindle'.

Referring to the fact that there has been 30 ice ages interspersed with warm periods in the Earth's history, Titchmarsh said: "There is a denial that this has ever happened before, as if we are children who cannot be told the full story.

"These facts are almost swept under the carpet because they are inconvenient truths".

Far from being denied as Titchmarsh claims, the International Panel on Climate Change acknowledged the role that natural events play in global warming in its fourth assessment report in 2007.

However, the study disclosed that the geological record has shown that nature's timetable of climate change is very different from the current warming cycle and that our planet has never warmed at this quick a pace before.

Now, I will admit that I have limited national newspaper editing experience - precisely none actually - but what senior editor in his right mind would define Titchmarsh's vague mutterings about "facts being swept under the carpet" and people being treated like grown-ups as news? Step forward Mr John Ingham - the paper's environment editor.

Ingham has been steadfastly flying against all rational logic and scientific evidence in his current post and would have played a part in the newspaper's outlandishly stupid Snow Chaos: And They Still Claim Its Global Warming story earlier this month.

What's next? Piers Morgan discussing the consequences of sea level rises on the world's biodiversity? Jordan and Peter Andre debating the implications of climate change on future water resources for the Indian sub-continent across competing ITV4 reality shows? Jedward hypothesising about the role that peatlands play in global carbon dioxide emissions in a GMTV special hosted by Lorraine Kelly?

Please stop it Ingham - for all of our sakes.

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.