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.

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.

Hole in Ozone Layer is Saving the Planet

Flicking through today's Sun, I came across a story by the tabloid's esteemed environment editor Ben Jackson. The journalist -- who has previously scripted ground-breaking accounts on climate change, such as Fatties Causing Global Warming -- was reporting on a study conducted by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.

The organisation, which is a coalition of international experts from the region, published the report on ice loss in the Antarctic to give negotiators at the Copenhagen Climate Summit the most up-to-date research.

The report's findings revealed that the closing of the hole in the Earth's ozone layer will contribute to average temperature rises of 3C on the continent in the next decade -- leading to a global sea level rise of up to 1.4 metres by 2011. This increase would engulf islands located in the Pacific and Indian Ocean and destroy coastal cities such as Calcutta and Dhaka.

Pretty important news, most would say. Not, however, Ben Jackson, who instead decided to focus on evidence that the hole in the ozone layer has kept Antarctica warmer over the past decade.

"The hole in the ozone layer is protecting the arctic from global warming," he gleefully claims.

Though this report is undoubtedly factually accurate, it accentuates the myth that climate change is not an issue that the public needs to worry about; when insurmountable evidence suggests that it is.

And environmental activists wonder why the 'average Joe' remains unconvinced that human-induced climate change is occurring.