Keeping up to date on climate stories in the news and blogs, it is just a fact that the world has turned skeptical. A few years ago, people were literally afraid to own up to being a skeptic. Today, it would seem as daft as not owning up to liking ABBA.
Likewise, the few catastrophist news articles that now appear amongst the mass of climate tittle tattle of which most a skeptical in some way or other just don’t seem important. They are either reruns of stories which might have been scary the first time, they might have been worth reading when the first lesser spotted goat toad was nearing extinction – but now when the same less spotted goad toad is still nearing extinction a decade later, people are just growing bored of them.
There are now very few places in public life where the climate zealots still have total control. The BBC is a notable example, Wikipedia is another and presumably the Australian ABC. Notice, I’ve not said the Guardian. Even at the Guardian I’ve noticed a skeptical edge to their reporting. So, I’m not sure if the zealots haven’t had their feathers trimmed there recently.
So, in the present majority skeptic news coverage, the BBC’s return to pure climate zealotry and the denial of impartiality is all the more remarkable.
However, the importance is not that the BBC will change any minds, but that it shows the growing irrelevance of the BBC. It is a simple fact, the BBC lost their credibility on climate reporting long ago. No one now pays any attention to the BBC on climate (nor much else if my children are typical), and the only reason most skeptics are annoyed is because they are wasting our money on their obsession.
But in a sense, the very fact the BBC now feel that they can return to zealotry is an admission by the BBC that it doesn’t have any credibility left to lose on climate. Continue reading →