The British Broadcast Corporation is legally obliged to be impartial. However, at one point, the BBC Trust has boldly informed the public that after a seminar held on January 26th, 2006, the public news organization has decided that no balance was needed in climate reporting anymore and the organization would continue to spread the demagogy of the unhinged climate alarmists only.
The organization would insist that the decision was made by a few dozens of top invited scientific experts and it would use every trick to hide the identity of these "experts". Indeed, last Friday, a judge decided that the BBC wasn't obliged to reveal the identity of its "experts" so blogger Tony Newbery, the plaintiff, lost.
However, climate blogger Maurizio Morabito legally made the bizarre legal decision irrelevant. He found out a web copy of the list of participants on the Web.Archive.ORG internet archive time machine.
And it is a very powerful stuff. See comments at The Register (plus page 2).
I would like to invite the TRF readers to some simple research – and find out some fair description of all the "experts" in the list and something about their scientific credentials and impartiality. To me, the list looks like a collection of NGO activists, lobbyists, and representatives financially motivated green industry groups.
If you present some evidence and links in the comments and an alternative description of the "specialists", I will update this article. I have already chaotically changed the ordering of the list so that the "more scientific" beginning doesn't make a wrong impression. But building on similar lists of "experts" when decisions about trillions of dollars are being made is rather extraordinary, isn't it?
January 26th 2006, BBC Television Centre, London
Specialists: (30)
- Blake Lee-Harwood, Head of Campaigns, Greenpeace
- Li Moxuan, Climate campaigner, Greenpeace China
- Colin Challen MP, Chair, All Party Group on Climate Change
- Jos Wheatley, Global Environment Assets Team, DFID
- Ashok Sinha, Stop Climate Chaos
- Tessa Tennant, Chair, AsRia (transforming Asia to sustainable development)
- Tadesse Dadi, Tearfund (campaigning for justice) Ethiopia
- Andy Atkins, Advocacy Director, Tearfund
- Eleni Andreadis, undergraduate student majoring in brainwashing at the Kennedy School of Government and filmmaker, Harvard University, and hot director of 7-12 years old Planet Agents, Greece
- Iain Wright, CO2 Project Manager, BP International
- Andrew Dlugolecki, Insurance industry consultant
- Trevor Evans, US Embassy
- Anuradha Vittachi, Director, Oneworld.net representing 1,600 NGOs fighting poverty
- Andrew Simms, Policy Director, New Economics Foundation fighting to replace economics by "ecological stability"
- Claire Foster, Church of England
- Saleemul Huq, International Institute for Environment and Development
- Matthew Farrow, CBI
- Rafael Hidalgo, TV/multimedia producer
- Cheryl Campbell, Executive Director, Television for the Environment
- Kevin McCullough, Director, Npower Renewables
- Richard D North, Institute of Economic Affairs
- Steve Widdicombe, Plymouth Marine Labs
- Joe Smith, The Open University
- Poshendra Satyal Pravat, Open University
- Mark Galloway, Director, International Broadcasting Trust
- Anita Neville, E3G Change Agents for Sustainable Development
- Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Ice and Climate, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen
- Michael Bravo, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge
- Robert May, Oxford University and Imperial College London
- Mike Hulme, Director, Tyndall Centre, UEA
BBC employee attendees: (28)
- Jana Bennett, Director of Television
- Sacha Baveystock, Executive Producer, Science
- Helen Boaden, Director of News
- Andrew Lane, Manager, Weather, TV News
- Anne Gilchrist, Executive Editor Indies & Events, CBBC
- Dominic Vallely, Executive Editor, Entertainment
- Eleanor Moran, Development Executive, Drama Commissioning
- Elizabeth McKay, Project Executive, Education
- Emma Swain, Commissioning Editor, Specialist Factual
- Fergal Keane, (Chair), Foreign Affairs Correspondent
- Fran Unsworth, Head of Newsgathering
- George Entwistle, Head of TV Current Affairs
- Glenwyn Benson, Controller, Factual TV
- John Lynch, Creative Director, Specialist Factual
- Jon Plowman, Head of Comedy
- Jon Williams, TV Editor Newsgathering
- Karen O’Connor, Editor, This World, Current Affairs
- Catriona McKenzie, Tightrope Pictures
- Liz Molyneux, Editorial Executive, Factual Commissioning
- Matt Morris, Head of News, Radio Five Live
- Neil Nightingale, Head of Natural History Unit
- Paul Brannan, Deputy Head of News Interactive
- Peter Horrocks, Head of Television News
- Peter Rippon, Duty Editor, World at One/PM/The World this Weekend
- Phil Harding, Director, English Networks & Nations
- Steve Mitchell, Head Of Radio News
- Sue Inglish, Head Of Political Programmes
- Frances Weil, Editor of News Special Events
snail feedback (13) :
and i bet they were coordinating with the Weather Channel which also became totally uncritical about the same time.
Aaaarrgh! How can I send you a couple of files? Only pictures can be attached to comments here. Email me with a return address, please.
About the only one I've heard of is Robert May, former president of the Royal Society, famous for chaotic population dynamical models (pretty easy maths stuff actually that you could teach at high school) and typical left-wing atheist, who clearly isn't going to be balanced (in both senses) in his opinions on climate science
Cheryl Campbell was most probably at the BBC conference to make up her mind about environmental
issues. One pressing line of questioning could have been "does it make sense to even try talking to man-boys? Can they really be taught anything worthwhile at all?"
From the TVE.org website:
“We inspire viewers to lead a greener life, entrepreneurs and corporations to take up the sustainability challenge, parents to educate their daughters as well as their sons, women to stand up for greater empowerment, and decision-makers to think, and act, differently.” ...and to toe the green-calamity-scare-you-out-of-your-wits-repent-before-it's-too-late-sinners party line.
The BBC aren't reporting this leak at the moment, I wonder if it's related to the recent dismissals over the false paedophilia accusations - since, as Maurizio Morabito points out (<a href="http://omnologos.com/why-the-list-of-participants-to-the-bbc-cmep-jan-2006-seminar-is-important/>here</a>) the four recently shamed and dismissed/resigned were present at the climate seminar (Peter Rippon, Steve Mitchell, Helen Boaden, George Enwistle)
"Andrew Dlugolecki, Insurance industry consultant"
Also a visiting fellow of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, and occasional author of reports for the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research - the same Tyndall Centre the BBC's Roger Harrabin was on the advisory board of.
Do you know about http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25haxRuZQUk ? Spread the word.
Seems to be a large overlap between climate changers and pedophiles. Penn State Mann and Penn State Sandusky.
Pointing to a general condition? Lack of character?
I guess what I'm trying to say is the crookedness slops over the side, and isn't confined to their environmental advocacy.
It might be easier to destroy these people on a person by person basis, rather than going straight at the BBC.
And what do you think of the course he teaches (http://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/training/climate/cc_course_biographies.pdf)?
Title: Climate Change: Risks and Opportunities for the Finance Sector
A more cynical person might imagine that this is a starter course for wannabe rent-seekers. Good thing I still have faith in the wisdom of government....
To connect pedophilia and climate science is as unsupported as a causal link between climate change and second hand smoke. While I too thought of it too and would like to think it so, these self proclaimed experts and media moguls are correlated only to making money without regard to facts.
I have no knowledge of the people on the list, would not matter if they included the greatest and most noble on the planet. The fact is that climate science is an oxymoron.
Interesting list. Right now, it seems that even most entries from more
or less prestigious universities and research institutions only have a
somewhat circumstantial relationship with actual climate science/climate
physics:
Steve Widdicombe (22 on the list) is a marine ecologist
focusing on biodiversity, see:
http://www.pml.ac.uk/about_us/pml_people/steve_widdicombe.aspx
Joe
Smith (No. 23) is a lecturer and has a PhD in Geography, but seems
solidly in the social science corner of that subject (obtained a BA in
Social and Political Sciences first). Regarding his lines of research,
he mentions "a long running strand of work on media decision-making and
environment (1996-)", which, for better or worse, at least makes his
presence in such a meeting somewhat understandable. See:
http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/staff/people-profile.php?name=Joe_Smith
Poshendra
Satyal Pravat (No. 24) is also a Geography PhD, and, like Smith, also
seems to be in the social science corner, with work "at the interface
between research and policy on the distributional and equity impacts of
climate change mitigation, with a particular focus on i) public
perceptions of, and attitudes towards, environmental rights,
responsibilities and the concepts of environmental and climate justice
in the context of climate change mitigation; and ii) the societal and
equality impacts of climate change mitigation proposals, policies and
plans". http://carboncentre.org/carbonCMS/about-us/dr-poshendra-s
Dorthe
Dahl-Jensen (No. 27) appears to be the first actual climate scientist
on the list (though I haven't checked the credentials of anyone not
mentioned in this comment, because it didn't seem to likely for anyone
else). She has an education in Geophysics and has co-authored papers
with several hundred citations, see:
http://www.nbi.ku.dk/ansatte/?id=45103&f=2&vis=medarbejder and
http://scholar.google.de/scholar?hl=de&q=Dorthe+Dahl-Jensen&btnG=&lr=
Michael
Bravo (No. 28) has an MPhil and PhD in the History and Philosophy of
Science. The most natural sciencey thing he has ever done is getting a
bachelor's degree in Telecommunications Engineering in 1985.
http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/people/bravo/
No. 29 Robert May is a
theoretical physicist by training, but seems to have worked in
theoretical biology/zoology since the 1970s. He has been president of
the Royal Society from 2000-2005.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_May,_Baron_May_of_Oxford
With
a PhD in Applied Climatology (BSc in Geography), Mike Hulme (No. 30)
is, as far as I can tell (see above), the second genuine climate
scientist on this list, also with publications with several hundreds
(and twice more than 1300) of citations, see
http://mikehulme.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/2012-CV-Hulme-short.pdf
and
http://scholar.google.de/scholar?q=Mike+Hulme&btnG=&hl=de&as_sdt=0%2C5
Still,
the representation of such people on this list seems astonishingly low. Actually, unnecessarily low, for if the BBC wanted its expert comittee to come to this result from the very beginning, they could still have found many more natural and climate scientists who would have supported their foregone conclusion. The frightening explanation might be (I don't know) that editorial decisions on science are routinely made with very limited input from actual scientists working in the relevant fields.
Thanks for the data! Smith was probably the organizer.
BBC provides us very fast and quick news.
And the news always come true.
The network of this corporation is so strong and broad.
This is great blog which is very innovative.
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