{"id":261904,"date":"2023-06-13T12:41:56","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T10:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=261904"},"modified":"2023-06-13T12:41:58","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T10:41:58","slug":"how-eco-journalists-promote-the-weather-is-climate-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=261904","title":{"rendered":"How eco-journalists promote the \u2018weather is climate\u2019 scam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From netzerowatch.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Dr David Whitehouse, Science editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did journalists start confusing weather and climate predictions? A long time ago it seems.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Consider the New Scientist of August 2008 which asked,\u00a0\u201cWhat\u2019s going to happen to the climate over the next ten years or so?\u201d<\/a><\/em>\u2014 even though climate change is considered a 30 year assessment. It pointed out that short-term predictions are harder than long-term ones, \u2013 which, might I suggest, is due to the difference between pesky, unpredictable weather and its smoothed, time-averaged derivative \u2013 climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It adds that some groups have published short-term forecasts (perhaps another name for these could be long-range \u2018weather forecasts.\u2019) It then makes its own calamitous prediction: \u201cSurface temps will start to rise again by 2014 and then go into overdrive.\u201d They didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same issue Michael Mann said that Atlantic hurricanes will intensify. They didn\u2019t either. In November 2012 New Scientist predicted ice-free summers in a decade and sea-levels rising faster than expected. Neither materialised. Then there is the\u00a0National Geographic<\/em>\u00a0which in November 2015 had \u201cThe Climate Issue.\u201d It\u2019s editorial quotes Bill McKibben saying, \u201cThis year will be the turning point.\u201d It wasn\u2019t. What a problem these short-term \u201cclimate\u201d forecasts are.

Predictions! They often seem immune to the logic of science in that when they are right (seldom and perhaps by chance) they are indicative of something real, but when they are wrong they are indicative of uncertainties. They are also endlessly renewed irrespective of their poor track record.

In January 2018 the\u00a0UK Met Office<\/a>\u00a0said that the next five years may see the 1.5\u00b0C Paris limit exceeded. \u201cIt is now possible that continued warming from greenhouse gases along with natural variability could combine so we temporarily exceed 1.5\u00b0C in the next five years,\u201d said Stephen Belcher of the Met Office. That didn\u2019t happen, but five years later it\u2019s the same prediction, only this time with a little bit more ambiguity as befits the progress of a settled science. Now the\u00a0World Metrological Organisation\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0forecast says that between now and 2027 there is a 66% chance of exceeding 1.5\u00b0C. It adds that breaching this limit for just one year would be worrying, saying that it would show global warming is accelerating!

Later on in the same press release the 66% probability becomes 98%. But what does 98% actually mean? How is it statistically different from a 100% certainty, except for the minute statistically irrelevant wriggle room it leaves for a politically essential excuse if the prediction fails again? Then the WMO says that if the 1.5\u00b0C threshold were to be breached we would have to wait 20 years to be sure it wasn\u2019t due to a strong El Nino event, i.e. driven by natural variability! But didn\u2019t they say earlier that breaching the limit for just one year would indicate accelerating global warming and not natural variability?<\/p>\n\n\n\n


In reporting these contradictory numbers, predictions and statements habitually verbatim, most environmental journalists don\u2019t ever scrutinise them. If financial organisations or treasury officials played around with predictions like this they would almost certainly come in for a dose of criticism and further probing from proper journalists.

Climate Changes Every Day<\/strong>

The\u00a0Covering Climate Now<\/a>\u00a0website (organised by journalists for journalists) has produced what scholars should study as a classic case of mistaking weather and climate.

They say that, faced with a \u2018climate emergency,\u2019 journalists should not keep reporting news the same old way. To this end they provide helpful articles on best practices in climate reporting, including denying a platform to \u2018deniers\u2019 who are essentially anyone who disagree with them. They have over 500 news affiliates including, the\u00a0Columbia Journalism Review<\/em>,\u00a0CBS<\/em>,\u00a0NBC<\/em>,\u00a0The Guardian<\/em>,\u00a0Nature<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Scientific American<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0about a \u201cpath-breaking innovation\u201d in climate journalism launched this March in France, where the national public broadcaster,\u00a0France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions<\/em>, is \u201cdramatically changing how it reports on weather.\u201d By now you might be wondering what a website concerning communicating climate might be doing mention a change in weather forecasts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The daily weather report is dead, long live the daily climate report.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Alexandre Kara, the editor-in-chief of France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions<\/em>, \u201cThe goal is to \u201cnot just to say, \u2018It will be sunny tomorrow or it will rain,\u2019 but to explain why.\u201d \u201cThis is what leadership in climate journalism looks like,\u201d says Covering Climate Now <\/em>which salutes France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions and urges our colleagues everywhere to ponder their inspiring example.\u201d

Just look at that global temperature ticker. What a scientific absurdity. That global temperature is \u201ccalculated\u201d in real time to eight decimal places, so viewers of the inaugural March 13 broadcast could see the dashboard first register 1.18749861\u00b0C above the pre-industrial level and then \u2013 after 37 seconds \u2013 click one digit more to 1.18749862 \u00b0C and then \u2013 after 2 minutes and 28 seconds \u2013 eventually reaching 1.18749873 \u00b0C.

Instead of calling out this appalling example of climate journalism Covering Climate Now<\/em> praises it, showing no understanding whatsoever about essential climate parameters or indeed about journalism. French TV viewers will be intentionally confused between weather forecasts and climate change, just like climate activists at Covering Climate Now<\/em>, and it seems many others.

Feedback: david.whitehouse@netzerowatch.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When did journalists start confusing weather and climate predictions? A long time ago it seems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":261910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691820160,691820159,691818215],"class_list":["post-261904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-scam","tag-eco-journalists","tag-michael-mann","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-Climate-Journalism.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-168g","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":263409,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=263409","url_meta":{"origin":261904,"position":0},"title":"Climate Crisis Shock: No Change in Average U.K. Temperatures for More Than Two Decades","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/22\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"It was a tad on the warm side last year in the United Kingdom. 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