{"id":271696,"date":"2023-08-05T19:17:08","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T17:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=271696"},"modified":"2023-08-05T19:17:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T17:17:23","slug":"net-zeros-dam-has-burst-but-the-bbc-is-still-papering-over-the-cracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=271696","title":{"rendered":"Net zero\u2019s dam has burst, but the BBC is still papering over the\u00a0cracks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Paul Homewood<\/p>\n\n\n\n

h\/t James Mason<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Last year, Roger Harrabin, the BBC\u2019s \u201cenergy and environment analyst\u201d, retired<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He tweeted as follows: \u201cOnly a month to go now before I leave BBC after 35 years. I did my last turn on Today Prog earlier. Felt very upset walking home. Not for me, but for the fate of the planet.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On reading this, I burst out laughing. Although most journalists have delusions of grandeur, few of us think the fate of our planet turns on our individual career path. But I am glad Roger said it, because it displays succinctly the mentality which governs\u00a0<\/em>BBC coverage of climate change<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 very self-important, very emotional and very, very one-sided.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since his release from BBC employment, Roger says frankly what he is. On Twitter, he describes himself as a \u201cGreen pioneer broadcaster\u201d. That is an accurate phrase for how he did his job.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It does not seem to strike him as an odd way to work in a national broadcaster committed by Charter to impartiality. More to the point, it does not seem to strike the BBC as odd either. Yet it is like saying, \u201cI\u2019m a fascist broadcaster\u201d (or a communist, Remainer or Leaver one): it declares a committed point of view. Roger Harrabin\u2019s effective successor, Justin Rowlatt, seems, if anything, even more in thrall to his own beliefs. Who can forget his staring-eyed interview with Boris Johnson when he harangued the then prime minister for refusing to stop Britain\u2019s solitary new coal mine?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justin is preaching busily. Yesterday, he tweeted: \u201cThe world has just recorded the highest average global sea temperature ever \u2013 more evidence of the progress of climate change.\u201d Within an hour, Roger Harrabin tweeted in support: \u201cOcean heat record smashed, with grim implications\u2026 Will BBC join the dots? @BBCJustinR.\u201d The answer to Roger\u2019s question, which I think he knows already, is: \u201cYes. The BBC still thinks as he does.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BBC website this week carried a story by Justin Rowlatt, entitled \u201cThe truth about\u00a0<\/em>heat-pumps<\/em><\/a>\u201d. It describes them as \u201cextraordinarily efficient\u201d. He admits a few snags but blames the Government for not subsidising installations generously enough. \u201cWhatever choices we make about how we heat our homes in future,\u201d he adds, \u201cone thing is certain, we are going to need a lot more electricity. And it all needs to be green.\u201d His first sentence is factually correct. His second is his point of view. His confusion between the two exemplifies how the BBC has covered climate change for 20 years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent weeks, the dam which contained popular discontent about net zero policies has burst. Accumulating resentments about the costs and inconveniences involved have taken political form.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Problems about wind turbines, heat pumps, solar panels, new pylons, electric vehicles, charging points, wood-burning stoves; about energy security threatened if we have no fossil fuels against\u00a0<\/em>Putin\u2019s adventurism<\/em><\/a>, energy bills, low traffic zones and Ulez have at last made politicians aware of a blindingly obvious point: citizens and businesses resent having to pay much more for goods and services which are often worse than what they had before. Hence Labour\u2019s surprise failure to win the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters can see the disparity between the highly speculative and distant achievement of global net zero and the concrete and imminent prospect of becoming colder and poorer (which gets worse the further north you live). They face intimidating deadlines \u2013 an end to new petrol cars by 2030, to oil boilers by 2026, and achieving \u201ccomplete clean-energy production\u201d by 2035; and they don\u2019t like them. The BBC\u2019s attitude to this mood is the environmentalist equivalent of \u201cLet them eat cake\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It won\u2019t do. The public are still being shamefully ill informed by the BBC about differing views on\u00a0<\/em>climate change policy<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 on the science (the role, for example, of \u201cnatural variability\u201d), the efficacy of government intervention, the real costs, the possibilities of adaptation rather than resistance and so on \u2013 but polling suggests people do now know that the main players in the emissions game, China and India, have no intention of decarbonising by 2050.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In which case, Britain, \u201cthe world leader\u201d, is inflicting serious self-harm without discernible gain for the planet. A political party that cannot see this, cannot win. Whatever the rights and wrongs of global warming theory, political climate change is happening.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little bit of history helps explain how the BBC got itself in the wrong place. In 2005-6, a BBC executive, Fran Unsworth, was much influenced by Roger Harrabin. He submitted a report asking what the BBC wanted to be remembered for in future years. He suggested it should want to be remembered for warning of climate disaster. This was debated in private meetings of BBC high-ups whose contents the corporation never divulged.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BBC changed its approach to the subject, agreeing that \u201cthe science is settled\u201d and appearing to move away from traditional impartiality. From that time forth, it became obvious that anyone wanting a career as a BBC science journalist would have to proclaim climate-change orthodoxy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BBC\u2019s culture formally discourages what it calls \u201ca fixed habit of thought\u201d, yet it adopted just that. It therefore sought to refute rather than investigate various green scandals, such as the\u00a0<\/em>\u201cClimategate\u201d email leaks of 2009<\/em><\/a>. If a political leader claimed, as did Gordon Brown before the Copenhagen summit which failed, that there were \u201c50 days to save the planet\u201d, the BBC reverently reported it and never explained afterwards how the unsaved planet had somehow survived.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This went to comic extremes. After Barack Obama became president of the United States, a Newsnight report intoned: \u201cScientists calculate that President Obama has just four years to save the world.\u201d Those four years elapsed without President Obama achieving this feat, yet here we still are more than 10 years later. It is incredible (literally) what \u201cscientists\u201d will \u201ccalculate\u201d if the BBC indulges them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extreme voices were magnified; contrary ones were silenced. Have you ever witnessed a BBC cross-questioning of Greta Thunberg\u2019s claims about imminent destruction? On the other hand, Nigel Lawson, the former chancellor of the Exchequer, and author of a well-reasoned and best-selling critique of climate change arguments, was, in effect, banned from the airwaves on the subject.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One reason the BBC has got away with this bias for so long is that the political parties too have been all but unanimous. The BBC\u2019s formalistic idea of impartiality is more closely related to party balance than to genuine diversity of thought. That unanimity is starting to change. If we reach a situation where, say, Tories campaign to put off\u00a0<\/em>net zero deadlines<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and Labour campaign to keep them, the BBC will have to air both points of view.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would the BBC like to be remembered for in its coverage of climate change? How will the last 20 years of partiality and suppression look? I am not saying the corporation should be the voice of climate scepticism: as an establishment institution, it naturally follows the prevailing wind.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But surely one of the biggest stories of our time requires particularly careful impartiality. Predictions should not be treated as statements of fact. Science, being a method of inquiry, should never be treated as unanimous. Costs and benefits should be interrogated. Excited films on people\u2019s phones of floods in Chinese streets or burning forests in Greece should be used as part of stories about the now, not as evidence of global collapse, morality lessons for the greedy West or horror stories to frighten the next generation out of having babies.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2023\/08\/04\/net-zeros-dam-has-burst-but-bbc-is-still-papering-over\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He tweeted as follows: \u201cOnly a month to go now before I leave BBC after 35 years. I did my last turn on Today Prog earlier. Felt very upset walking home. Not for me, but for the fate of the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":271704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","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_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":[691818389,691818056,691819743,691821625,691818154,691818181,691821626],"class_list":{"0":"post-271696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-climate-propaganda","11":"tag-green-pioneer-broadcaster","12":"tag-net-zero","13":"tag-renewable-energy","14":"tag-roger-harrabin","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/OIG-45.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-18Gc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":274100,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=274100","url_meta":{"origin":271696,"position":0},"title":"Response To Roger\u00a0Harrabin","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Roger Harrabin\u2019s defence of the BBC\u2019s coverage of climate change highlights everything that is wrong with it.","rel":"","context":"In \"BBC\"","block_context":{"text":"BBC","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bbc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/climate-crisis-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/climate-crisis-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/climate-crisis-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/climate-crisis-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/climate-crisis-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":284990,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=284990","url_meta":{"origin":271696,"position":1},"title":"OFCOM Find GB News Broke Impartiality Rules\u2013But What About The\u00a0BBC?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"25\/10\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"GB News is currently the subject of either 11 or\u00a012 further Ofcom investigations. Ofcom says GB news is not impartial, but how can that be true? From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT By Paul Homewood It is abundantly clear that the establishment will do all it can to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"BBC\"","block_context":{"text":"BBC","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bbc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1_112080366_p08c03dy-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1_112080366_p08c03dy-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1_112080366_p08c03dy-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1_112080366_p08c03dy-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":208467,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=208467","url_meta":{"origin":271696,"position":2},"title":"I Call BS On Harrabin\u2019s Wye Drought Claims","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"14\/07\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Paul Homewood More BS from Harrabin! https:\/\/twitter.com\/rharrabin\/status\/1547446804710670336?s=21&t=gaqiC0XRHiUGbw93dIjliQ Does Harrabin just repeat any old rubbish he has been told, without bothering to check? The above claim immediately set the alarm bells ringing, and sure enough it is baseless. Harrabin does not actually say exactly where this lack of rainfall was\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0burn-stupid-burn.png?fit=1055%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0burn-stupid-burn.png?fit=1055%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0burn-stupid-burn.png?fit=1055%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0burn-stupid-burn.png?fit=1055%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/0burn-stupid-burn.png?fit=1055%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":221032,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=221032","url_meta":{"origin":271696,"position":3},"title":"Make Your Mind Up About Hydrogen, BBC!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"28\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe in future, Rees-Mogg should ignore what the BBC tell him!","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1330.png?fit=689%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1330.png?fit=689%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-1330.png?fit=689%2C768&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":413118,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=413118","url_meta":{"origin":271696,"position":4},"title":"Decades of Crying \u2018Fire!\u2019 in the Climate Theatre Have Left the BBC with Net Zero Credibility","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"13\/11\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Let us travel back to April 2012 and revisit an important milestone in BBC climate reporting \u2013 what is thought to be the last recorded sighting of genuine journalistic inquiry. Richard Knight noted an extremist claim that up to 150 mostly animal species are lost every day, but then went\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Attribution studies\"","block_context":{"text":"Attribution studies","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=attribution-studies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AQMn853GbdjAJDnwtuuoEcAFo9mHR8OIMBesMxDVGe0MTcoY1uwfNItC3tsY_IOE6cqqEavwKYokwJPq0B4MnV7QcFolJDpFOqg0modj0jXX6cvRYjluRf6zxkH4B1t61xfaWpdeay9l1MirldCBio9dyUx_vg.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AQMn853GbdjAJDnwtuuoEcAFo9mHR8OIMBesMxDVGe0MTcoY1uwfNItC3tsY_IOE6cqqEavwKYokwJPq0B4MnV7QcFolJDpFOqg0modj0jXX6cvRYjluRf6zxkH4B1t61xfaWpdeay9l1MirldCBio9dyUx_vg.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AQMn853GbdjAJDnwtuuoEcAFo9mHR8OIMBesMxDVGe0MTcoY1uwfNItC3tsY_IOE6cqqEavwKYokwJPq0B4MnV7QcFolJDpFOqg0modj0jXX6cvRYjluRf6zxkH4B1t61xfaWpdeay9l1MirldCBio9dyUx_vg.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AQMn853GbdjAJDnwtuuoEcAFo9mHR8OIMBesMxDVGe0MTcoY1uwfNItC3tsY_IOE6cqqEavwKYokwJPq0B4MnV7QcFolJDpFOqg0modj0jXX6cvRYjluRf6zxkH4B1t61xfaWpdeay9l1MirldCBio9dyUx_vg.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AQMn853GbdjAJDnwtuuoEcAFo9mHR8OIMBesMxDVGe0MTcoY1uwfNItC3tsY_IOE6cqqEavwKYokwJPq0B4MnV7QcFolJDpFOqg0modj0jXX6cvRYjluRf6zxkH4B1t61xfaWpdeay9l1MirldCBio9dyUx_vg.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":204173,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=204173","url_meta":{"origin":271696,"position":5},"title":"\u2018Institutionally alarmist\u2019 BBC\u2019s stream of fake news on climate change","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"13\/06\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Paul Homewood THE BBC has been accused of institutional alarmism about climate change in a\u00a0report\u00a0published by Net Zero Watch.\u00a0It reveals the BBC\u2019s persistent exaggeration and false information when it comes to climate and weather-related news. The study, written by me, reveals that the BBC has been forced to correct\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0BBC1.jpg?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0BBC1.jpg?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0BBC1.jpg?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0BBC1.jpg?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/0BBC1.jpg?fit=1200%2C591&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=271696"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271705,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271696\/revisions\/271705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/271704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=271696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=271696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=271696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}