{"id":274420,"date":"2023-08-19T12:38:49","date_gmt":"2023-08-19T10:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=274420"},"modified":"2023-08-19T12:38:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-19T10:38:52","slug":"who-fact-checks-the-fact-checkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=274420","title":{"rendered":"Who Fact Checks the Fact-Checkers?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From The Daily Sceptic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY TOBY YOUNG<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In my\u00a0column in the\u00a0Spectator<\/em><\/a>\u00a0this week I\u2019ve taken to task Nick Cowern, a retired physics professor and climate consultant who has called for publishers of \u2018climate disinformation\u2019 to be sent to prison. Since the\u00a0Daily Sceptic<\/em>\u00a0is often accused of publishing \u2018climate disinformation\u2019 \u2013 in reality, a euphemism for anything that challenges the prevailing climate orthodoxy \u2013 I feel quite strongly about this! As I say in the first paragraph, this may sound like a ludicrously over-the-top suggestion, but it would be complacent to think it won\u2019t happen. At least four EU member states have made it a criminal offence to spread disinformation \u2013 Hungary, Lithuania, Malta and France \u2013 and others including Ireland are preparing to do the same. In the U.K., the Online Safety Bill will introduce a new false communications offence. But securing convictions for \u2018climate deniers\u2019 may not be as simple as Prof Cowern belives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

One of the problems with criminalising \u2018climate disinformation\u2019 is there\u2019s no infallible authority the courts could rely on to determine whether a particular claim about something climate-related is true or false. Advocates of net zero and other measures designed to reduce carbon emissions often use the term \u2018climate deniers\u2019 to describe their opponents, thereby persuading themselves that proving them wrong would be easy. But even the most hardened sceptics wouldn\u2019t dispute that average global temperatures have increased in the past 150 years. Rather, the argument is about the role of human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels, in global warming and how much impact changing our behaviour would have. We also dispute just how catastrophic rising global temperatures are, and are unimpressed by the hyperbole of the environmental lobby (\u2018global boiling\u2019). In other words, proving us wrong isn\u2019t as straightforward as pointing to temperature data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suppose the prosecution could summon distinguished climate scientists as expert witnesses, but then so could the defence \u2013 for instance Dr John Clauser, last year\u2019s joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, who\u2019s just signed a declaration stating there is no climate emergency. No doubt the would-be jailers would invoke the \u201897 per cent of scientists agree\u2019 canard, but not only is that stat dubious, it\u2019s also a non-sequitur. As Einstein said when 100 physicists published a book rubbishing his theory of relativity: \u201cWhy 100? If I was wrong, one would have been enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps Exhibit A for the prosecution would be a \u2018fact check\u2019 by a reputable news organisation. Last year Reuters took issue with a piece by Chris Morrison in which he noted that Arctic sea ice was making a comeback and the coverage was well above a 2012 low point. This was said to be \u201cmisleading\u201d, although the figures came from an official EU weather source. Reuters\u2019 experts said that the sea ice was not recovering, pointing to a declining trend over a longer time period. One of them didn\u2019t dispute the ice had recovered since 2012, but said it was a \u201cwiggle\u201d and should not be cited as evidence that \u201cclimate change isn\u2019t real\u201d, which Chris hadn\u2019t claimed. Nevertheless, he was accused of \u201ccherry-picking\u201d, although the sea ice improvement continues to this day. Send him down m\u2019lud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or maybe not. I doubt the evidence of an \u2018independent fact-checker\u2019 would be taken as gospel by a jury. A defence barrister could ask them during cross-examination why they never scrutinise the statements of climate alarmists like Greta Thunberg. Last week, she pulled out of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, claiming the sponsor, Baillie Gifford, \u201cinvests heavily in the fossil fuels industry\u201d. But wasn\u2019t that a tad \u2018misleading\u2019? A spokesman for Baillie Gifford says just 2% of its clients\u2019 money is invested in companies with businesses related to fossil fuels. But assertions such as Greta\u2019s, along with her pretence that western governments have done \u2018nothing\u2019 to tackle climate change, are never fact-checked.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Worth\u00a0reading in full<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I suppose the prosecution could summon distinguished climate scientists as expert witnesses, but then so could the defence \u2013 for instance Dr John Clauser, last year\u2019s joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, who\u2019s just signed a declaration stating there is no climate emergency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":274425,"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":[691821940,691818056,691820416,691821941,691821942],"class_list":{"0":"post-274420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-baillie-gifford","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-greta-thunberg","11":"tag-nick-cowern","12":"tag-online-safety-bill","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0200902-fact-checkers-feat.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-19o8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":309109,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=309109","url_meta":{"origin":274420,"position":0},"title":"Climate Fact Checks with Guest Steve Milloy of Junkscience.com","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/16\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Climate Change Roundtable is now The Climate Realism Show. 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