{"id":315581,"date":"2024-04-01T14:40:45","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T12:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=315581"},"modified":"2024-04-01T14:40:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T12:40:48","slug":"bbcs-failed-fact-check-of-daily-sceptic-report-on-arctic-sea-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=315581","title":{"rendered":"BBC\u2019s Failed \u2018Fact Check\u2019 of Daily Sceptic Report on Arctic Sea Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

From The Daily Sceptic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BY\u00a0CHRIS MORRISON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The BBC More or Less<\/em><\/a> radio programme recently \u2018fact checked\u2019 the Daily Sceptic<\/em>\u2019s report<\/a> that sea ice in the Arctic had soared to its highest level for 21 years on January 8th this year. Alas, the report was confirmed to be true so the Beeb went down the \u2018cherry pick\u2019 line of attack. Curiously missing from the programme was any mention that the article dealt mainly with long term trends in Arctic sea ice and concentrated on scientific evidence that showed at least a decade-long slow recovery.  The \u2018fact check\u2019 did little more than confirm the widely held suspicion that many BBC programmes are now infected with a need to crowbar a climate catastrophe narrative into broadcast messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being accused of \u201ccherry picking\u201d by an organisation that routinely catastrophises bad weather events is of course risible. Taking lessons from a state-reliant operation that can publish a recent story<\/a> from a \u201cscience correspondent\u201d that starts, \u201cClimate change threatens to \u2018call time\u2019 on the great British pint\u201d, is also laughable. The 21-year high on January 8th was clearly identified as part of a number of short and long term trends, and in the third paragraph of the article it was noted that \u201dwe must be careful not to follow alarmists down their chosen political path of cherry-picking and warning of climate collapse on the basis of individual events\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is evident that the BBC did little investigative work on the matter despite More or Less <\/em>priding itself on checking statistics and data. Instead it relied on the usual \u2018scientists say\u2019, in this case Professor Julienne Stroeve. The UCL \u201cEarth Scientist\u201d attempted to muddy the Arctic sea ice waters by suggesting the ice extent is thinner, but presenter Tom Colls had to admit, \u201cthe data is not available yet\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you pick a particular day, you might just be talking about the weather, states Colls. There is no correlation between winter sea ice extent and how much the ice will melt in the summer, added Stroeve. What you see since 1979, continued Stroeve, is that the trend in Arctic sea ice is downwards for four decades. The overall decline in long term Arctic sea ice is very easy to see, adds Colls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you \u2018cherry pick\u2019 the date 1979, probably the high point for Arctic sea ice for almost a century, and draw a line to the present day, the cyclical trend is undoubtedly down. There was more ice around at the high point in 1979 than there is now, nobody disputes that. If you are just after a simple political message of climate collapse to promote the Net Zero fantasy, further examination of the data will be unwelcome. But a more detailed review of the statistics gives a more realistic interpretation. According to recent work<\/a> published by the Arctic scientist Allan Astrup Jensen, the summer <\/em>ice plateaued from 1979-97, fell for 10 years and then resumed a minimal downward trend from 2007. Jensen observes that either side of the 10 year fall after 1997, there have been minimal losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact using a four-year moving average, the trend has been slightly upwards over the last few years. The graph below is compiled by the investigative science writer Tony Heller and shows the\u00a0recent stability<\/a>\u00a0of Arctic summer sea ice around the minimum recorded every September. A slight recovery from about 2012 can be clearly seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

As we can see, More or Less <\/em>has produced little more than a narrative-driven attempt to keep the Arctic sea ice poster scare going for as long as possible. Since the drop in the early part of the century, alarmists have been forecasting ice free summers in the Arctic in the near future. Sir David Attenborough told BBC viewers in 2022 that the Arctic could be ice free by 2035. Professor Stroeve claims to have briefed<\/a> former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, a man who has never lived down reporting that the ice could all be gone by 2014. In fact what has clearly been happening is noted by Tony Heller. They bury the old data going back to the 1950s, \u201cand pretend they don\u2019t notice sea ice is increasing again\u201d. Nevertheless activists are starting to learn lessons about putting short timelines on their fanciful forecasts. For her part, Stroeve suggests ice free summers in the Arctic by the next 50 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, after the \u2018hottest year ever\u2019, the maximum winter <\/em>sea ice for 2024 was recorded on March 14th at 15.01 million sq kms. Polar bear scientist Susan Crockford noted that the \u2018U.S. headline writers\u2019 at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre said it was below the average<\/a> for 1981-2010. Indeed it was, although this year\u2019s total was within two standard deviations, states Crockford. But why compare the a 30-year average to 2010 when another decade of data to 2020 is available? Cynics might note that taking out the higher totals of 40 years ago and replacing them with the lower recent figures would produce \u2013 more or less \u2013  an above average maximum in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Morrison is the<\/em> Daily Sceptic\u2019s<\/em> Environment Editor.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The BBC\u00a0More or Less\u00a0radio programme recently \u2018fact checked\u2019 the\u00a0Daily Sceptic\u2019s report\u00a0that sea ice in the Arctic had soared to its highest level for 21 years on January 8th this year. Alas, the report was confirmed to be true so the Beeb went down the \u2018cherry pick\u2019 line of attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":315586,"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":[691818605,691819671,691826207,691818389,691819134,691821755,691827948,691818154],"class_list":{"0":"post-315581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-arctic","9":"tag-arctic-ice","10":"tag-arctic-summer-sea-ice","11":"tag-bbc","12":"tag-climate-alarmism","13":"tag-fact-check","14":"tag-more-or-less","15":"tag-net-zero","17":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/1_112080366_p08c03dy.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1k61","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":324961,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=324961","url_meta":{"origin":315581,"position":0},"title":"Reuters Joins BBC in Failed \u2018Fact Check\u2019 of Daily Sceptic Arctic Sea Ice Story","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"30\/04\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Another day, another fatuous \u2018fact\u2019 check from Reuters. This time the news agency accuses the\u00a0Daily Sceptic\u00a0of \u201ccherry-picking\u201d Arctic sea ice extent data to provide\u00a0a \u201cmisleading\u201d story. Being accused of \u201ccherry picking\u201d by an outfit that\u00a0funds a course for journalists\u00a0that encourages them to pick a fruit such as a mango and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Arctic Ice\"","block_context":{"text":"Arctic Ice","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=arctic-ice"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0rsz_arctic_sea_ocean2.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0rsz_arctic_sea_ocean2.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0rsz_arctic_sea_ocean2.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0rsz_arctic_sea_ocean2.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0rsz_arctic_sea_ocean2.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":296861,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=296861","url_meta":{"origin":315581,"position":1},"title":"Arctic Sea Ice Soars to Highest Level for 21 Years","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"18\/01\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The dramatic, if largely unpublicised, recovery in Arctic sea ice is continuing into the New Year. Despite the contestable claims of the \u2018hottest year ever\u2019 (and even hotter in 2024), Arctic sea ice on January 8th stood at its highest level in 21 years.","rel":"","context":"In \"Antarctica\"","block_context":{"text":"Antarctica","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=antarctica"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0-Arctic-Sea-Ice.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0-Arctic-Sea-Ice.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0-Arctic-Sea-Ice.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0-Arctic-Sea-Ice.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0-Arctic-Sea-Ice.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":376738,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=376738","url_meta":{"origin":315581,"position":2},"title":"Now Scientists Claim Near 20-Year Stable Arctic Sea Ice is \u201cUnsurprising\u201d and Predicted by Models","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/04\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Dramatic confirmation that the sea ice in the Arctic has been stable for nearly two decades is contained in a\u00a0recently published\u00a0science paper from a team led by Dr Mark England from the University of Exeter. 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