“It’s not true that the temperature has not changed in two decades.”
Am I wrong or does the BBC interviewer seem just a bit snippy about having her misinformation set straight?
I like this new, liberated James Hansen.
“It’s not true that the temperature has not changed in two decades.”
Am I wrong or does the BBC interviewer seem just a bit snippy about having her misinformation set straight?
I like this new, liberated James Hansen.
Indeed! Fleeing the shackle of politics elevated Dr. Hansen’s clarity.
Yeah. I’m fed up with the media pretending there would be a “balanced” debate.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez7F30lazUw&w=640&h=390]
More about the new study (confirming previous similar studies) in the video description on YouTube.
Thanks for that. I offer you a copy of what I take away…
http://bit.ly/consensusgap
We al could use some Liberation
Hollywood’s planning to give us “Liberace” instead. 🙂
At least on the BBC they let Dr. Hansen have the last word and they don’t interrupt constantly; unlike some other American networks we know. Seemed cordial enough.
Perhaps, without 24/7 Fox/CNN Cable News, the game is the same, just played at a much higher level of subtly.
Not sure if that’s good or bad.
On the one hand, Fox commentators might as well hang ‘I’m a Clown’ sign around their necks.
On the other, when news is bad, too many say ‘I’m scared, let’s watch the clowns.’
My first reaction upon hearing the clip yesterday was that the interviewer was being obnoxious. But then I thought, maybe she was just giving him golden opportunities to slam denier talking points, which he did with his usual tenacious grace. So maybe we should all be grateful.
That interviewer’s voice is very much a part of my own life’s general background noise (though I have never bothered to try to remember her name, go figure), and FW(little)IW my impression is that she was trying hard to both present ‘balance’ and at the same time be open to (possibly fresh?) ideas. If only more were so.
Sarah Montague.
Thanks but… O.o I hope there won’t be a test, I have enough trubble keeping faces and names matched with people I meet IRL.
Hate to keep posting the same link (actually, that’s not true, don’t mind at all if it’s relevant 😉 ) but here’s a link that expands on the ‘aerosol cooling’ point he just made:
Doubling Down on Our Faustian Bargain
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-james-hansen/doubling-down-on-our-faustian-bargain_b_2989535.html
The BBC’s Today programme really messed up yesterday, the above interview with Hansen followed a report earlier in the programme that put the views of a climate skpetic across as equivalent to two of the U.K’s top climate scientists:
You can listen to it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22565278
My suggestion to those of you in the U.K. is that you send in complaints.
UK resident here: complaint just submitted. Text follows:
I first became aware of this program via the following URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22565278 The title of this piece is ‘Has global warming stalled’ – immediately implying that it may have done. The real problem with this broadcast begins just 23 seconds in, with the misleading comment: “… but now the scientific establishment agrees that global warming seems to have stalled.” … which clearly implies that global warming is now not happening. This is an absolutely appalling misrepresentation of the scientific fact, which is that global warming is not only ongoing but is expected to continue to accelerate unless swift action is taken. The programme continues in the same vein, giving far too much time and credence to the ill-informed and highly misleading sceptic point of view. By suggesting that there is still a ‘debate’ on this issue *when there is not* [1] you do all of humanity a disservice by continuing to peddle controversy in the name of misguided ‘balanced reporting’. I am appalled that the BBC continues to misrepresent climate change in this way. It’s about time the public service – which I pay for through my licence fee – began reporting fact, not speculative fiction, when presenting programmes that purport to be evidence based. [1] 97% of published climate papers with a position on human-caused global warming agree global warming is happening and we are the cause — source: http://theconsensusproject.com/
Hansen said “deniers” – I’m not sure if I’ve heard if say it so bluntly before but I’m sure that’ll spark a butthurt circlejerk over at WUWT
The interviewer was doing her best with a difficult topic for which, clearly, she didn’t understand the nuances. In doing so she was echoing the confusion that is in most lay-people’s minds — even many of those who accept that warming is real. Hansen handled the interview brilliantly and once he realised it was going round in muddying circles, steered the subject round to key points which he made with great authority. He took a leaf out the politicians’ book there, to great effect.
Remember that all journalists are trained to use the ‘devil’s advocate’ question to heighten the response from the interviewee. As a director of TV and film I’ve used the technique many times and it always elicits a forceful response. One usually de-personalises such a question by saying something like, “many people are saying x, how do you answer that..?”
Peter asks: “Am I wrong or does the BBC interviewer seem just a bit snippy about having her misinformation set straight?”
As a regular listener to BBC World News Service and Hardtalk, I would say that this interviewer is being decidedly parochial in her defense of the flawed UK Met Office analysis.
Once again we should be doing what we can to get less informed people to understand that the El Nino anomaly of 1998 has skewed the surface temperature measurements of the last two decades so that they are less than a reliable indicator of the problems we are imposing with our massive forcing of greenhouse gases.
Perhaps Dr. Hansen could have been more insistent that the Mauna Loa measurement of CO2 is the crux to what we can expect in the future.
As we can see from Dr. Jeff Masters’ discussion here of U.S. April surface temperatures, we are entering the era of weather whiplash:
http://tinyurl.com/b7qhcsq
Comparing April, 2013 to March, 2012 and we can easily see that we’re on a planet that is losing its well-regulated weather patterns.
http://tinyurl.com/b8hgrwg
There was nothing flawed with the Met Office decadal analysis. The Today programme miss reported it (along with many other parts of the media) back in January, and they miss represented it again yesterday in the interview with Prof. Hansen.
Prof. Julia Slingo, the head of the met office, issued a clarifying note back in January, the BBC should not be making the same mistakes:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/news/decadal-forecasting
The press release is excellent I loved every sentence. Surely, tens and tens of other people did too.
It just may be that the scientists have finally gotten totally pissed off by being called liars, or even worse to a scientist, incompetent, by people who aren’t even qualified to carry their bags. I’m really liking the “take no prisoners” strategy that is showing up in interviews. Hansen did a great job with this clown by politely but firmly correcting her every time a denier talking point came out. It’s about time!