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Complaint to Ofcom Regarding “The Great Global Warming Swindle”

2. Complete Transcript and Rebuttal

Pretending that they were showing a film of year on year changes when they were actually showing a film of seasonal expansion and contraction amounts to deliberate deception.]

(In breach of the 2003 Communications Act Section 265, Ofcom 5.4, 5.5, 5.7, 5.11, 5.12)

[Prof Syun-Ichi Akasofu]	Actually, all the TV programmes that relate to global warming show big chunks of ice floating from the edge of the glaciers – but people forget that ice is always moving.
[Narrator]	News reports frequently show images of ice breaking from the edge of the Arctic. What they don’t say is that this is as ordinary an event in the Arctic as falling leaves on an English Autumn day.

[Comment 105: Again, this confuses seasons with long-term trends over a number of years. By implying that it is the former that is of concern, rather than the latter, the film maker misleads the audience.]

(In breach of the 2003 Communications Act Section 265, Ofcom 5.4, 5.5, 5.7, 5.11, 5.12)

[Prof Syun-Ichi Akasofu]

They ask me: “did you see ice falling from the edge of glaciers?” Yes, that’s the spring break-up, that happen every year. Press come to us all the time: “I want to see something that the greenhouse disaster.” I say: “There is none”. [chuckles.]

[Comment 106: Climatologists are not saying that there is currently a disaster; they are saying that Arctic ice, especially in Greenland, is melting at unprecedented rates. Again the Channel 4 programme is trying to confuse in the viewer’s mind the expansion and contraction of ice that occurs every winter and summer with the long term year on year trends. This is a very disingenuous and manipulative ploy on the part of the film maker.]

(In breach of the 2003 Communications Act Section 265, Ofcom 5.4, 5.5, 5.7, 5.11, 5.12)

2.11 Conspiracy Theory About Media Coverage

[Cut to footage from “Climate Change, Britain under Threat” BBC1]

[Narrator]

Alarming television programmes raise the fearful prospect of vast tidal waves flooding Britain. But what causes the sea-level to change? And how fast does it happen?

[Comment 107: Again no references are offered in support of the assertion. The most prominent climate change programmes of 2006, David Attenborough’s Are We Changing Planet Earth (BBC One TX: May 24, 2006) and Can We Save Planet Earth, (BBC One TX: June 01, 2006), from which one of the ‘flood’ graphics used in the Channel 4 programme were drawn, saw their scripts go through a thorough academic peer review process involving five Open University academics with a range of disciplinary backgrounds relevant to the topic.

Continued …

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Comment 105: Confusing the seasons with year on year trends / Comment 106: Confusing the seasons with year on year trends / Section 2.11 / Comment 107: Misrepresentation of David Attenborough documentary]


Page 87 of 176	Final Revision	Last updated: 11 Jun 2007