Andrew Bolt: ABC makes some omissions on emissions
The ABC can be very selective when it comes to which climate facts suit its narrative, and this week it committed its own crimes against journalism in trying to nail some sceptics, writes Andrew Bolt.
Andrew Bolt
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The ABC, the national broadcaster, has been hijacked by global warming extremists. Take its Media Watch program, which is supposed to denounce crimes against journalism, yet on Monday committed some itself in trying to nail some sceptics.
Media Watch host Paul Barry was cross that I and fellow Sky News hosts had quoted Professor Andy Pitman, the warmist head of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.
As Barry fumed: “Professor Pitman recently said something they loved.”
He replayed it — some of what Pitman had been recorded telling a meeting of warmists at Sydney University.
“This may not be what you expect to hear but as far as the climate scientists know, there is no link between climate change and drought …
“There is no reason a priori why climate change should make the landscape more arid.”
That contradicts what just about every warming alarmist has been screaming about this drought. How embarrassing.
But after I’d first quoted Pitman, he apparently got embarrassed himself. Unknown to me, his centre issued a tweet that Barry brandished triumphantly on Monday.
Barry said this “clarification” said Pitman had “left out a crucial word”: that “there is no direct link between climate change and drought”.
Pitman then told Barry: “Do hotter temperatures lead directly to higher evaporation and a higher risk of drought? No.
“But does global warming lead to changes in rainfall patterns that can lead to drought? Yes. This indirect link is clear … In some regions, this increases the risk of drought, in other regions it decreases the risk.”
Frankly, it seems to me Pitman is covering his backside, with Barry’s help.
See, Pitman in his Sydney meeting went on to say more damning stuff that I’d quoted but which Barry on Monday inexplicably didn’t: “If you look at the Bureau of Meteorology data over the whole of the last 100 years there’s no trend in data. There is no drying trend …
“That’s an expression on how variable Australian rainfall climate is … So the fundamental problem we have is that we don’t understand what causes droughts.”
That’s what Barry omitted, allowing him to claim Pitman did believe drought was caused by man-made warming, after all — even though Pitman had privately denied it and admitted “we don’t understand what causes droughts”.
Seems to me the ABC is running a protection racket for global warmists.