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Complaint to Ofcom Regarding “The Great Global Warming Swindle”

2. Complete Transcript and Rebuttal

The narrative, both in the above statement and in the statements which follow, focuses only on whether or not diseases are likely to move northwards as a result of climate change; and ignores the fact that many diseases are likely to become much more widespread as a result of climate change without necessarily moving northwards – for example, cholera (see IPCC: http://tinyurl.com/36nrbm). Thus the misleading and quite inaccurate impression was given to the viewer that climate change is unlikely to have much impact on human health, whereas in fact it is likely to have a very considerable impact on health. It is difficult to believe that the film maker was simply ignorant about this subject; and it would thus appear that he set out to mislead the audience in this respect as well.]

(In breach of the 2003 Communications Act Section 265, Ofcom 5.7, 7.2, 7.3, 7.6, 7.9)

[Comment 110: Reiter’s primary area of expertise is the mosquitoes that carry diseases other than malaria, such as those that carry the West Nile Fever virus: not malaria, nor malaria-carrying mosquitoes. For the narrator to say that he is “one of the world’s leading experts” on these topics is misleading. See also Appendix C.18, page 142.]

(In breach of the 2003 Communications Act Section 265, Ofcom 5.7, 5.8)

[Prof Paul Reiter]

Mosquitoes are not specifically tropical. Most people will realise that in temperate regions there are mosquitoes – in fact, mosquitoes are extremely abundant in the Arctic. The most devastating epidemic of Malaria was in the Soviet Union in the 1920s: there were something like 13 million cases a year, and something like 600,000 deaths – a tremendous catastrophe that reached up to the Arctic Circle. Archangel had 30,000 cases and about 10,000 deaths. So it’s not a tropical disease; yet these people, in the global warming fraternity invent the idea that malaria will move northwards.

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Comment 110: Overstating of Reiter’s credentials]


Page 91 of 176	Final Revision	Last updated: 11 Jun 2007