Complaint to Ofcom Regarding “The Great Global Warming Swindle”

ISI WoS

The ISI Web of Science (WoS) is a database of almost 9000 peer-reviewed journals – see: http://scientific.thomson.com/products/wos/. The database covers publications between 1970 and the present day.

All references to “ISI WoS” in the following section mean that the source of the information being cited was this database.

Nigel Lawson, Lord Lawson of Blaby

Lord Lawson is a politician and was Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1983 and 1989. He has no relevant scientific credentials and therefore could not be considered an “expert” in the evaluation of contemporary climate change science. Substantial criticisms of his views on the IPCC and climate change were not aired on the programme: for instance, see: Lawson vs. the IPCC at http://tinyurl.com/2s2xko, and see the Official British Government response to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Select Committee Report, (PDF) at http://tinyurl.com/2tghdb.

Despite his lack of any qualifications as an expert on the subject of contemporary climate change science, or of the IPCC, he was given a great deal of air time in the programme to talk about those topics.

James Shikwati

The Channel 4 web page about the “The Great Global Warming Swindle” at http://tinyurl.com/2qrrvr bills James Shikwati as “a respected Kenyan development expert”; and also states that: “The film features an impressive roll- call of experts”. This, combined with his billing in the programme itself as “Economist and Author” will have given viewers the impression that he is a leading academic expert on development economics.

A search of the MIMAS Web of Knowledge (http://wok.mimas.ac.uk), the biggest UK academic search engine, only found one academic paper by James Shikwati (Shikwati J, Undesirable development aid – Africa can play a new role with independent solutions, Internationale Politik, 61 (4): 6-15 Apr 2006). Furthermore, he does not appear to be attached to any University or academic institution, and does not have a doctorate. Instead he is Director of a lobby group that has been indirectly funded by the fossil fuel industry (see below).

He has had many articles published in non-academic media such as newspapers; has frequently been interviewed in the media; and has participated in many international fora that focus on promotion of trade (see Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/2t9on5 and The New York Times profile of him at http://tinyurl.com/35qu8k). He could therefore be accurately described as a libertarian commentator and lobbyist, but certainly not as a leading expert in economics.

Continued …