Complaint to Ofcom Regarding “The Great Global Warming Swindle”

This caution, given the considerable uncertainties in 1990, is also reflected in their conclusion that “The size of the warming [so far] is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models, but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability. Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse gas warming. The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect from observations is not likely for a decade or more.” Bert Bolin (the IPCC Chairman at the time) has noted that “this statement describes very well the state of knowledge in 1990 and research during the fifteen years since then shows that this conclusion was indeed well expressed and largely correct.” (see Professor Bolin’s comments in Appendix G: page 165). Subsequent IPCC reports have progressively strengthened the conclusion that humans are changing the climate, consistent with their conclusions being driven by accumulating evidence, rather than the desire to conform to a pre-existing ideology.]

(In breach of Ofcom 5.7)

[Comment 74: The IPCC First Assessment Report does in fact acknowledge and discuss the role of variability of the Sun, in the Summary for Policy Makers and in the main text (Section 2.3.1, p61-63). Other factors that influence the climate, apart from carbon dioxide and the sun, were also discussed in the Report.

Furthermore, in his statement below, the narrator appears to the viewer to agree with what Nigel Calder has just said: which means that it is not just one interviewee making a clearly inaccurate statement, but much more seriously, an apparent attempt by the film maker to misrepresent the history of the IPCC to the audience, in clear breach of the Ofcom Code relating to impartiality on matters of current policy and in clear breach of the Communications Act’s remit for Channel 4 programmes to be educational.]

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