Complaint to Ofcom Regarding “The Great Global Warming Swindle”

[Comment 100: In the absence of any specific references to either reports, journalists, institutions or indeed to temperature increases, this comment represents an attempt to support the polemical intentions of the programme with an apparently authoritative, but in fact entirely empty statement of opinion.]

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

[Comment 101: Greenland was actually not “much warmer” (according to the ice core borehole record) 1000 years ago (see Dahl-Jensen et al (1998), Science, http://tinyurl.com/2pf7e3); and in any case the sea-level takes many centuries (at least) to adjust fully to changes of temperature. The best estimates from the recent palaeoclimate record (e.g. Eemian sea-level) are that each degree of warming corresponds to a few metres of sea-level rise (eventually), which must involve some melting of the major ice-sheets such as Greenland.

Furthermore, Christy is referring to the so-called “Medieval Warm Period”, which, as discussed in Comment 37, page 29, was largely a regional rather than a global phenomenon; and for Christy to attempt to confuse in the minds of the viewer regional with global phenomena was deeply misleading.

See also page 7 of the Jones/Mann report Climate Over Past Millennia at: http://tinyurl.com/3ck36g, which states:

Despite these extensive research efforts, anecdotal evidence concerning the last millennium based on factually dubious beliefs is still rife. We note three specific examples that are often misrepresented in terms of their relevance to past climate: (1) the freezing of the River Thames in London in past centuries, (2) the cultivation of vines in medieval England, and (3) the settlement of Iceland and southwestern Greenland about 1000 years ago.

Continued …