Complaint to Ofcom Regarding “The Great Global Warming Swindle”

And continues:

Iceland was settled mainly from Norway and the northern British Isles beginning ~A.D. 871. The further migration to SW Greenland approximately one century later, by a small group of Icelanders, was the result primarily of a political and economic need to leave Iceland [Ogilvie and Jónsson, 2001]. Climate was not a factor in their decision despite claims otherwise that still appear in the literature [Soon and Baliunas, 2003; Soon et al, 2003]. The SW Greenland settlements survived for many centuries, but in the mid-14th century the more marginal and more northerly located Western Settlement was abandoned. There were a number of reasons for this, including culture and economic factors. However, it seems likely that climate did play a part in the abandonment. The focus of their economy on animal husbandry denied them the advantages of hunting marine and other mammals that ensured the survival of their Inuit neighbors. A series of unusually late springs and cold summers, for example, may have helped to make a marginal situation untenable [Barlow et al, 1997]. The more southerly Eastern Settlement survived to around the mid-15th century [Buckland et al, 1996].

With regard to the references in the above text to papers by Soon, see the entry on Dr Willie Soon on page 138.

For a respected scientist to recycle long discredited myths in a programme billed as a “science documentary” is highly irresponsible and is a clear breach of the Ofcom regulations.]

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

[Comment 102: Stott is referring to the period known as the “Holocene Maximum”, when, as discussed in Comment 39, page 32, best estimates suggest that global average temperatures were no warmer than now, although there are considerable uncertainties. As such, while in fact very little, if anything, is known about the permafrost melting that took place at that time, it might be reasonable to suggest that the permafrost could have undergone a thawing event similar to that seen today – although almost certainly not as great as is likely to occur during the 21st century, when, according to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (http://tinyurl.com/ysxugh), global average temperatures are likely to rise by a “best guess” of 3°C.

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