Complaint to Ofcom Regarding “The Great Global Warming Swindle”

[Comment 111: It is not true that the most devastating epidemic of malaria was in the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Most serious malaria (well in excess of a million deaths every year, currently), occurs in tropical and sub-tropical regions, such as in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Reiter has acknowledged his error in his email to Professor Curtis at http://tinyurl.com/2rklxc.

In addition, the narrative continues to imply, wrongly, in this statement by Reiter, that wherever there are mosquitoes, there will also be malaria (untrue); that the IPCC is suggesting that mosquitoes are specifically tropical (it is not); and that the IPCC is suggesting that malaria is likely to move northwards (it is not); all in an apparent attempt to discredit the IPCC in the eyes of the viewer, based on clear misrepresentations of the facts. For more detail on this, see Comment 109, page 89.]

(In breach of Ofcom 5.7)

[Comment 112: The IPCC is selectively quoted here. The full sentence where the quotation appears (Climate Change 1995: Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation of Climate Change, p571) reads:

Although anopheline mosquito species that transmit malaria do not usually survive where the mean temperature drops below 16-18°C, some higher-latitude species are able to hibernate in sheltered sites. [Emphasis added.]

Hence, the IPCC statement, taken in context, is consistent with the statements of Reiter. By pretending that it is not, and by quoting only the middle half of the sentence in order to make it appear to state the opposite of what it really is stating, the film maker apparently set out quite intentionally to mislead the audience.

Furthermore, the risk of malaria depends not only on the vector (the anopheline mosquito) but also the malaria parasite. The programme refers only to the effects of climate on the vector. The 1996 IPCC report went on to say:

Sporogonic development (i.e., the extrinsic incubation phase of the plasmodium within the mosquito) ceases below around 18°C for Plasmodium falciparum, and below 14°C for P. vivax. Above those temperatures, a small increase in average temperature accelerates the parasite’s extrinsic incubation (Miller and Warrell, 1990).

Continued …