Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for September 6, 2007

Martin Durkin Convinces BBC Not to ‘Save the Planet’

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The BBC has scrapped plans for Planet Relief, a TV special on climate change.

The Planet Relief special was scheduled for broadcast in January 2008 but after Newsnight editor Peter Barron attended the Edinburgh Festival last month there has been “intense internal debates about impartiality with senior news editors expressed misgivings that Planet Relief was too campaigning in nature and would have left the Corporation open to the charge of bias.” [see BBC Switches Off Climate Special]

“It is absolutely not the BBC’s job to save the planet,” warned Newsnight editor Peter Barron at the Edinburgh Festival last month.

According to Martin Durkin, director of The Great Global Warming Swindle,

“The BBC U-turn followed a flaming row at the Edinburgh International TV Festival where I was invited to speak and where I publicly denounced Horrocks (head of current affairs) and other BBC’s executives present in the most colourful terms. The press were there in numbers and ran the story the next day, and now Horrocks et al have abandoned their ghastly Planet Relief campaign. It just shows, it’s worth causing a fuss and being loud. I’m also speaking at the World Congress of Science Producers in New York in November. I’ll try to make as much trouble again.”

Whaling in the North – Part 3 from Ann Novek

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In the beginning of the Northern hemisphere spring , I asked if

1) Iceland would export Fin whales to Japan
2) Norway would fill its whaling quota

Now we know the answers to these questions.

Iceland will not renew its permits for commercial whaling due to lack of an export market to Japan .

And what about Norway?

According to Reuters:

“Norwegian whalers caught just over half their quota of 1,052 minke whales in 2007, a small rise from last year, but hunters and their opponents dispute whether regulations or dwindling demand cut back the catch”

Rune Frövik from the High North Alliance stated that whalers could have killed about 200 more minke whales if the Government haven’t imposed restrictions on whaling. ( Restrictions to whale in coastal areas).

According to Greenpeace Norway, few whales were hunted due to a lack of demand from Norwegians.

“Environmental group Greenpeace, which condemns whaling, said declining demand explained why fewer whales had been caught than the quota set by the Norwegian government allowed.

“Whalers have been stopped by economic interest because there is no market for whale meat in Norway or elsewhere. Even if they could catch more … they chose not to,” said Truls Gulowsen, manager of Greenpeace Norway”

But Rune has said that despite the regulations, 2007 had still proved to be a better season than 2006 for the whalers.

“Prices have increased, more volume has been caught. Weather conditions have been good compared to 2006.”

[from Ann Novek, Sweden]

CO2 Needs to Rise with Temperature for Chinese Food Security

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According to a new paper entitled Climate change and critical thresholds in China’s food security ** if global temperatures continue to rise it would appear imperative that CO2 concentration also continue to rise. Only if CO2 concentrations rise with temperature will China be able to adequately feed its growing population.

Read more here: http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/articles/V10/N36/B1.jsp

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** Climate change and critical thresholds in China’s food security by Xiong, W., Lin, E., Ju, H. and Xu, Y. (2007) In Climatic Change 81: 205-221.