The Great Global Warming Swindle

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Contributors to the programme

The film includes appearances from the following individuals:

• Syun-Ichi Akasofu – Professor and Director, International Arctic Research Center
• Tim Ball – Head of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project
• Nigel Calder – Former Editor, New Scientist from 1962 to 1966
• John Christy – Professor, Department of Atmospheric Science, University of Alabama in Huntsville and a Lead Author of Chapter 2 of the IPCC Third Assessment Report (Credited in the film as 'a Lead Author, IPCC')
• Ian Clark – Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa
• Piers Corbyn – Weather Forecaster, Weather Action
• Paul Driessen – Author: Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death
• Eigil Friis-Christensen – Director, Danish National Space Center and Adjunct Professor, University of Copenhagen (who has since criticised the programme for fabricating data and not fully explaining his position on 20th century global warming).
• Nigel Lawson – Former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Richard Lindzen – Professor, Department of Meteorology, M.I.T.
• Patrick Michaels – Research Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia
• Patrick Moore – Co-founder, Greenpeace and now an anti-environmentalist. Runs Greenspirit Strategies
• Paul Reiter – Professor, Department of Medical Entomology, Pasteur Institute, Paris
• Nir Shaviv – Professor, Institute of Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• James Shikwati – Economist, Author, and CEO of The African Executive
• Fred Singer – Professor Emeritus, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Heartland Institute

Durkin's response to his critics

On 17 March 2007, The Daily Telegraph published a response by Durkin, 'The global-warmers were bound to attack, but why are they so feeble?' In it, he rejected any criticism of the close correlation between solar variation and temperature change, saying that 'No one any longer seriously disputes the link between solar activity and temperature in earth's climate history'. He accepted that the time axis of one graph was incorrectly labelled when the programme was first transmitted, but said that this does not change his conclusions. He concluded by saying that the 'global warming alarm...is wrong, wrong, wrong'.

Commenting at a Cannes film festival press conference on 17 April 2007, Durkin noted: 'My name is absolute mud on the Internet; it's really vicious', adding 'There is no good scientific basis for it but the theory continues to hold sway because so many people have built their careers and reputations on it'.

The Armand Leroi correspondence

The Times reported that Durkin had seriously fallen out with a scientist who had been considering working with him. Armand Leroi, a geneticist, was concerned that Durkin had used data about a correlation between solar activity and global temperatures which had subsequently been found to be flawed. Leroi sent Durkin an e-mail in which he said that he thought the programme 'made some good points (the politics of the IPCC) and some bad points (anthropogenic global warming is a conspiracy to keep Africa underdeveloped)' but said what had most interested him was some of the scientific claims about solar activity and global temperature; he said he looked for citations of the 1991 Friis-Christensen scientific paper used in the programme.

While Leroi acknowledged 'I am no climate scientist' he said that after reviewing criticisms of the paper, he had become convinced that: 'To put this bluntly: the data that you showed in your programme were wrong – and may have been deliberately faked... it does show what abundant experience has already taught me–that, left to their own devices, TV producers simply cannot be trusted to tell the truth'.

Leroi copied the e-mail to other parties including The Guardian journalist and Bad Science columnist Ben Goldacre and science writer and mathematician Simon Singh. Durkin replied to all with the single sentence: 'You’re a big daft cock'. Singh then sent an email to Durkin that said: 'I have not paid the same attention to your programme as Armand has done, but from what I did see it is an irresponsible piece of film-making. If you can send me a copy of the programme then I will examine it in more detail and give you a more considered response...it would be great if you could engage in the debate rather just resorting to one line replies'.

Durkin responded: 'The IPCC's own figures show the hottest year in the past ten was 1998, and the temp has been flat-lining now for five years. If it's greenhouse gas causing the warming the rate of warming should be higher in the troposphere than on the surface. The opposite is the case. The ice core data shows that temperature change causes the level of atmospheric CO2 to change — not the other way round. Why have we not heard this in the hours and hours of shit programming on global warming shoved down our throats by the BBC?', and concluded with, 'Never mind a bit of irresponsible film-making. Go and fuck yourself'. Durkin reportedly 'apologised for his langauge. 'As far as I was concerned these were private e-mails. They arrived when I was quite tired having just finished the programme in time for transmission,' he said.

'Needless, to say, I regret the use of intemperate language. It is so unlike me. I am very eager to have all the science properly debated with scientists qualified in the right areas and have asked Channel 4 if they will stage a live debate on this subject.'

Resources

• David Adam, Temperature rises 'not caused by Sun' The Guardian 5 July 2007.
• ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies De-bunking the Debunkers 10 July 2007
• Richard Black, 'Climate documentary "broke rules"'. BBC News, 21 July 2008
• Steve Connor The real global warming swindle The Independent, 14 March 2007.
• Steve Connor C4 accused of falsifying data in documentary on climate change The Independent, Tuesday, 8 May 2007
• Climate of denial, website set up by Bob Ward.
• Janet Daley Green lobby must not stifle the debate Daily Telegraph 12 March 2007.
• Ben Goldacre and David Adam Climate scientist 'duped to deny global warming' The Guardian 11 March 2007.
• Mark Henderson C4’s debate on global warming boils over The Times 15 March 2007.
• John Houghton The Great Global Warming SwindleProgramme directed by Martin Durkin, on Channel 4 on Thursday 8 March 2007, John Ray Initiative.
• Jones D , Watkins A, Braganza K, Coughlan M "The Great Global Warming Swindle": a critique Bulletin of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Vol. 20, 2007
• Dominic Lawson Here is another inconvenient truth (but this one will infuriate the Green lobby) The Independent 2 March 2007.
• Geoffrey Lean Global warming: An inconvenient truth or hot air? The Independent 4 March 2007.
• Geoffrey Lean Climate change: An inconvenient truth... for C4 The Independent 12 March 2007, retrieved from the Internet Archive of 13 March 2007.
• Robin McKie, Why Channel 4 has got it wrong over climate change The Guardian 4 March 2007
• MediaLens, Pure Propaganda - The Great Global Warming Swindle, MediaLens, 13 March 2007.
• George Monbiot Don't be fooled by Bush's defection: his cures are another form of denial The Guardian 30 January 2007.
• George Monbiot Don't let truth stand in the way of a red-hot debunking of climate change The Guardian 13 March 2007
• George Monbiot There is climate change censorship — and it's the deniers who dish it out Guardian 10 April 2007
• Ofcom Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin 114 21|07|08.
• Ofcom Summary of adjudication Complaints by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Sir David King and Carl Wunsch The Great Global Warming Swindle, Channel 4, 8 March 2007 read out and displayed on screen at 9pm British Summer Time (BST), on Channel 4 television, on August 04, 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill 'Apocalypse my arse' Spiked, 9 March 2007
• Claire Parker Scientific Response to "The Great Global Warming Swindle" University of Cambridge Programme for Industry, retrieved from the Internet Archive of 3 July 2007.
• Dave Rado A reluctant whistle-blower BBC News, 21 July 2008.
• Nathan Rive, Dr Brian Jackson, Dave Rado et al Complaint to Ofcom Regarding “The Great Global Warming Swindle” Ofcom Swindle complaint Website, Last updated: 11/06/2007.
• Royal Society 'The Royal Society's response to the documentary "The Great Global Warming Swindle"' 11 March 2007.
• Alan Thorpe 'Fake fights are not helping climate science', New Scientist 17 March 2007, page = 24
• Bob Ward ' The Great Global Warming Swindle: open letter to Martin Durkin from 37 signatories' Climate of denial, April 2007
• Carl Wunsch Partial Response to the London Channel 4 Film "The Great Global Warming Swindle" 11 March 2007
• Carl Wunsch My words were twisted in global warming documentary: expert Lateline ABCnet.au 12/07/2007
• Carl Wunsch 'Further comments on The Great Global Warming Swindle' 20 July 2007.

See Also

• Against Nature: An earlier controversial Channel 4 programme made by Martin Durkin which was critical of the environmental movement.