Richard D North

This article is part of the Nuclear Spin project of Spinwatch.

This article is part of the Climate project of Spinwatch.

Richard D North is an anti environmental journalist and campaigner who works with a range of right wing think tanks including the Social Affairs Unit and the Institute of Economic Affairs. (Not to be confused with the other Richard North who is a right-wing blogger).

North also runs or contributes to a number of anti-environmental websites, which he describes as follows:

http://www.livingissues.com a family of websites including:

http://www.globalwarmingissues.com which interrogates conventional widsom

http://www.thegoodcorporation which looks at Corporate Social Responsibility

http://www.mediaandtrust.com which challenges journalistic and PR standards

http://www.chernobyllegacy.com which challenges nuclear doomsterism

http://www.pressurepolitics.com which interrogates NGOs and campaigners.

http://www.direct-action.info challenges extreme activism.

Views

Climate Sceptic

Andy Rowell of Spinwatch writes:

"On a website that North runs he asks: Is Global Warming really happening? “Almost everyone accepts that the globally averaged world temperature has risen in the past century. But almost everything which flows from that “fact” is disputed” he argues, without mentioning that the majority of the leading climate sceptics who continue to dispute the science are funded by Exxon or linked to right wing think tanks that are industry funded, and ideologically opposed to environmentalists.

North does go on to mention the World Climate Report as “a very good site trawling information which challenges the consensus,” but conveniently forgets to say it is edited by Patrick Michaels. One of the worlds most renowned climate sceptics, Michaels is fossil industry funded and linked to right-wing think tanks, such as the Cato Institute, and the Cooler Heads Coalition, (itself a coalition of right wing think tanks, and coordinated by the Competitive Enterprise Institute).

Elsewhere on the site he says about climate that “we may be watching the beginning of a long-running or pronounced change (or we may not).” This is certainly not the view of the leading climate scientists who argue that rapid change is occurring now.

Secondly North argues that “nor have I ever disputed the value of much of the work corralled by IPCC.” The slight problem with this one is that North’s website does attack the IPCC, which he says “has produced what looks like a consensus that global warming is real, big, bad, mankind’s fault and merits concerted action. But the “consensus” is not as strong as you might suppose ....There is also a good deal of argument about whether the IPCC process is as open-minded as it ought to be. In particular, there is a widespread belief that the summaries of the IPCC process don't capture the uncertainties of the bulk of the work.” If this is not disputing the work of the IPCC I don’t know what is."

Career History

• 2001 - editor, www.livingissues.com
• 2001 - media fellow, Institute of Economic Affairs
• 1990 - 1992 Sunday Times: Environment Columnist
• 1986 - 1990 Independent: Environment Correspondent

Affiliations

• European Science and Environment Forum
• Social Affairs Unit
• Institute of Economic Affairs - Media Fellow

References, Resources and Contact

Contact

Website: www.richarddnorth.com

Publications

Books

• Life On a Modern Planet: A manifesto for progress (Manchester University Press, 95 and St Martin's Press, New York, 95)
• Hereditary Peers: The case as yet unheard (Social Affairs Unit, 1999);
• The Hunt At Bay (Wildlife Network, 1999);
• Risk: The human adventure (Institute of Economic Affairs, 2000);
• Fur and Freedom: A defence of the fur trade, (Institute of Economic Affairs, 2000);
• GMOs at the start of the troubled biological century (2001).

Earlier books

• The Animals Report (Penguin, 82);
• Wild Britain (Century, 83);
• The Real Cost (Chatto and Windus, 84);
• Working the Land (with Charlie Pye-Smith, 85);
• Fools For God (Collins, 87);
• Schools for Tomorrow (Green Books, 87)

Articles

• 'NGO guilt trip' Richard North offers a different approach to the problems of debt and development in Africa LM Magazine issue 119, April 1999