Same Old Story, The ABC’s Climate Team

The ABC’s global warming hype isn’t lurid enough, so the national broadcaster’s bosses have turned up the dial to 11. Step forward the ABC’s new “National Climate Team”. Creating this battalion of bedwetters was the brain snap of retiring managing director David Anderson.  Based on the precedent of  Alan Joyce‘s departure from Qantas, it’s my view that he should be docked at least $1 million of his $1.16 million parting salary.

The National Climate Team’s parameters remain under wraps, but random details trickle out. For example, the Team includes weather specialist Tyne Logan. On ABCTV’s 7pm flagship news of August 31 she did a piece about Sydney University medicos broiling volunteers in a heat chamber, cheered on by climate scientists, to estimate what level of global warming would kill them. “It’s been set to 54 degrees Celsius, with 26 per cent humidity — a combination believed to be lethal after six hours,” Ms Logan remarks in the script, which mercifully omits the broadcast’s spooky music. Baking those poor test participants reminded me of the roast chook gondola at Woollies in Moonee Ponds. Owing to pesky ethics guidance, the boffins bring their humans out before rather than after they’re killed. I’ll elaborate on Ms Logan’s account later.

The ABC’s one-eyed climate coverage has prompted controversies and inquiries dating back 15 years. The real excitements were from 2004-17, involving Prime Minister Howard’s pick of stockbroker Maurice Newman to chair the ABC from 2007-12. Newman’s successor was ex-judge Jim Spigelman (2012-17), who also took some interest in the charter’s impartiality requirement. Current chair Kim Williams has also addressed the matter of bias but has yet to show any hint he is prepared to do something about it. Here’s a timeline of the ABC’s green-eyed misreporting and its refusal to change its ways.

2007: The ABC’s top science staffer, Robyn Williams, suggests we are in for a 100-metre sea level rise this century.[1] Insights like this have earned him seven universities’ honorary doctorates and an Australian Academy of Science fellowship.

March 10, 2010: Chair Maurice Newman fronts staffers in a Sydney briefing and blasts their climate “group think” and “collective censorious approach”. They suppress contrary views and abuse the sceptic community as “deniers”, he says, in j’accuse mode. The 250 staffers “rise to their feet to express shock and anger,” according to Renfrey Clarke at the “Green Left” blog. The green lefties call on “journalists and the public to be rid of him”.

December 2012: Newman, speaking as an ex-chair, pesters ABC Complaints over the Science Show’s Robyn Williams likening sceptics to pedophiles and crack smokers. The Complaints people re-assure him the ABC per se does not equate sceptics to child molesters. The spokesperson says: “Unlike the BBC, the ABC acknowledges there are climate scientists who question the core thinking about climate science. The ABC gives them and their views air time.” Lordy! The addled ABC attacks Britain’s even more addled Beeb.

Mid-2013: Chair Jim Spigelman, an ex-NSW Chief Justice, arranges an “ABC science reference panel” to investigate how well the ABC is covering climate and medical science. He remarks, in advance of any findings being released that the ABC’s science crew are “head, shoulders, thorax and abdomen”[2] above commercial rivals. He’s not a climate sceptic, he adds, but ABC journalists in line with the impartiality charter should “ hold scientists and technologists to account for their claims and conduct”. “Balance” apparently involves following the weight of evidence:

We must go beyond PR handouts, or what has been called ‘churnalism’ … What I believe needs most work is to develop our capacity to appropriately challenge scientists, not least those whose work is distributed by press release from organizations with a vested interest in favourable publicity. That includes, these days, universities

2013-14: Quadrant Online gets the scoop that the science panel leader is ABC director and bumbling climate warrior Professor Fiona Stanley AC (so much for independent investigation) along with Media Watch’s former sultan of smug Jonathan Holmes and others. Professor Stanley is lead signatory on a greenies’ “Monster Climate Petition” which begins,

“My great great grandchildren ask me in dreams, what did you do while the planet was plundered? What did you do when the earth was unravelling?”

Pre-inquiry, Stanley opined, wearing her ABC director’s hat, 

“From the age of five when I was an Argonaut, the ABC has been a force for good in my life and work. It has educated, informed, entertained and excited me for over 60 years. It is a fantastic resource for this nation. Unfortunately, many of us have taken the ABC for granted. My hope is that readers will realise how valuable our public broadcaster is and fight to save it from further cuts and harassment.  

“If you only read The Australian, or listen to the views of some politicians, you would think that the ABC is struggling to provide fair coverage of events, is biased in its politics and its science, and is wasting taxpayers’ dollars.

Have you noticed that journalists critical of the ABC have started to call it the ‘taxpayer-funded’ ABC?”

Yes, Fiona, I have noticed.

Stanley tells Radio National that if we don’t hastily reduce global warming then kiddies will sicken. “I’m not a climate change expert but I do trust the incredible scientific evidence,” she says. She’s right about the evidence matching the dictionary definition of “incredible”.

August 2014: Science princeling Robyn Williams brings catastrophist and science historian Naomi Oreskes on to his show to predict that by 2023 our puppies and kittens would be killed by global warming. Year 2023 passes uneventfully for pets, although Natasha, my adored Cav King Charles, passes away from heart problems sadly endemic to the breed. 

2017-19: Pauline Hanson’s One Nation senators try in vain to add “fair and balanced” to the ABC’s statutory impartiality requirement.

2018-19: The alarmist Australian Conservation Foundation commissions Jonathan ‘Everywhere’ Holmes to report confidentially on whether ABCTV’s 7.30 and AM radio slots contain enough climate propaganda. In particular, how successfully does the ABC tie every weather calamity to  global warming?[3] Holmes reports, “7.30’s coverage was inadequate, bearing in mind the program’s role as the ABC’s flagship daily television current affairs program and the crucial importance of the issue for all Australians.” ABC’s AM, Holmes reports, “did better, but its coverage was barely adequate”.

ABC management’s response — outrage at being accused of climate slacking. “The ABC has also been acknowledged for its exhaustive coverage of last summer’s bushfires and the aftermath, including the debate over the contribution of climate change,” it responded. “Debate” about bushfires? When invited to engage in the to and fro of contesting ideas the ABC finds it easier and preferable to lie about them.

November 2019: Melbourne-based Barbara Heggen, an ABC senior producer/presenter, seeks to embed activism in all ABC climate output. With what she imagines to be a “brains trust” of 77 peers, she wants an “ABC-Staff climate crisis advisory group” to “report back to ABC management our ideas and strategies for responding to the climate crisis both internally and externally”.[4] She urges a “solutions journalism approach”, i.e. explicit anti-fossil-fuels propaganda. An obstacle is ABC policy that “editorial decisions are not improperly influenced by political, sectional, commercial or personal interests”.[5] Sadly for Ms Heggen’s brains trust, ABC then-chair Ita Buttrose rules out abrogation of the impartiality charter. Ita says that without any input from herself, management rejected the staff plan. Of hundreds of comments under The Australian’s 2019 scoop, based on leaked ABC emails, about 95 per cent are vitriolic Here is a sample:

 # What climate “crisis” are these fools going on about? There is no “crisis” except in the fertile imaginations of wishful leftists and the gullible ill informed. 

# No more air travel for ABC staff, or guests. Off goes the air-conditioning at Ultimo.

# Once again the ABC collective is going to talk/consult with itself to ram it down the throat of all non-believers or waverers while sucking on the public teat.

# They want to shovel even more climate religion … It will leave scarce room for any other news or current affairs.

# Maybe organise a meeting for those at the ABC who follow the charter. Catering shouldn’t be a problem.

June 2023: Managing Director David Anderson unveils his belt-tightening five-year plan to 2028, along with the inexplicable sacking of Canberra political editor Andrew Probyn. Concurrently surrendering to Ms Heggen’s ginger group, Anderson says, “ABC will also establish a dedicated Climate, Environment and Energy reporting team.” (Apropos of Anderson’s belt-tightening, all ABC Enterprise Agreement staffers will queue for their 3 per cent pay raise next month, following 4 per cent last year and an earlier 4 percent in 2022. Nice honey pot courtesy of  taxpayers.)

September 2024: The National Climate Team is up and running.

So who else besides weather lady Tyne Logan is on the Team? Late last year the ABC was recruiting a Climate Lead for its Team (Band 7-8 psay scale, $117-138,000. The person is supposed to break climate stories across all platforms, “having an impact on the national agenda”, code for helping Climate Minister Chris Bowen destroy the country with wind turbines, solar farms and the inevitable blackouts. “We would love to see your work,” invites the ABC position vacant notice.

I hastened to apply, attaching this sample piece as testament to my climate credentials and neuroses, but the vacancy had expired. My chance of success was slim anyway, given my “ability to source and maintain contacts” involves sceptics like 2022 Physics Nobelist John Clausen and renowned atmospherics scientist Judith Curry, rather than local eminences such as bug-hunting Distinguished Professor Leslie Hughes, Tim “Ghost Cities” Flannery and the weepy Dr Joelle Gergis –the top trio from the $8 million a year Climate Council.

I can’t discover whether a recent recruit to the ABC by the name of David Marr is on the Climsate Team. He must have aspirations, given his Late Night Live interview on August 22 with an equally under-informed Cameron Diver, vice-president of green lobby Island Conservation. It went like this (at 3 minutes): 

David Marr: Has anyone done a count of how many islands are in immediate danger simply from the melting ice caps[6] and rising of the ocean? 

Cameron Diver: Not that I am aware of, it might have been done, we can say in areas like Pacific, Caribbean and Indian ocean many of the islands indeed are in danger of various negative effects linked to climate change – more extreme weather, coral bleaching…

If Marr gets to be a probationary cadet on the Climate Team, they’ll introduce him to the internet. By googling, he could discover that islands are actually growing, contrary to the wails at last month’s Pacific Islands Forum. Even Russ Skelton at RMIT-ABC Fact Check certifies that Tuvalu is not drowning but waving in celebration of its increased land area. Furthermore

# Of 104 coral reef islands on 16 Micronesian atolls, there’s been a net gain in area in the past 80 years

# The New York Times on June 27 (paywalled) reports  “A Surprising Climate Find – As the planet warms, atoll nations like the Maldives seemed doomed to shrink. Scientists have begun to tell a surprising new story.”

It might be “surprising” to the “climate scientists” but sceptics have been citing islands’ growth for decades. The NYT quotes one study of 30 atolls with 709 islands across the Pacific and Indian Oceans.  Some 89 per cent of islands were either stable or increasing and only 11 percent contracted. And here’s the clincher: Sea Level Alarmism Unravels As Earth’s Coastlines Are Observed Expanding Since 1984. Hey, haven’t those deadly CO2 emissions increased since 1984?

The Team’s output since inception has been lacklustre. As one climate-friendly ABC follower with the handle, “Canberrabybike” queried in May

Why have you deliberately made it hard to find your climate team’s stories on your site? Will your newsrooms have to be flooded before you actually prioritise the work of your climate team, [rather than] bury their work under Bluey and other entertainment dross? We’re running out of time, and you are running out of credibility.

A confirmed ABC Climate Team member is Jo Lauder, whom the ABC extols for her tainted prize last year from the Covering Climate Now (CCN) global troupe of climate-media manipulators. CCN’s members, including news syndicating giants Reuters, Bloomberg and AFP, literally sign a pledge to hype climate catastrophism and kill off whatever contrary science news might arouse doubts among readers.

Jo Lauder scored the CCN global prize for her podcast titled “Who’s Gonna Save Us?” Save us from the ABC, more like it. Another Climate Teamster is “climate graphics guy TM” Alex Lim – amateur ice hockey player and former blonde — who tweeted

Personal news: I’ve joined the ABC’s new Climate team! Graphics are key to getting over some big challenges in climate reporting: big numbers, repetitiveness, misinfo, doom & gloom, etc. How does Australia adapt to a changing, warming world? Let’s take a look. I’m so excited 🙂

Lim brings climate gravitas honed on “reporting, data and design”, presumably for stories like “The mullet is alive and well in AFL.”

Editor of the Climate and Regional Team is 20-year ABC veteran Edwina Farley (“she/her”), with her BA (Journalism) from RMIT. Team reporters like Canberra’s Jess Davis are doing their best to smother ABC audiences in doomster mush. Here are some samples:

August 29: “Heatwave brings Australia’s winter weather to an abrupt end as climate change up-ends the seasons…Despite [Melbourne University climate scientist] Dr King describing this winter heatwave as “remarkable” he said it’s not surprising given how much the burning of fossil fuels has caused the planet to warm.” [But one finds Dr King elsewhere mentioning that the heat-causes include oceanic El Niño, high sun activity and reduced air pollution, none blameable on fossil fuels. BOM data on 5-day heatwaves since the 19^th century show no increase in severity in any capital, and a significant lowering in Perth, and Hobart, along with Darwin and Alice Springs].

May 8: “Global temperature heat streak continues with April officially the hottest on record.” [The “record” goes back all of 170 years[7], as if the Medieval Warming, the Roman Warming, the Minoan Warming and the Eemian warming – 8degC hotter than now – are not worth a mention].

Don’t imagine the ABC’s climate boosterism comes only from the Climate Team. Try March’s inspirational Australian Story:

“The Australian teen taking on the government over climate – Anjali Sharma is not your average climate activist – instead of chaining herself to machinery or unfolding banners on landmarks, the 19-year-old is taking her fight for a cleaner future direct to the lawmakers in federal parliament… and now lobbying politicians for legislative change to ultimately end fossil fuel production in Australia.” 

It’s taxpayer funded ABC climate-heroine worship.

I promised up-front to get back to that 7pm News account of human being cooked at Sydney University. The Climate Team’s weather reporter, Tyne Logan, insists heat is “one of our deadliest natural hazards” and Sydney University’s boffins are testing “what conditions are survivable for humans as the planet warms.” From the transcript:

Dr Jem Cheng: “And so we are the first to actually put people in these environments, to actually see physiologically what is happening to their core temperature or to their heart rate … Yeah it is cooking in there for sure, you can see they are starting to feel it. They don’t look all too happy.”

Logan: This summer in just one city more than 1300 died during the Hajj.

Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, ANU Climate Scientist: The warmer it gets globally, we see much higher increase in these non-survivable days.

Thirty-year-old Logan herself tested the climate oven and, thankfully, emerged alive from the chamber’s sweat lakes in her fetching, albeit damp, white T-shirt and black shorts:

“It was incredibly hot [drinks from water bottle], and honestly it is quite frightening to think what it would be like to experience that outside of a controlled setting.

Prof Ollie Jay, Sydney University Heat and Heart Research Centre: We don’t want to be sleepwalking into a scenario where we think that these future conditions are going to be survivable when in fact they are not going to be…

It’s what Ms Logan doesn’t include that matters. Australia’s worst heatwave (48.6degC across two days) was in Bourke in January 1896, somewhat before we cranked up coal-fired power and, as of now, laid on 21 million cars and trucks.

The big climate killer is not heat but cold, which carries off between 9 and 17 times more people – especially the aged — via respiratory and heart problems. Lancet analyzed more than 74 million deaths in 13 countries between 1985 and 2012. Of those, 5.4 million deaths were related to cold, and only 311,000 to heat. Even in Australia, cold was 14 times deadlier than heat. Ditto in hot countries such as India.

Put simply, while deaths from hot weather increase, the decrease in deaths from cold weather is even faster. So, on balance, warming saves lives.

I imagine David Anderson’s new ABC Verify outfit will be fact-checking and calling out all the National Climate Team’s claims and breaches of statutory impartiality. Another safeguard is ABC’s membership of the global Trusted News Initiative, which can catch misstatements on the fly and instantly warn the world’s media to shut them down in order to minimise harm and damage to audiences. Thank goodness for such safeguards.

Tony Thomas’s latest book from Connor Court is Anthem of the Unwoke – Yep! The other lot’s gone bonkers. $34.95 from Connor Court here

[1] Some direct links from early 2000s have expired.

[2] Unfortunately some Quadrant links are now paywalled.

[3] From Holmes’ report: “Remarkably, a major three-part series on the drought by Chris Gillett, aired in July 2018, did not mention climate change or raise any question about whether it is responsible for longer or more severe droughts in Australia.” [In the real world, prominent climate scientist Andy Pitman of UNSW has affirmed that global warming doesn’t worsen droughts].

[4] IPCC science reports don’t refer to any climate “crisis”, whatever might be said in summaries for which national politicians take responsibility.

[5] Editorial guidelines also say the ABC should “present a diversity of perspectives so that, over time, no significant strand of thought or belief within the community is knowingly excluded or disproportionately represented”.

[6] Sorry David Marr but Arctic sea ice has also shown a stable trend for the past 16 or so years. On Antarctic sea from 1979 through 2023, NOAA says it’s premature to attribute any climate impact.

[7] Global weather coverage before 1904 was under 50% and sometimes down to an eighth of the surface.