Panorama fails to tell the truth about the climate emergency

COP31 has begun in Turkey. BBC’s Panorama focused on the increase in extreme weather in this country, featuring more drought, wildfires, winter rainfall, storms and floods. It’s worth watching, but fell short of what people calling for a National Emergency Briefing have been demanding.

Much time was dedicated to scientists and emergency services setting out how our climate has changed since the 1970s, using the Climate Stripes to illustrate this, the need for investment to make school buildings more resilient and the increased demands on the NHS during the heatwave. The importance of reducing our carbon emissions to achieve Net Zero by 2050 was emphasised, but time was also given to Tory and ReformUK politicians arguing against it.

Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, was interviewed and made it clear that her top priority was reducing people’s bills, rather than tackling the climate crisis. But it is not true that drilling for more oil and gas in the North Sea will bring down our bills, as it will be sold in international markets. We can’t afford the extra emissions that Jackdaw and Rosebank will create.

So what was missing from the programme?

No one argued to end our addiction to fossil fuels according to the short time scale scientists are recommending.

Threats to our food supplies were only briefly mentioned.

The increase in subsidence, damage to roads, rail and other infrastructure were not mentioned.

Spread of diseases like blue tongue across UK livestock were ignored.

Globally, Panorama failed to examine the problems of mass displacement and increased geopolitical tensions, like disputes over water supplies.

Of greatest concern was that climate feedbacks and devastating climate tipping points were completely ignored. These include the possibility of

*the collapse of Greenland and West Antarctic Ice Sheets leading to several metres of sea-level rise,

*the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which would dramatically cool Western Europe, making it impossible to grow crops, disrupt monsoons affecting billions of people, and accelerate southern ice sheet loss,

* the collapse of the Amazon Rainforest, estimated by scientists to occur when roughly 20% to 28% of the forest is cleared or combined with unmitigated global warming—beyond which large portions could irreversibly transition into a degraded savanna or open-canopy ecosystem. The Amazon generates a massive portion of its own rainfall via evapotranspiration (“flying rivers”). As trees disappear, moisture declines, prolonging dry seasons and making remaining forests more vulnerable to fire

.* Permafrost thaw in northern countries could release massive quantities of stored carbon dioxide and methane, triggering a dangerous self-reinforcing warming feedback loop.

*Coral Reef ecosystems face a high risk of collapse. Over 500 million people worldwide depend on reefs for food security, fishing, tourism, and natural shoreline protection from storms and erosion.

The BBC censors the news that around 1 billion people will be killed by 2C of global heating, and 4 billion people could be killed by 3C of heating. AMOC collapse will render most of the UK uninhabitable, but this was not mentioned.

Jon Fuller, Founder of Climate Genocide Act Now, is attempting to take the BBC to a Judicial Review for failing to tell the truth about the climate emergency. He wrote on Facebook: “The science is now clear—global heating has accelerated, and the ‘energy imbalance’ data strongly indicates that we will eventually reach 8C of global heating. We face a 6th mass extinction of wildlife and the death of billions of people.

If the public were to be told the full horrifying facts, the people would demand emergency action and lifestyle changes to attempt to save our young.”

Channel 4’s latest climate report is better than anything I’ve heard on the BBC lately, but still fails to mention the most dangerous aspects of the climate emergency.

National Emergency Briefing will be screened soon in Walkley Community Centre (22nd Nov), Regather (Sharrow 25th Nov), Tapton Hall (26th Nov) and the city centre Quaker Meeting House (27th Nov). Full details and tickets here.

Stop Rosebank will be demonstrating on Nov 21st, meeting at Weston Park at 13.00 and marching to City Hall via the University and Devonshire Green. All welcome.