Unsettling Science

Corrupt Elites Discredit Science

By Guest Column Dr. Benny Peiser (Bio and Archives)  Tuesday, June 12, 2012 | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us

When scientific data becomes putty in the hands of unscrupulous researchers seeking not enlightenment but personal or political advancement, its entire foundation and rationale is undermined. And that too often is where we find ourselves today.—Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest, 10 June 2012

Olive groves in Oxfordshire? Bill Giles, the BBC’s weatherman, thinks so. Despite some particularly vicious nights of frost last winter, he is a firm believer in the idea of global warming. So much so that he is planning to plant olive trees in his own south Oxfordshire garden. In 20 years or so, he reckons, with the typical summer climate moving north at a rate of 10 kilometres a year, Dundee will be as balmy as Berkshire. France, he says, will be “a desert”. Hard luck on the Dordogners.—Anna Pavord, The Independent 23 August 1996

Bill Giles, the nation’s favourite weatherman was in no doubt. Britain was burning up. Within 20 years, Dundee would soon be as balmy as Berkshire. France would be virtually uninhabitable, as the Dordogne turned into a desert. So convinced was Bill by the imminent threat of global warming that he was ripping up his English country garden in Oxfordshire and planting olive trees instead. That was back in 1996. To be fair to Bill, he wasn’t the only one suckered by the great global warming scam, although as a qualified meteorologist he should have known better. —Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail, 12 June 2012

The Church of England has been forced to drop plans for six giant wind turbines on land it owns in north Devon after an angry revolt by parishioners. Protesters claim that the plans were designed to profit from the government’s generous subsidies for “green” electricity at the cost of some of the most beautiful landscapes in the country. Opponents were celebrating yesterday. Richard Hopton said he hoped this would be the end of plans by the Church to try anything similar elsewhere. “This is a great moment, it’s a David and Goliath victory. The Church is an enormous institution and a very large landowner. This is a good day for Devon but it’s a great day for the rest of the country too. Hopefully we have pulled a wedge out from under the bottom of the door.”—Simon de Bruxelles, The Times, 12 June 2012[Registration Required]