IPCC Reports – Press Spins

So the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) has finally published the first part of its fifth assessment report, and the findings are unequivocal: warming of the climate is real, it is almost certain that mankind is responsible, it is unlikely that temperature rises will be less than 2 degrees Celsius by the year 2100, and that means rising sea levels, weather events and the rest.

Now, some might view the conclusions, and that many commercial organisations are feeding the findings into their risk management strategies for the coming years, and conclude that the scientific approach has convinced even those who previously doubted that warming was real. But they would be wrong, as the sceptics, even though they cannot yet fault the findings, are spinning and moaning as usual.

One of Anthony Watts’ pals has whined “I am watching the IPCC farce right now, North Korea would be proud of this type of stitch up” (nothing to contribute, then). Andrew Montford, aka Bishop Hill, dismissed all journalists present as “environmentalists” except for David Rose of the Mail On Sunday, who will be spinning the findings at the weekend. And the press has more.

The Daily Mail, as befits the excellent value extracted by Nigel Lawson from his lunch with the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, tells readers “Is this the evidence all those green taxes are cash down the drain? The world's hardly got any hotter in the past 15 years!”, and that’s before any of the hacks or pundits bothered to read a word. So the headline had already been written (as usual).

The Maily Telegraph makes the pretence of straight reporting for once, but blots its already inky copybook by accompanying this with an editorial that starts by damning what it calls the “zealots” on both sides of the argument, while making sure not to even mildly scold their own zealot, James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole, whose latest rant did not even wait for the IPCC to publish.

And, as the man said, there’s more: “Climate change campaigners have not been helped by the fact that their advocates include some of the bossiest and most irritating people in politics. When told by the likes of Chris Huhne, Caroline Lucas or Ed Miliband that they must pay sky-high energy bills to plaster the country in ineffective wind turbines, it is no wonder that the public are resentful”.

So that’s the usual stance by the back door, then. There certainly won’t be any reining in of the likes of Christopher Booker, and his “nobody understands except myself” nonsense. David Rose will be along on Sunday to pretend that he was told whatever he’s going to make up in the meantime at the IPCC press conference. And all other true believers that it isn’t happening will carry on as before.

Meanwhile, the world moves on, and all the moaning sceptics are out of time.