Social media outrage at Seven Sharp climate science denial

Saturday, 5 April 2014, 3:28 pm
Press Release: Generation Zero

Social media outrage at Seven Sharp climate science denial

Seven Sharp presenter Mike Hosking’s comments rubbishing the science of climate change have caused a flood of outrage on social media, attracting criticism from over 250 commenters on the show’s Facebook page.

In Tuesday’s episode of the show, Mr Hosking made misleading comments about the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - the world’s leading authority on the science of climate change - and went on to say:

“That’s of course, if you believe them, which as it turns out I don’t. I mean if Metservice struggles with the accuracy of a 5-day forecast I’m thinking a long range prediction that takes in 86 years might be a bit dodgy.”

A spokesperson for youth-led organisation Generation Zero, Jimmy Green, said:

“It’s totally inappropriate for our broadcasters to make wild, baseless and inaccurate claims about a topic of such importance on prime-time TV.”

“What Mike apparently doesn’t know is that, believe it or not, short term weather forecasting and climate change science are two totally different things.”

A report released last month by the American Association for the Advancement of Science stated that the level of scientific agreement that human activities are causing climate change is similar to the consensus that smoking is linked to lung cancer.

This week a UK parliamentary report has criticised the BBC for misleading the public about climate change and creating a “false balance” by allowing unqualified climate sceptics too much air time and giving opinion the same weight as fact.

Mr Green: “Seven Sharp’s producers should certainly not have given Mike free reign to spout his uninformed opinion without giving someone who is actually qualified the opportunity to set him straight. That is poor broadcasting and it does the public a huge disservice.”

Mr Green says Generation Zero intends to lodge a formal complaint with the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

ENDS

© Scoop Media