The BBC’s presentation of the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) caused something of a flap.  The report finds a 97% expert consensus on the idea that global climate change is occurring, that it is largely caused by human activity, and if that activity does not change rapidly in quantity and direction, the outcome will be catastrophic. 

Now suppose you were told that an international panel of weather experts were 97% sure it was going to rain on your backyard in the next couple of hours.  What would any sensible person do?  Leave the washing on the line while you nipped out to the shops?  Or bring in your damp smalls and be only minorly miffed if the rain never materialized? 

But through its choice of ‘experts’ to comment on the publication of the report, the BBC seemed to show anthropogenic climate change was not the near-as-dammit open-and-shut case that the rest of us might accept.

For ‘balance’, the Beeb brought in Bob Carter, or rather Dr Robert Carter, an Australian geologist who has made something of a name for himself as a climate change sceptic (reportedly after they’d searched in vain for a UK scientist to do the job).  He is part of something called the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, or NIPCC, backed by all of 47 scientists around the world, who regularly rubbish whatever the IPCC says.

Dr Carter has repeatedly claimed that he receives no funding from ‘special interest organisations such as environmental groups, energy companies or government departments’.  He is in fact linked with a number of climate change denial outfits, including the Heartland Institute, who has been paying him $1,667 per month, according Heartland’s own leaked memos.

In his BBC interview, he admitted that the NIPCC receives funding from Heartland and ‘they accept donations from family foundations specifically to fund the NIPCC exercise. There is no industry money in it.’  The family foundations include that of the notorious Koch brothers, whose multi-billion dollar firm happens to deal in oil and gas (and many other things). 

Well, they’re brothers, so I suppose it’s family, but ‘no industry money’? 

The criticism of the BBC comes from their pretence at ‘balancing’ the peer-reviewed work of thousands of experts with discredited paid-for political propaganda.  It is, some argue, exactly this misguided ‘balance’ that might explain why 97% of scientists who actually work on this issue think one way, but only 45% of the US public agree with them.

It could never happen here of course.

In a recent Thai TV interview, Sa-ngob Siangbao, spokesperson of the Quiet Bangkok group, argued that the level of environmental noise on Bangkok’s streets was unnecessarily loud and apart from causing hearing damage, especially among children, it increased general levels of stress.

For an opposing point of view, the programme invited Dr Danglan Lamphong, who comprehensively pooh-poohed the ‘lies and deception’ of Quiet Bangkok.  He pointed out that loud noises, like thunderclaps, were perfectly natural, and in some cases, such as emergencies, it was important that warnings were loud to ensure that they were heard.  ‘I would rather that someone shouted a warning at me than go quietly to my death,’ smirked Dr Danglan.  The claims about long-term hearing loss were not scientifically proven, he claimed, saying that many experts like himself were sceptical of the data.

When asked where he received his degree in audiology, Dr Danglan explained that he wasn’t a medical doctor as such, having received an honorary doctorate in ‘cosmetology’ from the unaccredited Pratunam Institute of Serm Suai in honour of his family’s chain of 3 beauty parlours. 

He also denied that he had any vested interests in this matter and the fact that he was receiving an honorarium from the Advertisers Association of Thailand, the Federation of Thai Amplifier Manufacturers and the Society for the Protection of Bangkok Security Guards and their Whistles was beside the point. 

Then a newspaper article on a proposed solution to Bangkok’s traffic woes contained the same kind of balance.  The plan, by a group of traffic engineers, town planners and social scientists, drew on the experience in cities around the world and started from the principle that building more roads and parking spaces merely encouraged more car use and created a never-ending demand for yet more roads.

The article instead envisaged pedestrianized areas, narrowed streets for public transportation only and a ban on car parks at shopping malls, hotels, etc., together with a rationalization of the current mass transit networks.

The article quoted Pol Lt-Gen Chetana Jarajontit of the Traffic Police Division who poured scorn on the suggestions.  ‘If there are too many cars, then of course we need more roads.  I can’t understand why these so-called experts don’t see that.’ 

When asked about the success in other countries in curbing traffic by reducing the use of cars, he noted, ‘But this is Thailand.  We are unique.  What works elsewhere means nothing here.  Only the police can understand how to manage Bangkok traffic.’

The article noted that Pol Lt-Gen Chetana had spent the greater part of his career in command of the Roi Et Immigration Checkpoint.  It also reported that the Traffic Police budget receives substantial support from the Car Manufacturers Association of Thailand, the League of Filling Stations and the Society for the Protection of Bangkok Traffic Policemen and their Whistles.

And finally, when the editor of Prachatai was asked how balance was achieved in their reporting, the answer was ‘We try to ensure that all our articles are factually correct, and then to balance that, we have the Alien Thoughts column.’

About author:  Bangkokians with long memories may remember his irreverent column in The Nation in the 1980's. During his period of enforced silence since then, he was variously reported as participating in a 999-day meditation retreat in a hill-top monastery in Mae Hong Son (he gave up after 998 days), as the Special Rapporteur for Satire of the UN High Commission for Human Rights, and as understudy for the male lead in the long-running ‘Pussies -not the Musical' at the Neasden International Palladium (formerly Park Lane Empire).