Desperate woo

Biased BBC is decidedly unimpressed with yesterday's Today Programme on BBC Radio 4, which tried to pin the blame for Ludlow Castle's tendency to collapse on climate change.

Colin Richards, head of conservation and archaeology for Shropshire, said: “It’s amazing that they have stood for 800 years and the climate change that has affected them over the last couple of years has wreaked so much damage.

This is, not to put too fine a point on it, desperate woo, a point that BBBC makes forcefully.

Readers may also be interested in the comments thread, where a reader has noted a dissenting view on AGW finding its way into the magazine of Mensa.

Comments

[Mike Jackson]

But have you read the rest of that comment?
BBBC attracts obsessive nutters by the train-load! Most of the postings make sense but I genuinely fear for the sanity of some of the commenters.

[Athelstan.]

Ahem, surely a cast iron case for Shropshire council to retrospectively sue the De Lacey family for not making an environmental survey - Energy Performance Certificate and not using council accredited building inspectors.

A slam dunk innit.

[steve ta]

Excuse my ignorance, but could someone explain the phrase "desperate woo" please?

A quick google seems to show that the only use ever of this phase is right here.

[Woo is pseudoscientific nonsense - usually directed at homeopaths]

[John Shade]

The Mensa letter calls the BBC a 'cesspit of morons'.

That is a harsh and vulgar thing to say, but if you adopt it as a core assumption in a model of the BBC, perhaps as an external forcing we might refer to as the G-Force from the surrounding political class, then we have the beginnings of a BBC Model (BBCM) which I would have high hopes of having a great deal of explanatory power to account for the almost complete failure of that organisation to reflect the substantial issues about climate change in recent decades. In favour of an all-but-mindless relaying of the views deemed politically correct.

In fact, without this external forcing, or cesspit effect as it will become more commonly known, it may well be impossible for our model to account for the BBC's abject behaviour during that time period. And that, in some circles at least, will be taken as proof positive.

Now, armed with those conclusions, how best to win funding for the model-building? Are there any precedents we could learn from?

[steve ta]

"The Mensa letter calls the BBC a 'cesspit of morons'. "

I'm not so sure about that. It isn't clear from the comment where the "Mensa" quote starts and ends - I suspect it is just this single paragraph:

It is the politically correct censorship of debate in science that is the problem today. Dogmas tell you what to think, that is why AGW and Intelligent Design do not do well in debate, and why those who support these hypotheses suppress debate, as we see with the BBC on Climate Change. The problem is not really the scientists, it comes from the Left wing Green activists and their influence on public relations, journalists and editors – especially at the BBC – as has recently been revealed by the identities of the people invited to the BBC‘s Climate Change Seminar.

It's hard to beleive that the rest of the rant would be published by Mensa.

[John Shade]

That's a good point, steveta.

I should have been more careful and have written 'The commenter referring to the Mensa letter called the BBC a "cesspit of morons".'

[Forester126]

Mike Jackson

I hope you are not including me in that!

I made the comment that the Central England Temperature shows December Mean Anomalies at 0.1, January at -0.3 and February at -0.6 C so we have had a cooler than average Winter. In fact according to met office trend line back to 1910 or 1970.
That of course would cause damage because the heavy rains in the Autumn followed by very low temperatures expanding the water as ice within the walls will expand the joints. It's normally called Winter weather but of course that would not attract extra funding.

The other point that comes to mind is that the graph on the Met Office website, cleverly done to show the warming trend is now showing a fast cooling trend since the turn of the Century. Time for a re-design I think.

[Jonathan Jones]

Woo is quite well described at http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Woo

I think I learned the term from Mark Lynas.

[Peter Stroud]

I'm not sure if it is the BBC programme makers or its editorial staff that tirelessly include references to climate change so frequently. It seems to come into such programmes as Countryfile and Coast, as well as news pieces. I'm still waiting for Pachauri's admission of no warming for 17 years to feature in the Today programme.

[DaveS]

"Colin Richards, head of conservation and archaeology for Shropshire, said: “It’s amazing that they have stood for 800 years and the climate change that has affected them over the last couple of years has wreaked so much damage."

What Colin Richards should have said, of course, is:

“It’s amazing that they have stood for 800 years and the weather that has affected them over the last couple of years has wreaked so much damage."

[jamesp]

Or even: “It’s amazing that they have withstood 800 years of changing climate until now."

I note that Richards went on to say: “There is evidence of repair over the centuries right from the thirteenth century right through, but last year was the second wettest year on record."

Might it be that they stopped repairing it more recently? Councils are well known for their penny-wise/pound foolishness...

[SadButMadLad]

I got the impression that it was lack of maintenance and care that was the cause of Ludlow's collapse.

[diogenes]

@jamesp

did the comentator then go on to explain that the records to which he alludes probably only go back as far as 1910? So we presumably have little knowledge of what weather conditions the walls were subjected to for the other 700 years, making assumptions that last winter was unusual statistically unsafe.

[AlecM]

What has happened is poor restoration, the use of cement based mortar instead of 3:1 lime:soft sand, which remains plastic in damp conditions so allows the joints to move when repeatedly cycled wet and dry.

I have restored stone buildings so I know how this failure to follow simple guide-lines can wreck them.

[Athelstan.]

What has happened is poor restoration, the use of cement based mortar instead of 3:1 lime:soft sand, which remains plastic in damp conditions so allows the joints to move when repeatedly cycled wet and dry.

I have restored stone buildings so I know how this failure to follow simple guide-lines can wreck them.

I had a mate reading Construction Engineering at UMIST [Brickies] he used to 'point out' the same thing - old buildings and new methods don't 'mix'.

Nice one and well said - AlecM.

[m e wood]

The tendency to describe opinions of which we do not approve as "theology "just emphasises the amount of brainwashing we have had over the years.. this brainwashing will continue with" Climate Change" as a school subject.. perhaps the "Theology as Brainwashing" theory was a school "subject" too. :-)

We also learned an awful lot of false history at school. hmmm!
Conspiracy theories invited!

[Martin A]

The Met Office has commented on this important question.

‘Ludlows’ Historic Town Walls Under Threat from Climate Change’. Or Are They?

It’s an interesting issue, so we’ve explored it a little further for you with the help of Dr Peter Stott, the Head of Climate Monitoring and Attribution here at the Met Office:

‘From the perspective of a climate scientist working in the field of seeking to understand how manmade climate change is affecting our weather patterns, that seems a bit of a stretch.

What may be happening is that the droughts and floods of the last two years have contributed to destabilising the wall. But more work needs to be done to understand how climate change is affecting rainfall in the UK.

(blah blah)

At the Met Office Hadley Centre we are carrying out research to better understand how manmade and natural influences on climate have changed the risk of weather extremes like floods and droughts. This should enable societies to better adapt to climate variability and change in future. And as the research matures maybe we’ll be able to shed some more light on whether the collapse of the ancient walls of Ludlow, parts of which have stood since 1233, can be attributed to man made climate change.’

I think that is about as near as the Met Office is going to get to saying "so far as I can see the suggestion that recent climate change has destabilised walls that have endured around 800 years of the British climate is total rubbish".

[Hamish]

"Harsh?" "Vulgar?"

I plead truth, M'Lud.

[Rick Bradford]

The term 'woo' or even 'woo-woo' is linked to the magician and skeptic James Randi, who has used it extensively to refer to the claims of those championing homeopathy, paranormal abilities, free energy, dowsing, talking to the dead, and such like.

He has of course been labelled a 'climate denier', though his views on climate change, as I understand, are fairly agnostic.