A new study has shown that almost a third of presenters on GB News have used their platform to cast doubt on the scientific consensus on climate breakdown.
According to reports, ten of the broadcaster’s 31 presenters made statements on air in 2022 rejecting or challenging widely accepted scientific findings about how humans are affecting the climate and the role the climate crisis plays in extreme weather events.
Sixteen presenters used their broadcasts to attack the UK’s climate policies, including claims that measures such as the legally binding net zero target will lead to deaths from poverty and starvation, and “the decline of the west”.
In her response to the findings of the study, the Green MP, Caroline Lucas, said that climate denial isn’t just factually inaccurate – it’s also deeply dangerous and puts at risk all our society-wide efforts to tackle the climate emergency.
“Now more than ever, people deserve trustworthy and accurate news from our media – this truly toxic misinformation on GB News is not it,”she was quoted as saying. “Ofcom cannot allow these statements to go unchallenged and uninvestigated.”
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Investigative journalists at the climate website DeSmog also scoured hours of online footage of GB News broadcasts hosted on YouTube, inspecting comments made on air by presenters listed on the channel’s website. Six were excluded on the basis they were news anchors or reporters, and so unlikely to express opinions. Of the 31 remaining, 16 attacked climate action on air, while 10 challenged or rejected basic climate science.
Summer 2022 brought a record-breaking heatwave, with temperatures in the UK passing 40C (104F) for the first time. The Met Office, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the World Weather Attribution service all concluded that climate breakdown made the heatwave more likely.
However, when the Met Office warned high temperatures were linked to the climate crisis, the GB News presenter and sometime priest Calvin Robinson accused the official forecaster of “alarmism”. “Manmade climate change, I don’t buy it,” he said on 16 July. “Because how much of an impact do we really make if we’re talking about carbon levels?”
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
