Street Level

Next Wednesday will mark the 667th anniversary of the Royal Society.

Now, to most of you, that doesn’t matter at all, but to a small group of you out there, it should give you pause to stop and reconsider.

But the fact the Royal Society — the national academy of science in the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth — has been around that long funding researchers, promoting in-depth scientific investigations and generally doing the kind of work we would expect of those at the forefront of our scientific community to do tends to give it some credibility.

And the Royal Society has been engaged in a debate with documentary filmmaker Martin Durkin since British broadcaster Channel 4 aired The Great Global Warming Swindle, a film that argues there is no such thing as climate change and global warming; rather, we’re all being duped.

And this is the documentary our school board trustees are making available to students who represent the “other side” of the argument put forward by Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth.

Channel 4 has worked with Durkin before. In 1998, he was shopping around a show on silicone breast implants.

When the BBC heard his assertion — the implants aren’t harmful, but in fact, actually reduce the risk of breast cancer — it rightfully sent him packing.

He ended up at Channel 4, where Durkin was given a TV researcher and producer who was formerly a research biochemist.

It was her job to help him get the show ready to be broadcast.

Instead, she walked out on it after two weeks because of the way Durkin was manipulating information.

Channel 4 still aired it.

Back in 1997, again for Channel 4, Durkin made a series called Against Nature, in which he argued environmentalists were like Nazis, conspiring against the world’s poor.

After complaints were registered about Against Nature, the B.C. Independent Television Commission handed down what has been called one of its most damning verdicts, describing the series as being “distorted by selective editing” and misleading interviewees.

In 2000, Channel 4 aired another Durkin film called Modified Truth. A geneticist Durkin interviewed later said he was “completely betrayed and misled” about his participation or how his views would be presented.

But it’s the Royal Society that has really gone on the attack against Durkin and The Great Global Warming Swindle.

It has cited seven major misrepresentations of scientific evidence and research Durkin presented, including relying on research later shown to have been wrong, mislabelling graphics to show average temperatures through history and ignoring other relevant research that would have contradicted the point of his film.

The society went further, lodging a formal complaint with the regulatory body overseeing broadcasting in Britain.

A letter was also sent from the society to Durkin, signed by 37 scientists involved in the study of the environment and climate.

In September, Bob Ward of the Royal Society sent yet another e-mail to Durkin, pointing out the letter the group of scientists had signed, that misrepresentations included in the complaint to the regulatory board had not been made and imploring him to remove the DVD from sale and recall those already sold.

Durkin’s reply?

“Bob: Are you on drugs or something?”

This is a film producer with, at best, a controversial history of presenting his theses. He has promoted positions that defy logic.

He has been criticized for playing fast and loose with what should be facts.

He has been renounced at least once for distorted editing.

Three dozen renowned scientists have told him he’s dead wrong in The Great Global Warming Swindle.

Yet our school board still says seeing this documentary will be an exercise in critical thinking.

Durkin didn’t use any.

There is nothing in his documentary that could even generate critical discussion.

It’s time to take those DVDs out of the school district library’s documentary section and put them where they belong — in fiction.

dale@kamloopsthisweek.com

Posted by Dale at 10:32 a.m. Comments