The Press Council has considered several complaints about an article by Andrew Bolt on climate change. Mr Bolt said “the planet hasn’t warmed for a decade – or even 15 years according to new temperature data from Britain’s Met Office”. His attention had been drawn to the data by an article a few days earlier in the UK’s Daily Mail which drew a similar conclusion that was criticised immediately by the Met Office as “entirely misleading”.
The Council said Mr Bolt was clearly entitled to express his own opinion about the data but he did so in a way which was likely to be interpreted as implying that the Met Office had the same view. He should have mentioned the Met Office comment, especially as it had been drawn to his attention by a reader, even if he then rebutted it. Accordingly, this aspect of the complaints is upheld. The complaints also focused on Mr Bolt’s descriptions of relatively short-term trends in sea and ice conditions which he argued did not suggest global warming.
The Council considered that he should also have mentioned that they were consistent with the continuance of long-term trends in the opposite direction. On balance, however, it does not uphold this aspect of the complaints because he acknowledged that there might be only a pause in global warming and had emphasised the importance of keeping an open mind on the issue.
The Council emphasises this adjudication neither endorses nor rejects any particular theories or predictions about global warming. On such major issues, the community is best served by frank disclosure and discussion rather than, for example, failure to acknowledge significant shorter or longer term trends in relevant data.