Johnny Ball, Talking B*******!

The latest celeb spokesperson for man-made climate change denial and the pro-nuclear, pro-incinerator and anti-wind energy lobbies is Johnny Ball. As Mark Steele said in a recent Indie article, what is it about cheesy 70’s TV personalities and contrarianism? Perhaps the answer is in the question. One way to recapture the limelight and get some corporate speaking dates and funding for washed-up old has-beens like Ball and Bellamy is to parrot the corporate-funded speroids of the counter-factual conspiracists. Googling on Ball's name gives immediate hits for his corporate speaking dates.



Ball was on local radio round here today, spouting nonsense. He went on about insects being a bigger source of CO2 than humans (so?), denied current warming was any more than a ‘cyclical’ change, attacked Al Gore’s film and Live Earth, and said we need lots more lovely incinerators to deal with our waste. He quoted the percentages like his ilk always do, deliberately obfuscating by implying that 1, 2, 3 or 4 percent of a global problem or quantity is negligible. So if 2% of a global figure is negligible, not worth bothering with, I’ll have 2% of the global gold reserve please! I'm sure they won't notice such an "insignificant" amount going missing.



For a so-called scientist his bloopers were obvious even to a more arts and social sciences oriented person like myself. For example he denied sea level will rise and said Al Gore claimed “Greenland will melt” and "Greenland is a land mass, ho ho ho" – disingenuous nonsense. In his film Gore shows that sea ice melting will not cause rises (though it will cause further warming due to reduction in reflection) , but land ice melting will cause rises. Greenland will not “melt”, but the ice covering it will, and enter the oceans to raise sea levels.



On incinerators Ball was likewise counter-factual – they are totally safe he says. They must defy the laws of physics if Ball is to be believed – loads of stuff goes in and nothing comes out, eh? In fact, even highly filtered, latest-design incinerators cause air pollution, they are also subject to accidental release incidents on a regular basis – and that is before we mention the highly concentrated toxins in Fly Ash which is - guess what – transported by road to landfill!



Ball continued in this vein – “you can’t have a grid with wind energy”, Yeah? So who exactly is advocating we meet all energy demand through wind energy Johnny? I smell the whiff of a burning straw man!

The other thing we can smell is the propaganda emanating from various US corporate funded lobby groups and the Furedi circle of infiltrators.

His main argument was with teaching “negative science” in school. Presumably science in schools must be some rose-tinted corporate-funded propaganda for the utopian status quo? What is negative about young people learning about the challenges caused by previous and current lack of attention to detail and consequences and the real technological and scientific solutions that can be applied to overcome or mitigate these problems? It is knowledge of challenges and problems that are the motivators to scientific and technical effort and innovation, not hubristic satisfaction or reverence for the wilful disinformation propagated by washed up “gentleman farmers”…..



You there, in the corner, Ball! – Pay attention! D minus for effort......