The Environment Minister of Northern Ireland, Sammy Wilson, called British TV ads on climate change ‘propaganda’ and banned them.
The TV ads were made by the British government and are part of their ‘Act on CO2′ campaign which encourages citizens to reduce their consumption of electricity and fossil fuels. You can view the ads on the Directgov website (Requires Flash Player). The first ad ‘Standby’ doesn’t reference climate change that much. It does appear to emphasize reducing electricity consumption to save money for a family, and a narrator states that turning off appliances could save 300 British pounds per year.
Mr. Wilson described the ads as: “giving people the impression that by turning off the standby light on their TV, they could save the world from melting glaciers and being submerged in 40 feet of water.”
Unless he is talking about different ads than the ones on the Directgov site, he appears to be incorrect. None of the ads mention melting glaciers or 40 feet of flooding. The Associated Press stated Mr. Wilson’s view on climate change as: “…global weather patterns are naturally cooling, not warming — and humanity should invest in coping with God-driven climate change, not trying to slow down a man-made problem.”
It is true that the Act on C02 campaign encourages people to decrease personal consumption to reduce global warming, but it also highlights how such measures save consumers money. Reducing air pollution is also good for respiratory health.
In 2008 Mr. Wilson published a climate change article titled, “Climate Change Alarmists Damage Us All”. In the article he stated, “To date governments across the world seem to have caved in to the demands of well placed environmental lobby groups and the political hysteria they have generated and have introduced a wide range of measures to reduce CO2 emissions in an attempt to stop climate change. ”
Have governments across the world caved to environmental lobbyists? Or are they merely listening to the scientists who say climate change is probably mainly due to human production of greenhouse gases?
Image Credit: Screenshot of British government PSA
About Jake Richardson
He is correct, and I’m glad someone is standing up to this rubbish. There is a current act on C02 advert, (bedtime story), that I and other tax payer’s are funding to the tune of 6 million pounds which pounds makes me furious. The science is non existent, the conclusions preposterous, the setting virtual child abuse, the whole thing has a very new labour propaganda under current very reminiscent of 1930′s Germany!!
They go on in the same vane with another advert about driving your car 5 less miles, also full of inaccuracies & opinion presented as fact
They present this faulty science as fact, and say scientist agree, when what they should say is “Government funded scientists say”. Many thousand scientists do not agree with this new religion. One famous naturalist David Bellamy also disagrees and he has no agenda on this matter.
The sooner this is proved a new religion and just as make believe the better. I will then be suing the government for all these green taxes they have milked us for under the guise of man made global warming.
I totally agree with saving resources and not wasting, but this government cannot persuade people by unsubstantiated propaganda, on top off that they should be drummed out of power for wasting 6 million pounds they don’t have in the middle of the worse recession in this countries history, that their policies have helped cause!!
So if you want to berate someone berate the government for wasting our money on this tosh.!!