Man-made climate change denial should be a criminal offence with Britons being misled at a time when extreme weather is getting worse, an expert has said. Jim Dale, founder and senior meteorological consultant at British Weather Services, regularly spars on TV and radio with politicians and presenters who question climate science.
Now the weather expert has said their time is “soon to be up”, calling on the Government to ban man-made climate denial across the mainstream media.
Mr Dale told Express.co.uk: “We have reached a tipping point, in more ways than one. Global land and ocean temperatures have reached a modern day peak not seen since modern man walked the Earth.
“Climate related and sometimes catastrophic weather incidents are becoming more and more numerous and widespread, with some parts of the world suffering unbelievable heat and humidity that it is now a threat to life, curtailing normal everyday activities such as schooling and agriculture.”
He said climate scientists, protest groups and the likes of Sir David Attenborough, green industrialist Dale Vince, BBC presenter Chris Packham and others have been ringing the alarm about climate change for years.
The meteorologist and author has spent much of the past two years debating the issues on TV and radio with politicians including Reform UK leader Richard Tice, former MEP Nigel Farage, Conservative MP Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg and Talk TV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer.
Mr Dale accuses them of rowing against indisputable science and data, with all four and others being “totally wrong in their baseless claims”.
He said: “But their time is soon to be up. I am calling for this Government or the next to ban man-made climate denial across mainstream media, much as racism and overt sexism are banned. Moreover, and for the future welfare of all living things, I believe manmade climate denial should become a criminal offence.
“Such baseless claims by high profile individuals are dangerous and misplaced. They are polluting the political discourse and their misleading views are leading to confusion within some quarters of the population, leading some into a false sense of security at a time when extreme weather events are becoming more numerous and intense.”
Mr Dale explained he was not advocating that robust discussion and debates on how to tackle climate change and Net Zero should be banned or even limited. adding: “That is absolutely necessary if we are to mitigate the worst excesses of a changed climate.
“But the days of misinforming and lying about manmade climate change are coming to an end, akin to the Flat Earthers of yesteryear. My proposal is designed to accelerate their demise, for the good of us all.”
A majority of climate scientists agree the world is already seeing the consequences of global warming, including more frequent and prolonged droughts, increasingly severe and more frequent storms, rising sea levels, melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets, increased strength of tropical cyclones and hurricanes on top of more frequent and widespread fires.
Research in Scotland and the US published this week has shown the rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase is currently 10 times faster than at any point in the past 50,000 years.
A team of researchers led by Oregon State University and the University of St Andrews undertook a detailed chemical analysis of ancient Antarctic ice, revealing the stark findings and the impact of human emissions.
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), provide an important understanding of abrupt climate change periods in Earth’s past and offer insight into the potential impacts of climate change.
The rate of carbon dioxide (CO2) increase was branded “unprecedented”, and driven by human emissions.
While it has been argued that denying climate change as man-made is unethical, it is not currently a criminal offence.
Chris Hilson, Professor of Law and Director of the Reading Centre for Climate and Justice, University of Reading, told Express.co.uk criminalising climate denial would not be easy.
He said: “Using the criminal law in relation to climate denial would be difficult, not least because the scope of denialism these days is very wide.
“It encompasses everything from outright denial to more subtle but still deliberate forms of undermining the nature or significance of man-made climate change. That makes it difficult to criminalise.”
Professor Hilson said media regulation, including regulation of social media platforms, is possible and much needed.
He suggested setting out the various forms of unacceptable climate denialism in a climate media code with self policing by media organisations.
The legal expert said: “We have already seen significant strides being taken against green-washing by companies who overstate their climate virtues and mislead consumers.
“Regulating media companies to stop them misleading consumers by undermining the facts about the climate is really just addressing the other side of the coin.”
