The Great Global Warming Swindle

The Great Global Warming Swindle
DVD cover
Directed byMartin Durkin
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Production
Running time75 mins
Original release
NetworkChannel 4
Release8 March 2007 (2007-03-08)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Great Global Warming Swindle is a 2007 British polemical documentary film directed by Martin Durkin. The film denies the scientific consensus about the reality and causes of climate change, justifying this by suggesting that climatology is influenced by funding and political factors. The program was formally criticised by Ofcom, the UK broadcasting regulatory agency, which ruled the film failed to uphold due impartiality and upheld complaints of misrepresentation made by David King, who appeared in the film.

The film presents scientists, economists, politicians, writers, and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming. The programme's publicity materials claim that man-made global warming is "a lie" and "the biggest scam of modern times."[1] Its original working title was "Apocalypse my arse", but the title The Great Global Warming Swindle was later adopted as an allusion to the 1980 mockumentary The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle about British punk band the Sex Pistols.[2]

The UK's Channel 4 premiered the documentary on 8 March 2007. The channel described the film as "a polemic that drew together the well-documented views of a number of respected scientists to reach the same conclusions. This is a controversial film but we feel that it is important that all sides of the debate are aired."[3] According to Hamish Mykura, Channel 4's head of documentaries, the film was commissioned "to present the viewpoint of the small minority of scientists who do not believe global warming is caused by anthropogenic production of carbon dioxide."[4]

Although the documentary was welcomed by climate change deniers, it was criticised by scientific organisations and individual scientists, including one of the scientists interviewed in the film and one whose research was used to support the film's claims.[5][6] The film's critics argued that it had misused and fabricated data, relied on out-of-date research, employed misleading arguments, and misrepresented the position of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.[6][7][8][9]

  1. ^ Al Webb (6 March 2007). "Global warming labeled a 'scam'". The Washington Times. Archived from the original on 8 March 2007.
  2. ^ 'Apocalypse my arse', Spiked Online, 9 March 2007
  3. ^ Lean, Geoffrey (11 March 2007). "Climate change: An inconvenient truth... for C4". The Independent. London. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  4. ^ Sweney, Mark. "Channel 4 ruled 'unjust and unfair' in climate change documentary". The Guardian, 21 July 2008
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wunsch letter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Friis-Christensen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Parker was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference 37scientists was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ "About".