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Dr Gideon Polya
Dr Gideon Polya

US media censor out BBC TV "Frozen Planet" series climate change episode

It has been reported by the UK New Statesman that the US will not air the "On Thin Ice" seventh episode of David Attenborough's "Frozen Planet" BBC TV series about wildlife in the Arctic and Antarctica. The censored out final "On Thin Ice" seventh episode deals with the impact of man-made climate change, a matter controversial to a substantial body of anti-science, climate change denialist Americans. Samira Shackle in the New Statesman:

“Seven episodes of the multi-million-pound nature documentary series will be aired in Britain. However, the series has been sold to 30 world TV networks as a package of only six episodes. These networks then have the option of buying the seventh "companion" episode -- which explores the effect man is having on the natural world -- as well as behind the scenes footage. The six-episode series has been sold to 30 broadcasters, ten of which have declined to use the climate change episode, "On Thin Ice", including the US. In America, the series is being aired by the Discovery channel, which insists that the final episode has been dropped because of a "scheduling issue".â€

This is typical cowardly behavior by the BBC which has an appalling record of lying by omission and commission, most notoriously about the 12 million Muslim war-related deaths (about half of them children) in the 1990-2011 US Alliance War on Muslims (for details and documentation not reported by the holocaust-ignoring BBC see "Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide"), noting that holocaust ignoring is far, far worse than repugnant holocaust denial because at least the latter admits the possibility of public discussion). This Mainstream media lying by omission has dire consequences - thus it has just been announced that 2,500 child-killing US Marines are to be stationed in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia where US lackey Apartheid Australia is remorselessly continuing a racist process of Aboriginal Ethnocide and Aboriginal Genocide.

What I suppose might well be covered in the "On Thin Ice" seventh episode of David Attenborough's "Frozen Planet" series could be related to the 4 October 2011 press release from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSDIC) which includes a map showing the approximate halving of Arctic summer sea ice extent in recent decades and states:

"This September, sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean fell to the second-lowest extent in the satellite record, which began in 1979. Satellite data analyzed by NSIDC scientists showed that the sea ice cover narrowly avoided a new record low, while other data sources showed that ice extent matched or even fell below the record-setting low extent in 2007... NSIDC Director Mark Serreze said, "It looks like the spring ice cover is so thin now that large areas melt out in summer, even without persistent extreme weather patterns... The big summer ice loss this year is setting us up for another big melt year in 2012. We may be looking at an Arctic Ocean essentially free of summer ice only a few decades from now".

The US, a major annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) polluter, has 4.4% of the world's population, consumes 25% of its resources and is hell-bent on remorseless GHG pollution that is worsening a Climate Genocide that is set to kill 10 billion non-Europeans this century.

The Murdoch Media Empire is pretty bad when it comes to perversion of the truth, especially in relation to irresponsible and anti-social man-made climate change denialism (and hence "Boycott Murdoch Media") but other media are heavily involved also. Thus in Australia, where Murdoch Media have 70% of the city newspaper readership, I understand that it is the major national TV channel Channel 9 (non-Murdoch) that has purchased "Frozen Planet" - but apparently only the first 6 episodes (e.g. see its promotion here).

This is yet another instance of the operation of what has been called Murdochracy (Big Money buys truth and votes) and Lobbyocracy (Big Money buys politicians and policy) in the Western democracies. In the West the 1% have substituted Murdochracy and Lobbyocracy for Democracy at the expense of the 99% and of rational risk management that is crucial for societal safety.

The WBGU that advises the German Government on climate change in 2009 estimated that for a 75% chance of avoiding a disastrous 2C temperature rise the world can emit no more than 600 billion tonnes of CO2 between 2010 and zero emissions in 2050. The climate criminal US is set to use up its "fair share" of this terminal global GHG pollution budget in about 2013. However it is estimated that Australia, an even worse per capita Greenhouse gas (GHG) polluter than the US, had already used up its “fair share†by mid-2011 and is now stealing the entitlement of wretchedly poor countries such as drought-devastated Somalia and inundation-threatened Bangladesh (see "Shocking analysis by country of years left to zero emissions").

The climate criminality of the US and its lackey Australia are revealed by the following 2005-2008 data on “annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution†in units of “tonnes CO2-equivalent per person per yearâ€: 0.9 (Bangladesh), 0.9 (Pakistan), 2.2 (India), less than 3 (many African and Island countries), 3.2 (the Developing World), 5.5 (China), 6.7 (the World), 11 (Europe), 16 (the Developed World), 27 (the US) and 30 (Australia; or 54 if Australia’s huge Exported CO2 pollution is included) (see “Climate Genocideâ€).

What can decent, pro-Planet people do in the face of media censorship in the face of a worsening climate emergency? Decent people can (a) inform everyone they can about the threat and the Mainstream media censorship and (B) urge sanctions and boycotts against all people, politicians, countries and corporations complicit in the worsening climate genocide.

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They should have included the seventh episode without making it optional. Give the people right to vote with their feet, it's never a good thing if Big Brother censors information. Juan Miguel Ruiz (Going Green) http://www.GreenJoyment.com

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Re: "anti-science, climate change denialist Americans" In America we hear that East Anglia has the best "climate scientists" that money can buy. But I suppose that if you want to call the act of refusing to buy a piece of blatant propaganda "censorship", it's already pretty obvious how the AGW faithful have left reason at the door.

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I don't think there is enough evidence to say that Discovery channel is censoring the episode.  I wish they would show the episode and we truly need shows like this in the US.  So it would be horrible if Discovery is censoring, but I simply don't see any evidence that they are doing it because global warming is controversial.  It looks to me more like a business decision relating to the Narrator.  http://skeptorical.blogspot.com/2011/11/daily-mail-shouldnt-accuse-discovery-of.html

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I think Lans makes a fair point about the Discovery Channel censoring issue. I can't believe it's even given a second thought to censor such programmes. What next, a media black out on the next flood?

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Why is it cowardly of the BBC? They went and made the programme.  You can't force people to buy things, if they don't want it, it's their problem. The Discovery channel is the one who isn't airing the last episode. 

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I’m so glad that the USA has decided to air the final instalment of the Frozen Planet series. What this documentary presents is a step towards research and development. It has the opportunity to alert people across the world to the problems that are facing our planet. It visualises these problems and forcefully brings them home. I believe that our chances of reversing the trend towards global warming lie in in-depth research and development. The climate change episode of Frozen Planet presents a first, simple step towards the research of millions of people across the world.

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