‘Channel 4’s Great Global Warming Swindle cut through what Ofcom termed the ‘current orthodoxy’ in media treatments of climate change. It had a far-reaching impact on audiences in the UK and internationally. The commissioning and broadcast of the programme, C4’s ensuing decision to ‘defend, defend, defend’ and Ofcom’s odd and nervous judgement all say something interesting about the difficulties broadcasters have with this enormous and complex topic.

Taking good risks in response to what we know about climate change is one of the central challenges of our age. The media are very influential players in this game in that they set the boundaries of public debate.

The risk taken by the commissioners who put Swindle on air already feels like it comes from another age. C4’s capacity for provocation and creativity now needs to be applied to a new target. Public service media have a responsibility to equip society for a long and difficult conversation about how we reduce the likelihood of climate change, and how we prepare for the environmental changes that past emissions have locked us into. Anything less and the public are being swindled.’

Registered OU students and staff can see the full article going through the OU e-journals link on the library website. I’d recommend that anyone in any doubt about the reasons to complain about the programme view the full complaint at Ofcom Swindle complaint.

But the story behind that complaint is interesting in itself. A concerned member of the public got up off his sofa after viewing the film and spent the next 18 months convening a massive effort by leading scientists that went through every frame of the film detailing its inaccuracies. His story appears on the BBC News Website.

For a bit of light relief people might want to catch Burn Up this weds and Friday, a BBC Two, two-part, thriller centring on big oil and climate talks. After you’ve seen the opening 30 seconds there’s not much doubting its status as fiction, but the writer Simon Beaufoy (Full Monty) took enormous pains to get his research right on both the politics and the science. The American big oil characters take a pounding, and if you were making a documentary on the subject you’d have to acknowledge that there have been some rapid and surprising developments in relation to how corporate America is responding to the issue now. But as a sketch of why the US has been such an obstacle on climate change policy its very efficient. He talked to key players in oil companies, science and politics in working the story up. The production company are Kudos, the people that make Life on Mars and Spooks, so it's a good watch. The filming on three continents, the glossy production values and a glimpse of Rupert Penry-Jones' buns should bring a new audience  to climate change.

Take it further

Read the Ofcom judgement in full in the Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin Issue 114

Discover more about Climate Change with Open2

About the author

Joe Smith is a lecturer in the environment at the Open University and chair of Interdependence Day. He has written books on climate change and sustainability, the media and global issues, and the green movement.

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