From the vault - Pachauri: an official, not a scientist-FACT

Thursday, March 25 2010

Rajendra Pachauri

News Online

On February 7, in a story about the Head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the ABC incorrectly reported he was a “climate scientist”. In fact, Mr Pachauri is an official, not a scientist.

Embattled climate official pens racy novel

"From the Vault" - digging up past corrections and clarifications from the ABC archives

Productivity death spiral - Auntie, please explain

Dear Audience and Consumer Affairs,

I refer to a number of posts regarding falling productivity of ABC news featured on the ABC NEWS WATCH site:

ABC News: Productivity at record low-no news by 2035.

Productivity Survey: slow start to 2010

ABC NEWS Productivity Survey: Models predict grim future.

Despite a significant increase in staff numbers over recent years ABC News do not appear to be as productive in the number of stories reported over previous years. 

Can ABC Audience and Consumer Affairs please explain the falling figures? 

How is it possible for ABC to do less with more?

Missing News: Urban Heat Island effect at Laverton, VICTORIA

ABC finally discovers the Urban Heat Island Effect with this story that reports on a paper that uses climate models to forecast alarming future urban temperatures.

The UHI effect has a significant impact on temperature and is derived from man-made changes in the energy balance in urban centres, to the point where sites that are affected are not useful for monitoring climate unless they are adjusted. The bias arises as a direct result of two different but associated processes. The first involves direct heating of the air surrounding an instrument from vehicle emissions, air-conditioning, industry etc. The second involves land surface changes that include changes over time due to human influence in albedo (change in vegetation for instance), thermal aerodynamic properties (buildings that change air flow around a site), hydrology (affects evaporation) and morphology of the surface.

You'd think that Australia's Bureau of Meteorology would take steps to ensure station weather stations potentially affected by UHI were removed from its climate reference network. It seems that based on a letter featured on Watts up with that, that BOM has ignored investigating potential UHI for at least one of these "High Quality" stations. How many others are out there? Will the ABC investigate?

Note that as of 12:20pm 24 June 2010 AEST the post at WUWT shows a photo of Laverton Western Australia. The weather station in question is Laverton Victoria, not Western Australia. The station is indicated by the place mark in the image below (upper middle). While the local siting may be reasonable, the affect of encroaching development remains un-accounted for.
(Update: WUWT provide a corection and more analysis of Laverton data HERE)

Figure below is a comparison of temperature as recorded at BOM's Laverton station and population growth for the Laverton area. The recent increase in temperature trends appears linked to a rapid increase in population.

Out of interest the Mean Max temp for Laverton Western Australia appears to have dropped since the late 1970s. You can compare temperature data at BOM's climate data site:
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/index.shtml

Laverton WA Station ID 12045 covers 1900-1970-mean max temp over this period is about 27.45 C.
Laverton AERO Station ID 12305 covers 1990-2010 with a mean temp of 26.8 C.  Gross cooling of about 0.65 C - WUWT!

Dancing promo sends ABC news credibility into death spiral

With a promo for Channel Seven's Dancing with the Stars titled "Pammy to waltz under Aussie stars" the credibility of ABC news follows its productivity in a death spiral.
Can ABC save its self before it's too late?

Missing News: Butterfly claims debunked

The following complaint has been sent to ABC Audience and Consumer affairs.

Biology Letters have published a comment critical of the butterfly study by Kearney et al that was featured by ABC News and ABC Science. This comment demonstrates serious flaws in the methodology of the study that mean the results are not supported by the data. In other words the study has been de-bunked. ABC provided extensive coverage of the original story but has not yet reported on the damaging critique. I request ABC news provide coverage such that ABC consumers are not mislead.

The comment at Biology Letters can be found here:
http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/06/07/rsbl.2010.0053.short/reply#roybiolett_el_31


UPDATE ABC reply received 29 June 2010:


Thank you for your email of 18 June.

I understand the Biology Letters journal website has published an eLetter you wrote in response to the study 'Early emergence in a butterfly causally linked to anthropogenic warming', which was the subject of the ABC Science story 'Butterflies 'fly early as planet warms''. Your request for coverage of your eLetter has been noted and conveyed to relevant staff in ABC Innovation. I am advised that ABC Innovation plans to watch with interest for any response from the authors of the study or the journal.

While you have not disputed the accuracy of the ABC Science story, I understand you believe it is necessary to provide coverage of the publication of your eLetter to ensure that ABC consumers are not misled. On the subject of new information becoming available which may have an impact on the accuracy of online content, sections 4.3.2-4 of the ABC's Editorial Policies state as follows:

"4.3.2 Online corrections: The ABC acknowledges that the archival nature of the online medium raises a number of specific issues in terms of the need to provide editorial correction or clarifications. The ABC publishes its online stories in good faith and believes them to be a true and accurate report of events at the time of publication.
4.3.3 However, the ABC also accepts that from time to time new information is made available which may have an impact on the accuracy of the original content. This may require the inclusion of additional information or a correction. On some occasions the removal of a report from ABC Online may be the appropriate course of action.
4.3.4 The ABC will correct online reports where the relevant editorial manager decides there is a need to present additional information which may not have been available at the time of publication or which may have been overlooked."

Audience & Consumer Affairs sought comment from ABC Innovation on whether the division considers that the publication of your eLetter warrants the inclusion of additional information or a correction to the story. I am advised that ABC Innovation considers that your concerns about the methodology used in the study are best left to the normal processes of scientific review, processes which are yet to play out. ABC Innovation considers that there is no error in the story that requires correction.

Audience & Consumer Affairs notes that Biology Letters has not withdrawn the study or substantially amended its conclusions, and neither the journal nor the study's authors appear to have responded to your concerns about the study's methodology. At this point, the only change from the state of affairs at the time of the story's publication is that an eLetter critical of the study has been published on the journal's website, having been reviewed for suitability and relevance by the journal's editor but not subject to any process of peer review. Having regard to these circumstances, as well as the content of the study, your eLetter, and the story, Audience & Consumer Affairs finds ABC Innovation's position on this matter acceptable and considers that the requirements of sections 4.3.2-4 of the Editorial Policies have been met.

Nonetheless, please be assured that your comments have been noted and conveyed to relevant ABC Innovation staff. Thank you for taking the time to write.

Yours sincerely
ABC Audience & Consumer Affairs

From the vault - Sometimes they are so trivial!

ABC News Online, 27 January 2009 Summary published: Friday 06, March 2009
Complaint: An online reader pointed out that the Brisbane suburb of Forest Lake was incorrectly described as “south of Brisbane."

Audience and Consumer Affairs response: The ABC acknowledged that Forest Lake is a suburb in Brisbane’s south-west.

http://www.abc.net.au/contact/corp_aud_upheld_March2009.htm

COMMENT: This one appears trivial but it still took over a month to sort out."From the Vault" - digging up past corrections and clarifications from the ABC archives.

ABC News: Productivity at record low-no news by 2035.

An alarming trend has appeared in our survey of ABC News productivity. With June just past the half way mark ABC News output is at record lows (see chart below), and our earlier predictions that ABC will have zero weekday news output by 2067 look a little optimistic. Based on the current 2010 data ABC News will in fact reach zero output in 2035! This is a full 32 years earlier than previously predicted.  The models now indicate a clear link between increases in ABC news staff and falling ABC News output. The only way to reverse the trend is for a reduction in ABC News staff numbers to at least pre-2003 levels. 

Returning ABC News productivity represents the greatest moral challenge our nation has faced. 

In order to undertake this great moral challenge we propose initiating an ABC Corporate-wide Personnel Retirement Scheme or CPRS. There is no other way to return productivity to previous levels, and based on the trends we must act now and act fast. The CPRS will begin the process of reducing alarming ABC News staff numbers and help prepare all Australians for a future in which there will be zero ABC News output.  A CPRS levy will need to be placed on the Australian public to help fund the retirement packages of ABC news staff. However the public can help in other ways; for instance by reducing their consumption of ABC content. More sustainable alternate sources of news are available. 

An ABC free lifestyle is attainable, and based on the long terms trends this is something we will all need to get used to eventually if ABC News productivity continues to plummet. Know that the earlier we prepare the better off we will be.

Note that the figures are actually worse than presented as we have not adjusted for actual 2010 staff numbers. These numbers will be available later in the year when ABC releases its annual report. We will update the charts and predictions to take actual staff numbers into account when this is available. It looks grim.