Climate Change TV Ads Banned as ‘Propaganda’

The Environment Minister of Northern Ireland, Sammy Wilson, called British TV ads on climate change ‘propaganda’ and banned them.

The TV ads were made by the British government and are part of their ‘Act on CO2′ campaign which encourages citizens to reduce their consumption of electricity and fossil fuels. You can view the ads on the Directgov website (Requires Flash Player). The first ad ‘Standby’ doesn’t reference climate change that much. It does appear to emphasize reducing electricity consumption to save money for a family, and a narrator states that turning off appliances could save 300 British pounds per year.

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Mr. Wilson described the ads as: “giving people the impression that by turning off the standby light on their TV, they could save the world from melting glaciers and being submerged in 40 feet of water.”

Unless he is talking about different ads than the ones on the Directgov site, he appears to be incorrect. None of the ads mention melting glaciers or 40 feet of flooding. The Associated Press stated Mr. Wilson’s view on climate change as: “…global weather patterns are naturally cooling, not warming — and humanity should invest in coping with God-driven climate change, not trying to slow down a man-made problem.”

It is true that the Act on C02 campaign encourages people to decrease personal consumption to reduce global warming, but it also highlights how such measures save consumers money. Reducing air pollution is also good for respiratory health.

In 2008 Mr. Wilson published a climate change article titled, “Climate Change Alarmists Damage Us All”. In the article he stated, “To date governments across the world seem to have caved in to the demands of well placed environmental lobby groups and the political hysteria they have generated and have introduced a wide range of measures to reduce CO2 emissions in an attempt to stop climate change. ”

Have governments across the world caved to environmental lobbyists? Or are they merely listening to the scientists who say climate change is probably mainly due to human production of greenhouse gases?

Image Credit: Screenshot of British government PSA

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