The Daily Mail and the rest of the right-wing press is having a jolly time highlighting how the BBC’s climate editor, Justin Rowlatt, made some incorrect statements in a Panorama documentary about extreme weather disasters and deaths. He was pulled up by the BBC executive complaints unit (ECU) for two misstatements.
Firstly, Rowlatt’s statement that “the death toll is rising around the world and the forecast is that worse is to come” risked giving the impression that the rate of deaths from extreme weather-related events was increasing, concluded the ECU. The frequency of floods, storms and drought has increased significantly in the past 50 years, research by the World Meteorological Organisation has shown, but the number of deaths caused by them has fallen because of improved early warnings and disaster management.
Content from our partners
