Today the BBC came out with a story that was so very stupid I actually felt insulted by it – insulted that the BBC thinks so little of its viewers that it is prepared to serve up so much ordure and call it news, call it information, call it truth. My poor old TV got a right earful.
The occasion was the 1 o’clock news on BBC1, and the story was about potholes. Now what could be more prosaic than that? Unfortunately the BBC was not content with telling me how terrible the state of the nation’s roads are. They also made the utterly risible claim that climate change was making the pothole situation worse.
Ben Brown in the intro: “Well scientists warn that climate change could make the problem even worse…”
“How can that be, you liars, when it is frost that causes the road surface to crack? How stupid do you think I am?” was my first yell.
“…because of more wet weather, but scientists think that new technology could be part of the solution. Here’s Harriet Bradshaw…”
So: scientists warn that climate change could make things worse but scientists (the same ones?) think that there is a tech answer. There isn’t. You already know that. I know that. Everyone up and down the country watching the news knows it. That won’t stop the BBC from trying it on. And as for Brown’s script: some scripts are so bad that I would be embarrassed to read them out. Other scripts are so bad that I’m embarrassed hearing someone else read them out.
The intrepid reporter interviews a cyclist who had an unpleasant interaction with a pothole leading to a titanium donation from the NHS. So far so normal. But then:
Harriet Bradshaw: “…but looking into the issue of potholes, there’s a problem which scientists say will only get worse with the effects of climate change…”
She doesn’t say what the problem is, but segues into the universities that are bringing engineering solutions to the whatever-it-is problem. Because, it is implied, we don’t know how to make a road yet.
Bitumen… concrete… cracks… the cracks are caused by freeze-thaw cycles…
“It’s getting warmer, or it’s supposed to be!” bellows your hero at his long-suffering TV, which shrugs broadly. “How do you propose that these freeze-thaw cycles are going to be worsened by climate change, exactly?”
The universities are working on:
Sensors in the road [a waste of time and money].
3d printed fixes [a waste of time and money].
The materials that can adapt to temperature changes by adding fibres or making them self heal [yes, you guessed it].
There follows a bit of wholly unnecessary VR headset rubbish, and someone punts the idea of using cars to collect data on where the potholes are [not from my car, you won’t].
Let’s send robots to fix the roads when the cars have automagically told us where the holes are [no, it won’t work, get out of here you idiot].
Harriet Bradshaw: “BUT IS IT ENOUGH?”
[She didn’t yell. I yelled for her.]
Dr Kristen MacAskill: “With climate change, we’re expecting more extreme weather events, whether that’s freeze-thaw cycles, wind events and rainfall events. These can have an impact at the rate at which our roads deteriorate.”
No they can’t. Don’t be so stupid. And I couldn’t help but notice that nowhere was mentioned that a key reason for wear and tear is because vehicles drive up and down the roads. And just maybe the higher torque of EVs might have a role to play one day?
No, don’t worry about that. The WIND is going to blow. It’s going to rip up the damn road by main force. It is, dammit! Don’t you laugh at me! I’ll complain to somebody!
No doubt, if by chance the pollutant of the hour was an aerosol, not a greenhouse gas, and temperatures were going down, not up, then this selfsame story could easily have been wheeled out, and have had more truth about it. That, folks, is the topsy-turvy world we live in.
The BBC. Unique, thanks to the way it’s funded by you.
The News at 1 (scroll forwards to about 15 minutes).
The accompanying web story, from which the featured image is drawn. Notice how there’s only one tag? Yes, it’s climate. What else did you think it would be tagged? Get serious.
Climate Scepticism 
Right, next time I have to repair the suspension on my car or get the tracking fixed, I won’t try to get compensation from the local council, I will sue the government for granting North Sea oil and gas licences.
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Torque of EVs? How about their extra weight?
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Depends on their tyres. The weight of the vehicle is distributed across the tyre footprint, so if EVs have the same tyres as ICE, then yes, probably. If the EVs have wider tyres, maybe it cancels out. There is also the issue that if you add weight to your car, your tyre’s footprint naturally gets bigger. So even if the EVs have standard tyres, the effect of the extra weight is probably not as bad as all that. (It probably causes more damage but not linearly with weight.) It has been a while since I looked into it, so I don’t want to be definitive!
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The BBC article has a “Have Your Say”, but I can’t access the comments (has the BBC denied access because the comments aren’t going their way, or is my pc playing up? Can others see the comments?).
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I can see them on Chrome. Scrolling down a bit, one commenter does refer to climate, but in general the comments are against the government, or else local anecdotes.
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Jit,
That’s rather disappointing. Increasingly HYS on the BBC seems to be showing a groundswell against the line frequently taken by the BBC.
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Thanks for this stupidity Jit. (Not yours, needless to say.) It reminds of this bit between Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson in January 2022, which I’ve just been looking back to:
Thanks to Gizmodo for the transcript. (They didn’t like it.) On Spotify it’s around 2m30s (of four hours!) here.
This was (by my lights) a key moment where the mass podcastosphere turned climate sceptical. Rogan had been reading Steve Koonin’s Settled ready for another long session with him. At least I think that was the context his side.
Anyway, climate is everything so it obviously is potholes. Or it’s nothing. I’m on Peterson’s side on that.
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Jit: thanks for this. This morning Sherelle Jacobs, a journalist I like, has an article in the Telegraph entitled ‘The Tories have failed on everything – fixing potholes is all they have left’. Perhaps they might benefit from reading your article – after all, they’ve contributed massively to our topsy-turvy would.
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The session with Koonin was only two hours! But I’m sure now that this was indeed the context Rogan’s side. Koonin emailed Anthony Watts on 14th February 2022:
See Leading Climate Skeptic Dr. Steve Koonin on The Joe Rogan Experience on WUWT for background and the video itself.
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Mark: “…. EVs? How about their extra weight?”
You might like this recent story:
“Norwich City Council EV parking sign blunder at Eaton Park
….. A sign put up at the site closest to Colman Road prohibited any vehicles over 1,524kg (1.5 tonnes) – essentially banning the majority of electric cars.”
https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/23879009.norwich-city-council-ev-parking-sign-blunder-eaton-park/
Notice they try to blame the sign, when it is actually the council’s *weight* restriction.
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Back in the early 70’s I was a Civil Eng student working on the first of the A9 dualing sections between Perth and Dunblane . The sections being tarred were very critically checked, temperature, stone size, bitumen % etc etc, the final top wearing layer was given even more stringent inspection and the Boss walked up and down the strip looking for irregularities which he would mark with chalk and say ” that will break up in the winter” . There are still sections of pinkish coloured finish of the original road, that’s 50 years, good quality stuff. Most of the issues are separation between the layers of tar and even down in the sub base washing out , causing dips and of course poor quality tar.
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Joe P: that weight limit will exclude a host of cars, not just EVs. Anything bigger than a mid-size SUV or saloon/estate car will be too porky. For example, the current BMW 3 series ranges from just over 1500 to 2000kg; the LR Evoque is over 1700 kg.
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“70% of annual bitumen production is destined for road construction, its primary use.[5] In this application bitumen is used to bind aggregate particles like gravel and forms a substance referred to as asphalt concrete, which is colloquially termed asphalt.”
wonder where most comes from ?
“Bitumen (UK: /ˈbɪtjʊmɪn/, US: /bɪˈtjuːmən, baɪ-/)[1] is an immensely viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales.”
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ps- ref – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitumen
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“Council pothole repair team is an immensely viscous constituent of local authorities. Depending on its exact composition it can be a hastily applied sticking plaster, or an apparently inert mass which responds to reports of road damage over very large time scales.”
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Jaime – Ha, also known for being TARdy.
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I think it’s obvious that climate change is making potholes worse. So much money is being devoted to opposing climate change that there is less for other activities including road maintenance.
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Mark – thanks for the above link to NALOPKT, which gives link to Roger Harding of “Round Our Way” who gets to make this quote in the BBC ARTICLE –
“The weather extremes that climate change brings are sadly creating many more of them at a time when cuts mean repairs are already not keeping up.”
Had a quick look at “Round Our Way” website.
from the “our story” page –
“Debates in the media often feel like a slanging match when the majority of us just want practical action without the fanfare. That’s especially true when it comes to climate change.
Round Our Way was created for the growing number of us worried that the impact climate change has on families like ours isn’t getting the attention it deserves. We can tell that floods, heatwaves and droughts are getting worse and closer to home. We can see that weather extremes are increasing food prices, and our reliance on fossil fuels is jacking up our energy bills.
We can also see that some politicians and companies get away with bad decisions or even making loads of money hurting our environment while we’re left to pick up the pieces.
Round Our Way shares stories about the impact climate change has on our communities and the incredible local people quietly doing something about it.
Groups of people coming together to fight for something better is behind much of what is great in Britain, like our NHS. If enough of us speak up about what climate change could cost us we’ll be impossible to ignore.”
with this at the bottom – “We are grateful to the charitable foundations who make Round Our Way’s work possible.”
Wonder who the “charitable foundations” might be, can’t find a list on the website?
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dfhunter,
They’re coy about it, but from their website they seem to work closely with Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), so perhaps enough said.
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Mark – loved this article from them – https://www.roundourway.org/our-impact/uk-temperatures-moved-205-miles-south-on-average-last-year-with-slough-now-as-hot-as-tarouca-portugal
with this partial quote –
“Alex Steenfeldt, architect at Childs Sulzmann Architects commented: “Historically the UK has focused on designing houses to ensure that warmth is kept in during the colder winter months with little regard to how that same heat will be lost in the warmer summer months. This approach is beginning to cause significant problems with houses overheating.
“By contrast Southern European countries like Portugal and Spain, where the climate is consistently warmer, design their houses in the opposite way – to keep heat out.
“In the UK we may start to see houses having to rely more on energy intensive cooling measures such as air conditioning, which would put additional strain on households that are already struggling with energy bills and would further contribute to the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing this climate change.”
AAH – open a few windows, they get quotes & print them from anybody it seems as it’s London that may have the biggest UHI effect.
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dfhiunter, I’m glad the BBC drew Round Our Way to our attention. I can’t say I’m impressed with their version of climate hysteria.
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