The Great Global Warming Swindle
Martin Durkin's Channel 4 film argues that the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change is wrong, and that solar activity, not carbon dioxide, drives most modern warming. Physicist Richard Lindzen, biologist Patrick Moore, and science writer Nigel Calder appear on camera making the case that the IPCC has built its case on flawed models and a manufactured funding incentive for alarm. The film shows a temperature graph meant to track solar cycles against global temperature, a chart later shown to have been altered in ways that exaggerated the correlation. Oceanographer Carl Wunsch, also interviewed, said afterward that he was misled about the project's angle and that his comments were used out of context to suggest he doubted mainstream climate science. Ofcom later ruled the film had treated Wunsch unfairly and misrepresented some data, without upholding the broader complaint that it was systematically dishonest. The film remains a reference point in arguments over how documentaries handle scientific consensus, dissent, and the line between skepticism and distortion.