Claims that BBC article blamed cool UK summer on climate change are false
Article did not lay out any argument that it was linked to climate change
CLAIM
Posts across social platforms included a screenshot from a BBC Weather article about the coolest UK summer since 2015, with captions that indicated the article claimed the cold weather was due to climate change.
BACKGROUND
Posts were published on prominent UK-based accounts on X and Facebook in early September after news emerged that it had been the coldest summer in the region since 2015.
Julia Hartley-Brewer, a conservative British political commentator and radio presenter, posted a screenshot on September 2 to a BBC Weather article with the headline: “Coolest UK summer since 2015”, writing in the caption: “Please remember the rule, folks: Coolest UK summer – it’s due to climate change Hottest UK summer – it’s due to climate change Driest UK summer – it’s due to climate change Wettest UK summer – it’s due to climate change Average UK summer – it’s due to climate change.”
Hartley-Brewer has close to half a million followers on the platform, and this post was viewed over 950,000 times. She is currently a presenter on Talk TV, which is an opinion-orientated current affairs channel that bills itself as “the home of common sense”.
Hartley-Brewer has expressed views that are sceptical of climate change in the past. As recently as June, she said on her own programme that climate change was “abject nonsense”.
On BBC’s Question Time in 2022, she claimed the UN’s reporting on the dangers of climate change was “complete nonsense” and called disasters that have been attributed to climate change as just “weather”. News reports from that time indicate that the national broadcaster received a high volume of complaints after her appearance on the programme.
Another version of the same post about the cool summer article was published the following morning on September 3, on the Facebook page of Darren Grimes, a right-wing political commentator who presents a show on GB News.
His caption is almost a direct copy-paste from that of Julia Hartley-Brewer: “Coolest UK summer – it’s due to climate change Hottest UK summer – it’s due to climate change Driest UK summer – it’s due to climate change Wettest UK summer – it’s due to climate change Average UK summer – it’s due to climate change.”
Darren Grimes has made public statements on climate change in the past. In 2019, he denied he was a “climate change denier”, and more recently, he criticised the introduction of climate change education in schools.
METHOD
The article referenced in the screenshot is real and is available on the BBC website.
On reading the article, it is clear that the text — not included in the screenshot — does not link the cooler summer this year to climate change. In fact, meteorologist and weather presenter Sarah Keith-Lucas wrote in the piece: “The long-term trend for higher temperatures is continuing due to climate change, although individual years will see ups and downs in temperature.”
She went on to say that climate change has still meant an upward trend in more recent years, writing: “Five of the top 10 warmest summers on record in the UK have all occurred since 2000.”
There is no other reference to climate change in the article, which details the statistics released by the Met Office on average temperatures, rainfall and sunshine throughout June, July, and August.
We also checked an archived version of the original article from September 2 to ensure no changes were made since then, but the information is the same.
From this analysis, we can conclude that commentary suggesting the authorities were blaming the cool summer on climate change — and that this was detailed in the BBC article — was untrue.
While the article was real, the captions posted with the screenshots lacked context, and included an invented discourse about the cool weather’s link to climate change.
RATING
The article was real and did state it was the coolest summer since 2015, but it did not lay out any argument that it was linked to climate change.
SOURCES
X (formerly Twitter), Julia Hartley-Brewer. (2024). Available at: Please remember the rule, folks… [Accessed 17 Sep. 2024].
TalkTV (2024). Climate Change As A Fact Is ‘Abject Nonsense’ | Julia Hartley-Brewer Blasts Green Net Zero Policies. YouTube. [Accessed 17 Sep. 2024].
Hunter, R. (2022). Julia Hartley-Brewer claims climate change is ‘complete nonsense’ on Question Time. [online] The National. [Accessed 17 Sep. 2024].
Bray, A. (2022). Question Time backlash: BBC defends guest after viewers beg ‘take her off air’. [online] Express.co.uk. [Accessed 17 Sep. 2024].
Facebook.com, Darren Grimes. (2024). Facebook. [online] Coolest UK summer – it’s due to climate change [Accessed 17 Sep. 2024].
Facebook.com., Darren Grimes (2019). Video. [online] I’m not a ‘climate denier’. That’s a charge that’s increasingly used to shut down debate on Extinction Rebellion’s extremist prescription… [Accessed 17 Sep. 2024].
X (formerly Twitter), GB News. (2022). ‘This is open to left-wing activists attacking everything from capitalism to our state structures’… [Accessed 17 Sep. 2024].
Keith-Lucas, S. (2024). Summer 2024: coolest UK summer since 2015. [online] BBC Weather. [Accessed 17 Sep. 2024].