CONTACT BBC *TODAY* TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE.

THIS IS WHAT EXTINCTION REBELLION IS DOING IN THE UK.  WE SHOULD FOLLOW THEIR FOOTSTEPS AND PUT PRESSURE ON CANADA'S MEDIA TO REPORT ON CLIMATE CHANGE.

PICK UP THE PHONE/SEND A LETTER TO THE BBC *TODAY* CALL UPON THE BBC TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE.  The BBC has failed to cover the severity of the issue of climate change for many years, and we need your help to rally them to their duty as a public service broadcaster. We need them to use their broadcasting power to lead worldwide media to fight climate change.

(1) BY PHONE
We are going to bombard the BBC phone lines (phone numbers below) all day about the climate emergency until it sinks in! Let the operator know that you think the BBC needs to do more to cover the climate emergency and read out our requests.
Click here to see the requests.
Pick up the phone and help us out:
BBC Contacts
Complaints Form: https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/faqs/forms
Comments Phone Number: 03704 101060
Complaints: 03700 100 222
   
(2) BY EMAIL
Fill the BBC’s email boxes with complaints (sample email below).
Write how you feel about the lack of coverage of the climate emergency.
Send to any/all of the below:
BBC Head Office Complaints Team
ECU@bbc.co.uk
Any @bbc.co.uk email address - programmes, broadcasters...

Some examples;
today@bbc.co.uk
feedback@bbc.co.uk
saturdaylive@bbc.co.uk
[insert name of broadcaster.lastname]@bbc.co.uk
You can also log a complaint online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/


Sample email:

Dear (BBC/Programme Name/Presenter)

I am contacting you to express my concern that the BBC is failing to give the Climate Emergency we find ourselves in the urgent attention it warrants.

The BBC’s mission statement says that it is the Corporation’s duty to inform and educate. Yet the BBC is failing in this duty in its reporting of the seriousness of the situation we are in and on the unprecedented action our governments need to take in order to prevent the destruction of life on earth as we know it. Many solutions exist, these need to be the centre of an urgent public debate on the best way forward for all life on earth.

On 13 December the UN Secretary General said that our failure to tackle warming was ’suicidal’.

The BBC’s guidelines state, 'Man-made climate change exists: If the science proves it we should report it. The BBC accepts that the best science on the issue is the IPCC’s position’”

The IPCC’s position is that we must limit global warming to 1.5°C and that we are currently on course to the world heating up by 3°C. The IPCC have said that we have a window of just 12 years to significantly reduce our carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions to avert a major human and ecological catastrophe.

On 11 September, Antonio Guterres UN Secretary-General, said,
“If we do not change course by 2020, we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences for people and all the natural systems that sustain us,” (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/11/fossil-fuel-dependence-poses-direct-existential-threat-warns-un-chief)


On 20 August, Professor Han Joachim Schellnhuber
(Head of Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Senior Advisor to Pope Francis and Angela Merkel and the EU) said that, “Climate change is now reaching the end-game, where very soon humanity must choose between taking unprecedented action, or accepting that it has been left too late and bear the consequences.” (https://www.climatecodered.org/2018/08/take-unprecedented-action-or-bear.html?m=1)

The BBC must lead from the front on the climate emergency - I stand in solidarity with Extinction Rebellion and therefore request:

1. The BBC Director General Tony Hall agree to a meeting with a delegation from Extinction Rebellion to discuss how the corporation can meet its crucial moral duty to tell the full truth on the climate and ecological emergency.
2. The BBC declare a climate and ecological emergency - we need to act now, the extinction of the natural world is happening and we face the collapse of our civilisations.
3. The BBC place the climate and ecological emergency as its top editorial and corporate priority - integrated into all of aspects of the BBC’s output, not just environmental sections - by adoption of a climate emergency strategic plan, at the level of urgency the corporation placed on informing the public about World War 2.
4. The BBC to divest all pension funds, investments and bank accounts from fossil fuel corporations and their bankers.
5. The BBC, its subsidiaries and its supply chain to agree to be zero-carbon by 2025.
6. The BBC to publish an annual eco-audit of all BBC operations, including summary of key ecological and carbon data.
7. The BBC to take a lead on encouraging other national & global media corporations to join the global efforts to save humanity / nature from existential crises.
8. The BBC to only allow think-tank spokespersons or lobbyists on-air to discuss the climate and ecological emergency whose funding is fully transparent.

Yours sincerely

(Your name and address)

SOME EXAMPLES OF THE BBC IGNORING/NOT COVERING THE SEVERITY OF CLIMATE CHANGE

• The BBC refused to cover reports on the UN Security Council special conference on climate change in July 2018. Dire warnings were given about the security implications of mass migration caused by climate change.
  
• In September, the UN Secretary General appealed to news o utlets to cover his upcoming speech on climate change and on 10 September he then delivered it, warning that we now face "a direct existential threat" and warned of "runaway climate change". The BBC refused to cover that on TV or radio news.
  
• Following a string of stinging complaints, the BBC has given ground and promised to improve its coverage of news but it still refuses to allow the public to hear the really frightening material in connection with the various climate feedbacks and tipping points.
  
• Many campaigners fear the BBC has a policy of not frightening the public but we need to stop the censorship if people are to realise the seriousness of the situation and call for dynamic action to prevent catastrophe
  

Let's help get the BBC on the right side of history!


Love and rage,


Extinction Rebellion