"I’m sceptical about man-made climate change. There’s absolutely no proof that carbon dioxide will kill us all. It’s not a poison, it’s the most important gas in the world. Carbon dioxide is an airborne fertiliser. How can farmers grow increasing amounts of food without a rise in CO2?”
"The 80-year old environmentalist and former broadcaster, admitted that his scepticism signalled the end of his career as he had known it.
“From that moment, I really wasn’t welcome at the BBC,” he said.
“They froze me out, because I don’t believe in global warming. My career dried up. I was thrown out of my own conservation groups and I got spat at in London.”
Mr Bellamy said things first began to change in 1996 when he spoke out against wind farms during one of his regular appearances on Blue Peter.
“That was the beginning really,” he told the Daily Mail. “From that moment, I was not welcome at the BBC.”
“I worked with the Wildlife Trusts for 52 years,” he said “And when they dropped me, they didn’t even tell me. They didn’t have the guts.
“I read about it in the newspapers. Can you believe it?
“Now they don’t want to be anywhere near me. But what are they doing? The WWF might have saved a few pandas, but what about the forests?
“What have Greenpeace done?”
Mr Bellamy’s wife Rosemary admitted that they had both been devastated by the developments.
“It did upset us terribly,” she said. “But we pretended not to be upset, didn’t we David? The best thing to do was not to talk about it. So we didn’t.
It’s been very difficult, because he does feel strongly about things.”
Mr Bellamy insisted that he had no regrets about being so outspoken and had not changed his opinions about global warming.
“I still say it’s poppycock,” he said. "For the last 16 years, temperatures have been going down and the carbon dioxide has been going up and the crops have got greener and grow quicker.
"We’ve done plenty to smash up the planet, but there’s been no global warming caused by man.
“If you believe it, fine. But I don’t and there’s thousands like me."
He added: "Who cares if they’ve put me on the back burner? I can still talk to my flowers, which are all fine and growing amazingly and say, “Thank you very much, David!”
David J. Bellamy OBE (born 1933) is an English professor, botanist, author, broadcaster and environmental campaigner.
Credentials:
Honorary Dr. of Science, Bournemouth University (1999)
PhD.
BSc.
OBE.
DUniv.
FLS.
FIBiol.
Discussion on Facebook
Richard Morel David Bellamy was a wonderful presenter. I remember watching him on tv when I was a kid. An amazing, intelligent man. Hugely inspiring, and a free thinker too. I guess that’s why we don’t hear from him anymore.
Terry Racine I knew little of him. I will research now. Ty, Jasna!
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Tim Everett Trees need it too, to make oxygen. It's a natural by product of rotting vegetation, Cows farting etc.
Phil Rockstroh What obligations does a news outlet have to air the views of someone so detached from reality and in contemptuous denial of the overwhelming evidence, gathered over decades of rigorous research, scrupulous proofed data, and overwhelming, peer-reviewed evidence that humankind produced Greenhouse gases are altering the planet's climate. The witless, delusion git should laughed out of the public realm.
Richard Morel Phil Rockstroh Do you suppose that David’s esteemed peers at Durham University are in the business of making witless delusional gits into professors?
Phil Rockstroh Richard Morel: Universities facilities are honeycombed with tenured, delusion-plangent fools. In fact, anyone, at this late date, who doubts the reality of extant, humankind climate chaos is either a highly paid, fossil industry shill, is gripped and ruled by belligerently obtuse contrarianism, or is simply a damn fool. And it is really that simple.
Stlenny Bruce This article invites discussion about what we know and don't know about a lot of subjects: rising (or decreasing) temperatures, climate change, carbon dioxide and global warming. If his research yields results that are different, that is all the more r…See More
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Michael W. Lurie Stlenny Bruce, you think he's part lunatic because that's what you've been led to believe.
In fact, he's correct.
Stlenny Bruce It'd be awesome to invite this guy and that Greta chick out. I'd enjoy that.
Jasna Jurjevic Corovic speaking of which, I wonder what happened to Hansel? why is it we only ever hear from Gretel but never from him 🤔 it's a Grimm state of affairs, I'll tell ya.
Adam Kitzmiller Well, CO2 is beneficial to plants, but animals (including humans) aren't plants. But that's besides the point. CO2 emissions are just one of many problems. It's a bit outdated to make Carbon Dioxide seem like the main issue.
Addressing how it works -…See More
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Packy Mc Mahon I'm for the plantIon of hemp as it eats co2 like it's going outta fashion.. A good read
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Xerxes Ru I met him at our uni in Nottingham when he was giving a lecture on environmental science as a guest speaker. A brilliant speaker, knowledgeable, factual yet down to earth. Had a lengthy chat with him afterwards on the very subject of global warming an…See More
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Jasna Jurjevic Corovic Whatever the experts say about the howling gales, thunder and lightning we've had over the past two days, of one thing we can be certain. Someone, somewhere - and there is every chance it will be a politician or an environmentalist - will blame the wea…See More
Ian Walls Two observations (Bearing in mind I'm no science expert nor am I as well read and eloquent as any of the commentators going before me in this thread)
1. Whether you accept man made global warming or not, the state of the air quality in most developed …See More
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Roger Bennett Wow. I never knew he jumped the shark.
I mean, he was paid as a science communicator so getting the science wrong is going to lose you gigs.
