And while we’re looking at Sky News — and climate — we’re delighted to see that its commentators have found a new hero:

CHRIS KENNY: … Professor Andy Pitman from the University of New South Wales ... - The Kenny Report, Sky News, 9 October, 2019

ALAN JONES: Professor Andrew Pitman ... - Jones & Credlin, Sky News, 8 October, 2019

ANDREW BOLT: … Professor Andy Pitman ... - The Bolt Report, Sky News, 13 September, 2019

Yes, Sky has fallen head over heels for a climate scientist — and how could that be?

Because Professor Pitman recently said something they loved:

ANDY PITMAN: This may not be what you expect to hear but as far as the climate scientists know there is no link between climate change and drought. Now, that may not be what you read in the newspapers and sometimes hear commented but there is no reason a priori why climate change should make the landscape more arid. - The Kenny Report, Sky News, 9 October, 2019

Andy Pitman is an award-winning climate scientist at the University of New South Wales.

And ever since Sky discovered his comment, made at a talk back in June, the network’s been playing it pretty much on a loop:

CHRIS KENNY: … just have a listen to Professor Andrew Pitman, who’s Australia’s leading expert on this and he’s certainly a qualified climate scientist, and one who certainly says that there is anthropogenic climate change ... Joel Fitzgibbon, if that’s what the science says, then politicians who link the current disasters to climate change are being opportunistic and misleading. - The Kenny Report, Sky News, 9 October, 2019

And here’s Andrew Bolt singing Pitman’s praises again later that day:

ANDREW BOLT: … even one of our most committed climate scientists, Professor Andy Pitman, admits there is actually no link between global warming and drought. - The Bolt Report, Sky News, 9 October, 2019

Note the emphasis on “admits”, as if he’s known it all along and finally fessed up.

And there were more plaudits for Pitman on Jones & Credlin, where Jones used him to mount an attack on Water Resources Minister David Littleproud’s recent acknowledgement that climate change is making the drought worse in south-eastern Australia:

ALAN JONES: ‘… there is no reason why climate change should make the landscape more arid.’ Unquote. But you see, Frydenberg the Treasurer and Littleproud are impotent to assist farmers suffering from drought so they mouth the platitudinous rubbish that it’s a consequence of climate change. - Jones & Credlin, Sky News, 8 October, 2019

Alan Jones has also cited Pitman’s comments enthusiastically on his 2GB/4BC breakfast show and in The Daily Telegraph and Courier-Mail.

And Andrew Bolt has quoted Pitman several times in his News Corp columns to help make the claim that there is no connection between drought and climate change:

… even our Water Minister does not dare tell the truth about the lack of water: that drought is not caused by global warming. - Herald Sun, 10 October, 2019

So, does Professor Pitman actually believe there’s no link?

Well, no. Because last month, before Sky really piled on, a clarification was issued to say the professor had left out a crucial word:

Andy fully admits he should have said: “there is no direct link between climate change and drought”. - Climate Extremes, ARC Centres of Excellence, 20 September, 2019

Yes, no direct link. But there’s still a link, says Pitman, telling Media Watch:

Do hotter temperatures lead directly to higher evaporation and a higher risk of drought? No. But does global warming lead to changes in rainfall patterns that can lead to drought? Yes. This indirect link is clear. - Email, Professor Andrew Pitman, University of NSW, 10 October, 2019

And expanding on that link by telling us:

In some regions, this increases the risk of drought, in other regions it decreases the risk. - Email, Professor Andrew Pitman, University of NSW, 10 October, 2019

In Australia, for example, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, summer rainfall in the north and west of the continent in the last 20 years has been far higher than the average since 1900, and in many places the highest on record.

But winter rainfall in the south east and south west of Australia has been much lower than average and in places the lowest on record.

Also, if you look at the published research — as Kenny, Jones and Bolt could easily have done — you’ll find any number of climate scientists concluding that global warming is having an effect.

The recent drought in South Africa, for example, in which Cape Town nearly ran out of water, was made three times more likely by climate change, according to researchers led by Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute.

And studies by different researchers of 45 droughts around the world — mapped here by UK website Carbon Brief — have found that 30 were made worse or more likely by human-induced climate change.

So, given that scientific evidence, has Professor Pitman’s Centre for Climate Excellence tried to tell these conservative commentators they’ve got it wrong?

Answer, yes. More than two weeks ago it tweeted:

Dear @theheraldsun & @theboltreport, stop claiming our scientists and Director Andy Pitman say there is no connection between drought and #climatechange. There is a connection and, unlike your public statements on climate change, it is nuanced ... - Twitter, @ClimateExtremes, 26 September, 2019

But seems Bolt, Kenny and Jones have blocked their ears, because they’re still treating Pitman’s original quote as gospel. As we saw when Chris Kenny, for the second time in his show, played it to Labor’s Matt Thistlethwaite:

CHRIS KENNY: … the leading scientist in this area is Professor Andy Pitman from the University of New South Wales and he makes very, very clear that there is absolutely no evidence that links the current drought to climate change. … Matt Thistlethwaite, do you agree that you’re wrong to try and associate bushfires and drought now with climate change? - The Kenny Report, Sky News, 9 October, 2019

Well, no, he did not agree, and no, he was not wrong.

But why let the facts or a clarification from the scientist you’re quoting spoil a good rant?

But let’s not put all the blame onto the Sky commentators, who are the most aggressive in the business. It’s also up to the scientists to correct the record, clearly, forcefully and repeatedly if they’re being misquoted. And they have not done that as loud as they should.