BBC Puts Its Own Spin On Earth’s Climate-Driven ‘Rotation Crisis’
Millisecond variations in Earth's length of day are routine, natural, and insignificant.
by Anthony Watts May 29, 2026, 10:30 AM
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Science Focus article “Something ‘unprecedented’ is now happening to Earth’s rotation, scientists say” claims that climate change is causing an “unprecedented” slowing of Earth’s rotation by 1.33 milliseconds per century, something not seen in 3.6 million years. [some emphasis, links added]
This is false. The data show that millisecond-scale variations in Earth’s length of day are routine, naturally occurring, and both technologically and biologically insignificant.
The BBC sensationalizes the issue as something extraordinary, stating that today’s rate of change is “unequivocally” unlike anything in millions of years. But Earth’s rotation has never been constant.
As explained in the Climate Realism rebuttal to Euronews on the same topic, seasonal atmospheric mass redistribution alone produces annual variations of 0.5 to 1 millisecond. Interannual ENSO shifts add another ±0.3 to 0.5 milliseconds. Decadal core-mantle coupling produces swings of 3 to 4 milliseconds.
https://climatechangedispatch.com/bbc-spin-earth-rotation-millisecond-crisis/
