Cameron backs out. So much for that attempt to sink skeptical arguments.
From King of the World to Chicken of the Sea: Director James Cameron challenges climate skeptics to debate and then bails out at last minute
Via the SPPI Blog, Source: Climatedepot
Hide the Debate: Cameron ducks Climate Debate with Breitbart, Morano, & McElhinney
by Marc Morano
ASPEN COLORADO: Hollywood director James Cameron challenged three high profile global warming skeptics to a public debate at a global warming and energy conference. But Cameron backed out of the debate at the last minute after environmentalists “came out of the woodwork” to warn him not to engage in a debate with skeptics because it was not in his best interest.
Cameron challenged Andrew Breitbart, Climate Depot’s Marc Morano and filmmaker Ann McElhinney of ‘Not Evil Just Wrong.’ The debate was already in the program for the Aspen American Renewable Energy Day (AREDAY) summit. The website program described the agreed to debate as “AREDAY Climate Change Debate: Reality or Fiction?” (see image below)
After setting up the public global warming debate, Cameron and his negotiator then changed formats multiple times and initially said it would be open to the media and then said he would only participate if it was private with no recording devices. The skeptics agreed to all the changes. According to AREDAY organizers, activist Joseph Romm of Climate Progress urged Cameron not to go ahead with the debate as well.
Cameron’s cancellation of the agreed to debate did not happen until one debate participant (Morano) was already in mid-air, flying from DC to Aspen on Saturday August 21 to attend the debate. (AREDAY did grant Morano a 90 minute slot to speak at the summit. See: Climate Depot’s Presentation at Warmists’ Summit Met By Hostile Interrupting Moderator and Crowd; Call for Morano to Kill Himself!)
(Morano Note: After ducking debate, James Cameron boldly slammed global warming skeptics as “swine” on the day he was supposed to be debating them. “I think they’re swine” Cameron told a friendly audience at the AREDAY summit. Also see: Cameron Morphs Into Gore, Quits AGW Debate: ‘Chickened out–even after he won Gore-like concessions that there would be no media and no audio or video record kept’ — How does Cameron square ducking a climate debate he set up when just a few months ago he seemed so confident? See: Director James Cameron Unleashed: Calls for gun fight with global warming skeptics: ‘I want to call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out with those boneheads’)
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Below is detailed report from Ann McElhinney of www.NotEvilJustWrong.com on how Cameron ducked out of debate he set up.
James Cameron—King of Hypocrites
Written by Ann McElhinney
Sunday, 22 August 2010 17:49
Last March James Cameron sounded defiant.
The Avatar director was determined to expose journalists, such as myself, who thought it was important to ask questions about climate change orthodoxy and the radical “solutions” being proposed.
Cameron said was itching to debate the issue and show skeptical journalists and scientists that they were wrong.
“I want to call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out with those boneheads,” he said in an interview.
Well, a few weeks ago Mr. Cameron seemed to honor his word.
His representatives contacted myself and two other well known skeptics, Marc Morano of the Climate Depot website and Andrew Breitbart, the new media entrepreneur.
Mr. Cameron was attending the AREDAY environmental conference in Aspen Colorado 19-22 August. He wanted the conference to end with a debate on climate change. Cameron would be flanked with two scientists. It would be 90 minutes long. It would be streamed live on the internet.
They hoped the debate would attract a lot of media coverage.
“We are delighted to have Fox News, Newsmax, The Washington Times and anyone else you’d like. The more the better,” one of James Cameron’s organizers said in an email.
It looked like James Cameron really was a man of his word who would get to take on the skeptics he felt were so endangering humanity.
Everyone on our side agreed with their conditions. The debate was even listed on the AREDAY agenda.
But then as the debate approached James Cameron’s side started changing the rules.
They wanted to change their team. We agreed.
They wanted to change the format to less of a debate—to “a roundtable”. We agreed.
Then they wanted to ban our cameras from the debate. We could have access to their footage. We agreed.
Bizarrely, for a brief while, the worlds most successful film maker suggested that no cameras should be allowed-that sound only should be recorded. We agreed
Then finally James Cameron, who so publicly announced that he “wanted to call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out,” decided to ban the media from the shoot out.
He even wanted to ban the public. The debate/roundtable would only be open to those who attended the conference.
No media would be allowed and there would be no streaming on the internet. No one would be allowed to record it in any way.
We all agreed to that.
And then, yesterday, just one day before the debate, his representatives sent an email that Mr. “shoot it out ” Cameron no longer wanted to take part. The debate was cancelled.
James Cameron’s behavior raises some very important questions.
Does he genuinely believe in man made climate change? If he believes it is a danger to humanity surely he should be debating the issue every chance he gets ?
Or is it just a pose?
The man who called for an open and public debate at “high noon” suddenly doesn’t want his policies open to serious scrutiny.
I was looking forward to debating with the film maker. I was looking forward to finding out where we agreed and disagreed and finding a way forward that would help the poorest people in the developing and developed world.
But that is not going to happen because somewhere along the way James Cameron, a great film maker, has moved from King of the World to being King of the Hypocrites.
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Addendum
In other news from the SPPI Blog
===========================================================
Climate Depot’s Presentation at Warmists’ Summit Met By Hostile Interrupting Moderator and Crowd; Call for Morano to Kill Himself!
Source: Climatedepot
Global Warming Summit’s Warm Welcome: Morano told to drive car into garage with engine running and then close the doors
By Marc Morano
[SPPI Note: This is the same arrogant and hapless Joe Romm who claimed that global warming cause the collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis in August of 2007. For other entries on Romm see here: http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/commentaries/climate_mccarthyism.pdf
and here: http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/blogwatch/climate_inquisition.pdf
and here: http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/commentaries/romms_fairy_tales.pdf ]
***************************
Note from Climate Depot’s Executive Editor Marc Morano:
My presentation at Aspen American Renewable Energy Day (AREDAY) summit on Sunday August 22, 2010 at 5:30 was met by a rude moderator and hostile audience. I was offered the 90 minute time slot to present the skeptical view of man-made climate change after Hollywood director James Cameron’s cowardly final cancellation of a pre-planned and agreed to global warming debate. See here: From King of the World to Chicken of the Sea: Director James Cameron Sets up Debate with Skeptics Then Flees! Cameron Ducks Climate Debate with Breitbart, Morano, & McElhinney
Cameron’s cancellation of the debate did not happen until I was already in mid-air, flying from DC to Aspen on Saturday August 21 to attend the debate. After challenging us to the public debate, Cameron was spooked by Joseph Romm of Climate Progress who warned him not to debate us. Finally, we were told Cameron would debate us if Romm joined the debate and at Romm’s insistence there would be no cameras or media present. We agreed and I flew to Aspen. (See full report of Cameron’s chickening out here. How does Cameron square ducking a climate debate he set up when just a few months ago he seemed so confident. See: Director James Cameron Unleashed: Calls for gun fight with global warming skeptics: ‘I want to call those deniers out into the street at high noon and shoot it out with those boneheads’)
After arriving I found out that Cameron had canceled the debate that he challenged us to. The AREDAY global warming summit organizers then offered me the consolation prize of 90 minutes to speak to the conference and present the skeptical argument with Q and A from the audience. But the 90 minute event turned out to be further evidence of manipulation by Cameron and the ARDAY conference organizers.
My PowerPoint presentation was repeatedly interrupted by ARDAY moderator Richard Greene and the audience was not receptive to me continuing my presentation. Instead, the bulk of my presentation turned into a disjointed moderator and audience rant session. I attempted several times to return to my presentation, but the crowd and moderator refused to cooperate and seemed completely disinterested.
One participant confused carbon dioxide with carbon monoxide. She suggested I kill himself by driving my car into my garage and then close the doors with the engine running. I twice attempted to explain to the ARDAY conference participant that there was a difference between carbon dioxide — a harmless trace essential gas we exhale from our mouth– and toxic carbon monoxide, but to no avail. I sadly shook my head and told the audience: “Wow, what a warm welcome I have gotten here.”
In the end, the ARDAY’s offer of 90 minutes for me to present the skeptical view of man-made global warming after Cameron’s debate cancellation revealed itself to be essentially disingenuous.
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Well he got one part right of “shoot it out”. Unfortunately its was his mouth. Another case of foot, mouth, swallow. They just get more and more bizarre. It’s a bit like the kid shouting his mouth off across the street. The second you challenge him he goes running into mummy because the big man across the road is a bully.
Childishly stupid behaviour.
Perhaps he was wholly convinced on the AGW talking points, and decided to read the complaints of the skeptics and became less convinced. To the point of embarassment.
Just maybe he is wrestling with his conscience, given all the hype he has helped to perpetuate.
Avatar was a wonderful film, made by a gutless wonder. Who knew?
I feel no compunction to be kind about those who have no honour, but I’ll watch their films. I’m sure Cameron DID believe in CAGW, but the indicators are that after doing some preparatory research for the debate, he ain’t so confident now. I’m sure he’d never admit it.. given his previous verbosity on the subject, that’d be a lot of face to lose.
I guess his people finally convinced him that his smurf tree only exists in the movie.
My guess is that, as he prepared for the debate, he realized that contrarians had comebacks to his “how to talk to a climate skeptic” talking points and that he wouldn’t win in a walkover–or win at all.
Chicken, chicken!
Ecotretas
So James Cameron and Al Gore have something in common besides being rich [snip – policy].
They are terrified of being put into a situation where their brainless utterances would be picked up and used against them.Therefore they try hard to shut out as much of the media as they can.While they hold some sort of presentation behind closed doors.To fellow kool aid drinkers of course.
Thus debates are out of the question. It is amazing that James even got this close,before he realized he was going to exposed for he really is. A ignoramus on the topic of Global Warming/Climate Change. A moron for getting himself into a corner of dilemma on his own initiative.
I guess the proof will be whether Cameron quits running his mouth about AGW and stops calling skeptics “boneheads”. If he continues to do both it doesn’t say much for his integrity.
Cameron’s obviously decided that his future lies in science fiction – so as a votary of AGW he’s in good company.
Michael Moron has been strangely quiet on the topic with films since an Inconvenient Goof. Moral of the story, never confuse an actor or a director with an intelligent being. Some of them are, but very, very few are good at anything but their craft.
JG says:
August 23, 2010 at 12:55 pm
“Just maybe he is wrestling with his conscience, ”
Conscience? If he had a conscience, he would have credited Poul Anderson’s story “Call me Joe” as the inspiration for Avatar. He didn’t, so he doesn’t have one. Just like George Lucas never credited Christin & Mezieres for all their ideas he ripped off from “Valerian”.
Here in England Cameron would be called a ‘twat’. Certainly his TV interviews over here showed him to be.
The ever-angry left at its best. Very good at calling names from atop their high horses but as for debating the facts… Nothing new here.
I think Cameron refusal to debate probably has more to do with advice from Joe Romm. Joe did not want to lend credibility to skeptics by debating Morano. If your position has 90% approval/support, that could be an effective strategy but if a majority the public at large thinks climate change is overblown, refusal to debate simply reinforces the skepticism.
One of the many things that have convinced me that AGW is indeed a fraud is the complete absence of an open forum debate which has been called for many times by the ‘sceptical’ side of the argument but has never been taken up by the ‘warmists’. The nearest we have come is the heavily moderated Guardian debate.
As Ann M. eloquently comments above, if people are so concerned about the threat to humanity they should be taking every opportunity to put their case and their evidence, at the same time rebutting the science and evidence of the opposing camp.
Their failure to step up to the challenge exposes the weakness of their position more than anything else. The failure of the MSM to highlight the situation is extraordinary.
What’s the world coming to……dishonest hypocrites in the entertainment industry……next it’ll be politicians………oohhh the humanity!!!
James Cameron is a master of fantasy and of creating realistic interpretations of fantasy, indeed he has won many awards for his fantasies on screen.
Not Cameron’s finest moment, for sure. One would like to think it would teach him a little more caution, but apparently not so much.
Its how bullys respond when called out.
Wow, a life without consequences – I wonder what that’s like?
Promises, promises and never a need to keep any of ’em…
I remember a few months ago there was a report posted on WUWT about an AGW proponent who spoke at a skeptic’s event and came away impressed at how polite they were even though they disagreed with him.
SimonH says: August 23, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Avatar was a wonderful film…
Avatar was a visually amazingremake of a propaganda movie shown to children in the 90s.
SimonH says:
August 23, 2010 at 12:56 pm
“Avatar was a wonderful film, made by a gutless wonder. Who knew?”
Sorry Simon, have to disagree there, Avatar was absolute nonsense, made watchable by the backroom boys with powerful computers and graphics programs. I hate self loathing; we humans are all to blame baloney. Titanic was a far greater and up-lifting achievement. As to our esteemed director, well, you can’t take a loudhailer to a gunfight and you can’t shout cut when ever your ass gets kicked. Not in the real world.
Absolutely incredible behavior on the part of James Cameron – after all that hot air and talking it up like a prizefighter he bails out completely. What happened? Did he get the flu or something?
This story is one I am actively sharing with people that haven’t really kept up on the climate-change debate and believe me it’s stuff like this that gets a lot of attention. Now people are asking me “GregO why don’t we hear about this in the news? You should write to Newsweek or something – this isn’t right – how come no one is telling us the truth?”
CAGW is the largest example of Popular Delusion and Madness of Crowds in modern history.
Cameron is the worse type of gutless coward. A man who starts a fight, issuing challenges and than flee’s from the encounter, before it even happens.
I find it Ironic that he makes movies about underdogs and the value of moral character, when in reality, he has the same personal character traits as his antagonist of his films. I wonder if he can even grasp the depth of Irony here. Na, probably not.