Guest post by WUWT moderator Andi Cockroft
I wrote the other week of an Evening With His Lordship – aka Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley – in which I outlined his presentation made here in New Zealand.
Many commenters seemed to take issue with my spelling of “sceptic” – which of course is correct for an Anglo Saxon such as I, or some berated my referral to Christopher as “His Lordship” – which of course is equally correct for an Anglo Saxon – it is simply courtesy after all.
I do point out that most of my adult life has been spent developing computer “programs”, which read and write to “disk” (although I do sometimes rebel and use a disc) – and when the painful necessity arises, I can even spell “initialize” – so I am quite adaptable to US English when needed.
Hopefully here though, attending a presentation by Catherine Leining, one of New Zealand’s only two disciples of Al Gore, should prove less contentious – with I suspect very few real sceptics in the auditorium.
I had hoped to report quite dispassionately and simply compare the arguments put forward by Christopher and those by Catherine – but regrettably that is just not possible.
The two presentations could have not be further apart in technique had they tried.
Whilst Christopher mixed wit, scientific argument and many citations, the pitch by Catherine was primarily emotive.
Introduced by Wellington’s Green Mayor, Celia Wade-Brown, the first 25 minutes were spent on who Catherine was. The presentation proper started just before 6pm.
But none of the scientific papers, charts, graphs, comparisons etc of Monckton – no – here was weather in all its forms: floods, droughts, winds, snow – you name it – suddenly it is “weather is climate”.
Plenty of quotes – Hansen, Trenberth et al but surprisingly no mention of Mann ! None of which said anything other than “it’s worse than we thought”
Prof James Renwick was there to lend support, a leading light at NIWA in earlier times, now an associate Professor at Wellington’s Victoria University
From left to right: Mayor Celia Wade-Brown, Catherine Leining and James Renwick
But I digress. There was a slide with a couple of graphs on there, and I can report that not only is the hockey stick alive and well, it has a twin!!!
I wasn’t quick enough on the camera to capture the image, but the ever-so-typical Mannian flat-line with the uptick to infinity was shown above an almost identical graph showing CO2 concentrations in ppm – also heading skyward to infinity.
Of course this was followed almost immediately by the graphs comparing historic 10 (or was it 20) millennia temperature versus CO2 concentrations. The granularity of which was totally incapable of allowing any interpretation of what preceded what.
More CAGW threats followed, with the typical underwater Maldives stunt, and dire warnings of “likely” temperatures around the globe if we fail to act.
At no time was there any attempt to discuss or explain Climate Sensitivity, Albedo (other than briefly during Q&A), ENSO, Ocean Heat, Aerosols, Proxies, Solar Maxima… the list of missing discussions is almost endless
Towards the end, I was quite surprised that there were no “tipping points” – but in quick successions these were three – but so monumental were they that I forget what they were – something about public opinion I think.
A long presentation on what must be done (but not why it should be done), with windmills, solar, battery cars for all, self-sufficiency for Africa, Carbon Trading, bio-fuels, no more coal, no more bad oil – although apparently “Z” (a brand-name for Shell Petroleum over here) are the good guys and Exxon the bad guys
Towards the end, a series of “red herrings” – it’s the Sun (apparently not), warming has stopped (apparently not), there is no consensus (oh yes there is – 98% climate scientists agree), it’s all based on models (no it’s not), CO2 is a beneficial gas (no it’s not it’s harmful) and a few others.
In all, a very different style of presentation from His Lordship’s more scientific fact-based presentation, this one based primarily on assumptions that the CO2 theory is already fact and that we must act – but no justification of the underlying science to prove the affirmations.
Q&A was interesting – I asked why NIWA (responsible for the Climate record in NZ) was reporting temperature increases twice the global average – according to James Renwick no it’s not – it’s only about 10% above average – I’ll check that one.
Interesting discussion around polar temperatures (and this is where albedo was touched on), and apparently Antarctica is thawing just as much as the Arctic – it just has more ice so will take longer.
Finally, I knew it had to happen. NZ emits about 47% of its GHG’s from agriculture. A fervent Vega sitting in the gallery insists that if we all took Vitamin B12 supplements, we could all relinquish our addiction to beef and save all that flatulence.
On that note, I left. But since I had missed my evening meal to attend this presentation, I stopped off for a curry on the way home – if that doesn’t add methane to the atmosphere I don’t know what will.
Andi
She was preaching to the choir about stuff already settled and certain, as you were aware.
Activists are beyond questioning the cause of things, as they should be: no activism should start until the cause-effect relationship has concluded. And since NIWA has been “vindicated” by its earlier lawsuit/re-do, there is no point in questioning the NIWA data in such a situation.
Putting a question to such a one at such a gathering goes back to the validity of the entire evening. Can be done, but these people are supporters of orthodox authority. Until you can stand up and say that Gore or the NZ Met Service have come out critically against CAGW projections, there is no ammunition that can go up against what is, in essence, a ghost.
There is no substance to the activist speech – as you noted. It’s all emotional rallying of the troops, just as exhortations of joining the fight against the Hun in WWI had no discussions about the place any New Zealander had in the European war.
The only question that might be worthy has to do with why, with all the settledness and certainty, after 25 years of world study (post 1988) the outcome for the next fifty years was no better defined now that in the beginning. Not just the temperature rise, but the effects, have the same range as to begin with. It is as if all the work and observations have had no impact on their models, because by now we really should have a better idea than a 1 – 6 C rise in temps or a 0.2 – 6.0m rise in sea level.
The answer would require a rebuttal, of course, which you would not get, but the point might be of a type that an activist would have to deal with, like an anti-hunger activist being unable, after years of work, to tell you how many people needed to be fed.
Most Americans are clewless about British English.
So disheartening. They’re all parroting this narrative by rote now. What’s sad is that, after this scandal is finally exposed and discredited, people like this woman’s reputations will emerge without a stain. None of them will be held to account for the damage they have wreaked on the world. “Oops, never mind” and on to the next redistributive scam.
Jorgekafkazar: Americans use different spellings as a result of our earlier history. After the Revolution, the leadership decided that with peoples from all the various countries that made up these new United States and with the influx of other peoples and various pronounciations already extant that a standardized (and more rational-although not totally rational) spelling might be in order – hence Webster’s New Dictionary. A lot of our spelling differences can be traced back to that effort.
That’s an interesting report. I read your comments about Shell and ExxonMobil. As a Shell shareholder (I own some ExxonMobil, as well), I spent a couple of hours over the weekend reading the firm’s 2012 Form 20-F (the equivalent of a 10-K for foreign-domiciled firms with qualifying U.S.-listed shares) filing for the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission.
It’s been a number of years since I last read this report which must be filed annually. I was horrified; Shell has completely capitulated. I’ve never seen such groveling and kowtowing. I’m sure it reflects Shell’s European residence and an expedient effort to avoid provoking the CO2 crazies who reside there.
If skeptic is spelled sceptic in British English, is skip spelled scip?
I can sympathize, not so much with sitting through insanity, but with spelling. As a child I read voraciously and frequently got spelling tests wrong because I assumed that “colour” was just another way to spell “color.” I had no idea that they spell some words differently in various Anglophone countries around the world, and insisted that I’d seen that spelling in a book so it must be correct.
But as for the insanity, I teach high school, so I guess I sit through quite a bit of it, actually. 🙂
To quote Churchill, ” two great nations divided by a common language.”
Well, that explains a lot about Ms. Catherine. Maybe someone should tell Catherine Leining that vitamin supplements are not readily absorbed in the body. The next time you pee, just about every last bit of your vitamin supplement goes out your body. Not all of it of course but almost all. The only proper way to get vitamins is food and drink, and meat is the best source for B12.
However, I will admit that farm animals are not treated properly and sometimes slaughtered inhumanely. If I had my way, all animals would be required to eat a diet with no growth hormones and the animals would be required to have clean living spaces.
‘the first 25 minutes were spent on who Catherine was.’ a sure sign , if ever there was one , that what would follow would be rubbish .
Regarding spelling. I always called the American way of spelling the easier way to spell words. Spelling in this language is already hard enough, why make it harder?
Kerb/curb, tyre/tire, big deal!
AGW is popular with politicians and their sycophants and coat-tail-riders because it dooes not require the use of facts, reproducible experiments, applied logic, or any other taxing intellectual processes. It only demands sufficient rhetoric to persuade/intimidate the low-information voters into supporting the politicians and their veiled quest for increased power and control over everything.
Leave the difficult mental processes to the vanishing species call ‘critical thinkers.’
Ah, yes… curried methane.
I’m surprised (or is it surprized? It is easy for a non-AngloAmerican to get lost in these linguistic details) that she still used the Maldives underwater stunt; it is after all some time since the new president of the Maldives assured the world that the island nation was not sinking after all. No doubt to calm investors who would hesitate to spend money in a doomed country.
A fact not often taught in school is that the Boston T Party was soon followed by the Boston U Party, in which a group of patriots disguised as grammar teachers yanked all the redundant U’s out of words like “color” and threw them into Boston Harbour. … er, Harbor…. whatever…
Pathway,
I believe it was Bernard Shaw who said that, not Churchill (who probably happily quoted Shaw, and possibly without attribution.)
ConTrari,
Surprised is correct. Even for those of use who speak/read/write American English as their first language, these details can be confusing. We get an instinctive feel for some of these issues, but I doubt anyone other than an English Major could actually provide a coherent rule for when we use ize vs ise.
The former “Dutch Royal Shell” company thought it better to conceal their connections to Dutch Queen Beatrice….and British Petroleum went to “BP” as “Beyond Petroleum”. The monarch-monopolists like playing mind/word games….and credit default science scams on subjects and little people.
Just be careful with the insertion of timely spaces between words or
A sceptic
becomes
Asceptic
Lorry, truck, petrol, gasoline what’s the difference? I’m sure that Ms Lemming is only looking out for the good of humankind just as much as I understand the spelling comparisons in the previous posts.
Andi Cockroft:
You say
Interesting. I am reminded of the debate at St Andrews University which Monckton, Morner and I won.
I provide an account of it here
http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=2938
Richard
How to pronounce ghiti?
Read about this in the 8th grade and it stuck. It was a short essay on spelling and the odd pronunciation of pairs of letters.
It’s amazing sometimes how names and appearance can match mental outlook. For example Catherine Leinin…..g and she does look quite a bit like Christine O’Donnell. Just sayin….
A wry smile was evoked by the dystopian title of an evening entitled: ‘Climate Reality Presentation’, conducted it seems, by the expected line-up of intellectually bankrupt, NZ wealth re-distribution champions from the Council Chambers, Wellington Town Hall speaks volumes about local politics and leadership in New Zealand.