This is a press release from CFACT sent to me. Post your Kicks or Kudos here, your choice, but play nice and be mindful of blog policy as moderators are standing by to snip your call. – Anthony
Target: Monckton
Have you noticed the kicking around that CFACT Advisor Lord Christopher Monckton’s been getting lately?
Add to the title “Viscount of Brenchley,” “whipping boy du jour.” Seldom a recent day goes by without some new name calling or conspiracy theory attacking Lord Monckton echoing through the left-wing blogosphere.
Why is Chris Monckton the victim of a global warming attack campaign? Effectiveness. Few have been so brilliantly effective at debunking the global warming scare as this compellingly articulate British Lord.
Lord Monckton does his homework. He scours the scientific literature. He devours every word and graph. He is in constant contact with a vast network of leading scientists throughout the world. He wades past the executive summaries and masters the details. He checks the math, checks the logic, and checks the consistency of what is claimed about our climate. He synthesizes global warming science and policy raising vital questions that provoke thought in the mind of any expert or layman with an open mind.
Despite the nearly unimaginable sums available to the global warming folks – despite their command of the media, the politicians in their thrall and the carbon profiteers lining up at the taxpayer’s trough, Lord Monckton and his allies are winning. Like the child who revealed that the Emperor had no clothes, Lord Monckton wakes the good sense of those who hear him. The public has caught on.
The warming propaganda machine has lost its momentum and is desperate to get it back. They want to silence Lord Monckton and remove him from the field. To that end they’ll say anything. They attack his title hoping we won’t notice that every British Viscount has a right and by long tradition is called “Lord.” They attack his graphs and charts, hoping we won’t bother to learn that most of his data comes straight from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the sources it cites. Lord Monckton had hoped that by using the IPCC’s data warming advocates would be forced to debate the merits. Sadly, they continue to alternate between mocking the data and restating their conclusions as received wisdom. Yet when granted a fair forum for debate, it is Monckton who triumphs. Just weeks ago his team of experts were voted the winners in a warming debate at the Oxford Union – a treasured haven of free thought.
Last year Lord Monckton gave a presentation on global warming in St. Paul Minnesota that became a sensation on YouTube. This inspired Prof. John Abraham of the University of St. Thomas to attack his presentation in a lengthy video. Lord Monckton has refuted Prof. Abraham using his own medium. The first of a series of videos setting the record straight are being released today and we invite you to view them.
As CFACT has said before, the chain of logic behind global warming claims does not hold up. Lord Christopher Monckton will neither be silenced, nor ignored. As Mahatma Gandhi told us, “first they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.”
It may be true that Lord Monckton is being targeted but he didn’t do himself any favors over at real climate by being shown to be incorrect. And then being shown incorrect by tamino at
http://tamino.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/mo-better-monckey-business/
which monckton not so surprisingly did not respond to.
I would love to see monckton enter a pre-prepared with someone like john cook. Boohooing at real climate is one thing but going up against the plethora of scientific evidence shown at skeptical science is another thing.
“Lord Monckton does his homework. He scours the scientific literature. He devours every word and graph. He is in constant contact with a vast network of leading scientists throughout the world. He wades past the executive summaries and masters the details. He checks the math, checks the logic, and checks the consistency of what is claimed about our climate. He synthesizes global warming science and policy raising vital questions that provoke thought in the mind of any expert or layman with an open mind.”
Sounds like a good charter for the IPCC!
Well having had a couple of enjoyable e-mail exchanges with The Viscount, relating to some of these Climate issues, I can’t think of anyone less deserving of the vitriol that gets levelled at him.
After all, he doesn’t have any need to bother with any of this stuff; other than he feels he can, and has made a difference to the dialog.
But then we all know that the ad hominem attack is the fastest way to lose debating points; and Lord Monckton is not one to try such juvenile tactics on.
George
“he looks like an overcooked prawn”
Monckton must care a great deal about the finer points on academic debate.
Lord Monckton makes for an easy punching bag because he’s out there speaking up. Just like how we use Al Gore as our punching bag.
No wait…
it’s not the same…
Lord Monckton actually has some knowledge behind him and can hold his own on the subject.
Sorry, my bad.
Re: “Lord”.
Let us, for the purpose of argument, assume that Christopher Monckton is in fact a pretender, with no right to use the titles “Viscount” or “Lord”.
If Chris Monckton, common bloke, reading the scientific literature, finds fault with the methodologies of researchers, and has laid out his objections in excruciating detail, could we give those objections a look, and ascertain whether his arguments have any merit, without resort to ad hominem diversions about his alleged delusions of grandeur?
Frankly, if Monckton wants to style himself “Grand and Exalted Poobah”, it says not a damned thing about the validity of his arguments about the science.
Having read the John Cook/Joe Romm juvenile “one liner” catchecisms to annhilate skeptical arguments against CO2-caused CAGW:
http://climateprogress.org/2010/08/09/rebutting-climate-science-disinformer-talking-points-in-a-single-line/
Link from WUWT recent post on the Climate App.
I can see why Monckton would be a target – he is formidable!
“Henry chance says:
August 12, 2010 at 9:19 am
Is the break up ice Denyberg floating south?”
No, Henry, it is becoming part of the multi-year ice in the Arctic ocean (mult-multi at thousands of years and hundreds of metres thick.
They attack his graphs and charts, hoping we won’t bother to learn that most of his data comes straight from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the sources it cites.
No, his graphs are attacked because he claims that they are based on data from the IPCC when in fact they are not.
Anthony
I have always found Lord Monkton on this subject to be quite sensible and a good presenter.
I hope that you will carry a liknk to the remainder of the rebuttal once publishes/available.
Likewise I think that it would be useful to have a link to what Prof. John Abraham broadcast/said. It appears from the intro by Lord Monkton that he plans summarising it, but for the sake of completness/fairness I consider that it would be useful to see the entire broadcast.
I am pleased to note that Lord Monkton suggests that his rebuttal will remain impartial. Personally, I consider it best for the facts to do the talking rather than resorting to over inflated/emotional outbursts.
I thoroughly enjoy the eloquence and humor Monckton employs when delivering his presentations. While not a climate scientist, Monckton admits so. But what is the skill level regarding data and methodology of each?
For some reason climate scientists feel that if a thermometer is in or next to a source of artificial heat in order to derive an accurate (“properly adjusted”) reading one must add to, increase, the indicated measurement. As a layman; Monckton sees folly in such process.
It is a sad day for science when after 400 years of temperature measurements educated scientists (some) still do not know how to proficiently utilize a thermometer.
Then there are those (GISS) who seem to claim that global temperatures can be accurately measured with just a few devices thousands of miles apart. Mann is even better. He only needs dendro data from ONE tree to determine 1,500 years of global temperature history.
Whilst mock Monckton they may, ultimately the Lord will prevail as a shining beacon of truth.
I think we should all thank Lord Monckton for adding a bit of sanity to all the hype. Here is mine:
Thank you sincerely Lord Moncton for your considerable and welcome contributions on this subject. Don’t let them “grind you down.”
When you are in the right, you can afford to keep your temper and when you are in the wrong, you can’t afford to lose your temper.
Lord christopher Monckton seems to be keeping his.
His opponents on the other hand…………………….
He stands for open debate and for that, i salute him.
Global Warming is the opening of the rabbit hole….. Lord Monckton ….Alex Jones….Max Keizer… Agenda 21….Trilateral Commission……Al Gore….Maurice Strong ….George Soros….Ben Santa….IPCC….WHO…Codex Alimintarus …..Barry Soetoro… Is it all a BAD dream?..zzzz
When our AGW friends in the mainstream media and the blogosphere dwell on character assassinations, it indicates they’ve lost the ball in their defense of the underlying science of AGW. Monckton presents staggering amounts of scientific evidence, and critics say “Don’t listen to him, he’s not a real Lord”. The average uninformed citizen is slowly waking up to the problem of “wait a minute, ya didn’t prove how the guy is wrong about what he says….”
Particularly egregious is the MSM’s journalistic malfeasance when they regurgitate such accusations rather than investigate the voracity of them – a point I make in my 7/6 American Thinker article “Smearing Global Warming Skeptics” http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/smearing_global_warming_skepti.html
The trouble with Lord Monckton is that he uses too many facts and not enough circumstancial evidence 🙂
Another sub-context in this discussion is that liberals hate titles of nobility. I’ve had many discussions with left leaning people on this subject.
So, Lord Monckton has several strikes against him vis-a-vis who will listen to him.
1.He’s logical. His opponents cannot make the same claim, as much of what they say about global warming is contradictory (it causes both flooding and deserts).
2.He’s right.
3.He’s Noble (in every sense of the word.)
4.His research is impeccable, and at least he actually does research. I believe him, and if you disagree with him, he remains noble (as in polite and nice) which, again, my own experience with AGW people has usually ended with them screaming…….
“Lord Monckton makes for an easy punching bag because he’s out there speaking up. Just like how we use Al Gore as our punching bag.”
Al Gore? You mean the “Poodle” Al Gore? We don’t even have to hit Poodle Al ourselves, since he sits in a corner hitting himself in the face.
Lord Monckton and Poodle Al are in such different leagues, that if Poodle Al’s league would explode, it would take three days before Lord Monckton would hear the explosion.
Lord Monckton comes from fighting stock – his father was a career army man as was his grandfather… The present Lord Monckton is the second Viscount, his father was the first and his father had a reputation as a General of being a man who could marshall his facts and figures and present a devastating assessment of any proposed operation or campaign. The present Lord Monckton has the same ability. Not a man to tangle with, I suspect that the glee with which his detractors found a flaw in his data may yet come back to bite them rather badly.
The Warmists are having a melt down.
>> Robert says:
August 12, 2010 at 9:58 am
I would love to see monckton enter a pre-prepared with someone like john cook. <<
I'd love to see it too. Are there any Warmist priests who aren't afraid to debate him?
Personally I view Mr. Monckton as a crackpot. However, I question the wisdom of overlaying rifle scope cross hairs on his image. If a green group did that it would be taken as a not so veiled threat. I know you don’t mean it that way, but still it is best to avoid inflammatory symbolism.
For a fun look at mathematical crackpots see “Mathematical Cranks ” by
Underwood Dudley.
http://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Cranks-Spectrum-Underwood-Dudley/dp/0883855070/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281635669&sr=8-1
These videos look like they’re going to be a more informal, audience friendly version of Lord Monckton’s super dense, point by point/word by word refutation of Abraham we saw here a couple of months ago.
Which could be a lot of fun, actually 😉
“Monckton keeps his temper. . .”
Well, apart from mocking people’s appearance (“overcooked prawn” and “big-bellied thugs”), alleged politics (“Nazis”), institutional affiliation (“Minnesota Bible College”), and intelligence (“zombie”).
And unless someone insults or disagrees with him, of course.
As a a person hopelessly contaminated by AGW theory, I am very happy
that Monckton is your front man.
Did you note that the House of Lords wants your Vicount to stop saying he
is a member of the upper house and that Queen’s Chancellor wants him to stop
plagiating the Parliament portcullis emblem? If he wasn’t so great in climate
science one might suspect that he is a pompous clown.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/11/lords-climate-christopher-monckton
a man of decency & honour