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
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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 ]
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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.
Scott, it’s always do as I say not as I do.
What would you bet that NOAA has more elite qualifiers in frequent flyer programs than any other government organization? I know one guy a couple of years ago at the end of the year who flew to LA and back on the same day (never leaving LAX) so that he made 100K miles.
Susan Soloman bemoans how much time she spends flying all over the world (without any guilt).
Can’t wait for the Cartoon by Josh(c) on this one.
This is the best thing that could have happened for Moreno. What sort of points would he score debating this hollywood clown? Moreno would be accused of taking advantage of a challanged person. Better to wait for a chance to debate Hansen or Mann, not that they’ll ever get caught in any position where they would have to defend their illusions.
After all, on Planet earth, there are more creatures that look like Lobsters, than look like humans; so the human form is hardly a survival winning strategy.
However, the human form — especially the attractive female human form with a very thin decorative veneer of mild alienness layered over it — is certainly a winning strategy for mass-marketed entertainment.
Let’s hear it from Mr. James Cameron himself, who said about the lead female protagonist of his alien-world eco-fable, “Right from the beginning I said, ‘She’s got to have tits,’ even though that makes no sense because her race, the Na’vi, aren’t placental mammals. ”
We can reasonably suppose that a lobster with tits would not have put as many butts in seats for his profoundly silly movie. Nope, bring on the scientifically senseless hot blue chick.
And this fellow holds himself up as an expert on climate? The mind boggles.
The whole point of CAGW nowadays is to make rich people richer. I do not know if Cameron has his snout in the trough [I mean : … is investing wisely in renewable energy]. Certainly some people think Al Gore has made his first billion, no doubt with more to come if he keeps it going.
The clever thing is to get people who will be badly affected by the expensive ‘remedies’ to support it. To get turkeys not only voting for Christmas, but demanding it be Christmas every day.
The CAGW scare will only be over when the governments are no longer be able to support the heavy subsidies which makes it all so worthwhile. By that time the countries may be bankrupt and their industry in ruins, but if you are rich enough that won’t matter.
What are they afraid of? There is a PhD in psych to be had studying this kind of stuff.
ManBearChicken
😉
Regards
Six months ago this little kerfuffle would have infuriated me. Now I find myself laughing. The problem with ideologues is that they exist on the fumes of hysteria, on emotion. Their modus operandi is to hector, to harangue. A rational debate on the facts would reveal the empty underpinnings of their alarmist message. Imagine if the Nazis had been forced to rationally defend the vicious mythology they used to whip up the crowds. How could you end a rousing “Renewable Energy Day” with a splash of cold facts from people who know something about energy and the climate?
This is progress. But as Enneagram says (August 23, 2010 at 2:14 pm), don’t imagine for a moment that we have defeated the enviro-fascists, who still dominate in the halls of government, academia, and media. A few cold facts aren’t going to stand in their way; they’ll just duck the debates, and do their best to silence the ‘deniers’. It may seem silly to us now, but history is full of True Believers (cf. the work of that title by Eric Hoffer) who are perfectly happy to muzzle, jail, and kill those who deny their avowed ‘Truth’. Today’s idle threats and bravado could be tomorrow’s guillotine.
/Mr Lynn
Is Cameron related to Dawkins?
Cameron, Cameron, Cameron….tisk tisk tisk…mmm….mmm…mmm.
Never have seem avitar….never plan to.
The reality is even Romm knows the real score – as he encouraged Cameron NOT to debate. Guys, if your position is so unassailable, why no debate? Why don’t you just put an end to this controversy so we can move on to truly important issues? Oh, because a debate might just end it – with you on the losing side.
This is just another data point confirming that the AGW hypothesis is weak at best & AGW is really just a left wing political movement parading as science. Sad. A huge disservice to science & humanity. A prime example of the saying “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”.
reminds me of the movie “the untouchables” when the guy is confronted by Sean Connery and he states, “typical w…., shows up to a gun fight with a knife”, James Cameron bails out of the Ok Corral…(debate)
Eeek!
Have these people never seen the results of cloud chamber experiments performed at altitude? (That alone is enough to dissuade me from flying frequently!)
Oh, right! I forgot … (forthemostpart) they’re not ‘hard science’ types …
Personally, I fancy a full 30,000 plus feet of ‘buffer’ between me and the galactic ‘out there’ …
Refs – Cosmic Rays:
http://authors.library.caltech.edu/4970/1/ADApr49.pdf
http://www.robfatland.net/MainSequence/CosmicRays.html
http://www.jstor.org/pss/97338
.
Chris Thorne says:
August 23, 2010 at 7:35 pm
“… a lobster with tits…”
Thanks for the laugh Chris. What an image this conjures up! One for Josh?
Jeff Brown,
This seems peculiar. I thought Moreno was to be allowed to make a presentation and then there was to be Q & A. From what Moreno says, he wasn’t allowed to make his presentation. When the moderator and the audience are interrupting, a speaker has every right to shout over the interruption. My guess is that you’re not being honest about what happened.
Yellow!
I enjoyed Avatar for the visual effects and the popcorn even though it was clearly Triumph of the Will for Malthusians. ; )
It now pleases me that i have seen Avatar at 30.000 feet while flying intercontinental.
Still as Camaron claims it, his sci-fi movies must have near future technology to make us comfortable, and it works quite well in Aliens and Avatar, its not over the top technology. But if you you are so up into believable technology, and lets be honest, the starship at the start in the movie “Avatar” screams technical functionality apart from the super-physics propulsionsystem, the guns brought in still make a lot of noise and throw a lot of brass around, the exoskeletons are not that far fetched.
How come that one like Camaron would fall for the whole “CO2 is the root cause of AGW)”?
But why did so much of the Avatar film have to be blue?? Something to do with Viagra maybe.
Heh…. James Cameron is one of the first hour guest on Coast to Coast AM right now.
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/
Call-In Phone Numbers and International Access Codes
Western US: 1-800-618-8255 (toll free)
Eastern US: 1-800-825-5033 (toll free)
First time caller: 1-818-501-4721
Wild Card line: 1-818-501-4109 (anyone can call)
Skype users call: george97313
Guys, this is the equation you’re looking for.
“Call Me Joe” + Fern Gully = Avatar.
I think you’ll find it’s solid science.
Dave Dardinger, Morano was asked if he wants to take questions during his talk or for questions to come afterwards. He answered that he would prefer to have the questions come when people thought of them as that would be more affective. I am not at all being dishonest about his presentation.
I do hope his presentation is put online someplace so everyone can see it.
Maybe someone from WUWT can ask Morano to put his ppt online.
J. Knight, no I do not know why Cameron opted out of the debate. I don’t know if it was ever supposed to be a debate as I was not privy to that info
George, really? Is that all you can find to complain about, a spelling typo? Seems you could do more useful things with your time than that.