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.
Amino Acids, I completely agree with you. It would have been great to have an actual scientist who is a skeptic on GHGs affecting our climate come and talk about why they believe that rather than some entertainer with political motives. We need to remove politics from the debate in order for anyone to get a real education on both sides of the fence.
Still I have never understood the resistance to believe that human activities can affect climate. I don’t think any scientist out there believes GHGs are 100% responsible for the observed warming since they know natural variability plays a role. Seems to me the real debate is on how much of the warming is due to natural variability and how much is due to increasing concentrations of GHGs in the atmosphere from human activities. So having scientists show their data/analysis addressing this very question is what I think is needed in order for us all to make informed decisions.
When you have an indefensible viewpoint, it is only natural that you should not want to publicly debate it. It is much simpler to dictate your views/policy, thus removing the awkward need to listen to either moderation or reason.
Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot are all examples of this, nowadays we have similar examples: Fidel Castro, Kim Il Sung, the Taliban, Al Gore and this guy Cameron.
Their motto – as with all AGW fanatics – is the same: Dictate, do not Debate.
Yes, Avatar is a New Age and anti-capitalist propaganda film which is the reason it was so incredibly hyped up in the media but then didn’t do particularly well at the Oscars. They wanted everyone to see it. History is repeating itself.. but there’ll be no Hollywood Ten this time around. Cameron is a coward and a shill for the people responsible for undermining our society. Would be a ‘terrible’ thing if the skeptics beat him in a debate and it was recorded (officially or otherwise) for the world to see!
SimonHsays: August 23, 2010 at 2:43 pm
However, their movies have substance and do follow the message contained in the books—basically that the good guys in the white hats will eventually defeat the evil guys in the black hats (or with crooked wands).
@Paul R says: August 23, 2010 at 9:58 pm
“I enjoyed Avatar for the visual effects and the popcorn even though it was clearly Triumph of the Will for Malthusians. ; )”
I don’t go in for these fantasy epics so I haven’t seen Avatar and only about 10 minutes of Harry Potter & Lord of the Rings.
But I’ve seen and admire Battleship Potemkin on the one hand and Triumph of the Will on the other, although the politics behind both is just as bad as Avatar.
But, having seen some of Cameron’s other stuff, I don’t think you can seriously consider him a great (or even important) film director, as some other commenters on here suggest.
Whereas Eisenstein was certainly great and Leni Riefenstahl was certainly extremely talented.
But pernicious ideology is still pernicious, no matter how skillfully it is presented.
Avatar was visually spectacular, but the theme was the same tired old story of the wicked mining company versus the good people – of David over coming Goliath.
This type of thinking seems to be prevalent among greenies, liberals and lefties, who forget the fundamental truth: IF IT CAN’T BE GROWN, IT’S GOTTA BE MINED.
This is similar to the thinking of the AGW crowd, who conveniently ignore the fact that the economic impact of the proposed ‘cure’ for their non-existent problem will be hugely deleterious to humanity.
Couple of things I’m surprised the alarmists have not put out a cost in co2 for every $ spent, I guess it’s against their religion to villify money directly because if they did they would have to justify their millionaire lifestyles, how much was the budget for avatar again?
Also mr Cameron seems to advocate smoking in most of his films, how does that square with environmentalism I’ve seen a lot of green nutters directly adding co2 burning lighter fuel and adding methane and co2 to the air, I guess smoking to them must be carbon neutral in the same way it was advertised in the 50’s as being good for your throat. If we did face food shortages we would need to replace tobacco crops for food crops anyway, hypocrites the lot of them!
I’ve met Cameron twice. I count him as a friend. He’s a very creative and fiery person and loves science, but on this he is very wrong and I always expected him to be a fast enough learner to know it. The problem is that the higher profile a person is the harder it is for them to change direction on public affairs.
Anyway, I’m glad he bailed out on this debate and it is a good thing he did not try to debate this with a qualified scientist such as Christy instead of the three media personalities chosen.
jeff brown says: August 23, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Lotsa bitta stories. Marc was in mid-flight before he was told the debate was off. So his presentation was, maybe, pretty impromptu. I’d emailed him thus:
but that arrived after the event, about which Marc simply said “Things did not go well”.
Actually, I think things did go well, insofar as the resultant publicity loudly shows up Cameron as a fool. But from my POV, two people whose work I like have been shown up as having feet of clay. Cameron (I did like Avatar) and Morano (well, probably, if Jeff Brown is right as seems at least partly likely).
And this happened just as his very good friend Mr Obama was removing all on line references to policies controlling CO2 from his cyber-history.
Those Blackberries sure are useful things.
That panzerpant Romm and the warmist crowd would behave like the stark raving made horde gone postal was of course to be expected it seems, but that James Cameron would throw in his, used to be known as, whitey tidy with all that support. ROFL what a stinker.
And this Twitter here is from the Edinburgh Climate Camp loons who share Cameron’s views – the agenda is quite clear
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_V5jYS8eezmU/THGhzCkYPYI/AAAAAAAACzE/JQzOxPvO1dE/s1600/fat.JPG
Check out the body language in this video:
Quite revealing if you ask me. I think that kcom got it right when he said:
August 23, 2010 at 5:04 pm
I think it’s much more likely that as he studied up on the science he realized he was woefully underqualified for the task he had taken on. I think the truth is that Joe Romm made James Cameron understand that he was getting in completely over his head. The man’s a film director. I’m sure he *feels* very strongly (“swine” isn’t a subtle word) about the whole global warming/climate change issue but that’s no substitute for understanding the details of the physics and the statistics. Once his absolute un-mastery of the subject was bared he would have been left with simply babbling repeatedly, “But all real scientists say it’s true.” And that isn’t going to win any debate, even one in front of a friendly audience. It was hubris on his part to agree to the debate in the first place and an act of self-preservation to run away when it finally dawned on him that he had no clue what he was doing.
LarryD: August 23, 2010 at 2:29 pm
I pegged Avatar as “Dances With Wolves… IN SPACE”.
Three hundred million dollars for CGI and he couldn’t spend ten bucks for a plot…
There seem to be a number of comments around here about Obama quietly getting rid of his climate commitments. Intrigued, I just took a look at his website. Global warming still figures large:
“The Current Situation
The country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century. For too long, politicians in Washington have been beholden to special interests, but no longer. Our new, responsible energy policy recognizes the relationship between energy, the environment, and our economy and leverages American ingenuity to put people back to work, fight global warming, increase our energy independence and keep us safe.”
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/newenergy/index.php
Am I missing something?
jeff brown says:
I was in the room during the presentation by Moreno and I can tell you first hand what it was like. Moreno not once showed any science disproving CO2 warms the climate. IN fact he showed absolutely no science at all.
Moreno says
I attempted several times to return to my presentation, but the crowd and moderator refused to cooperate and seemed completely disinterested.
End
So Mr Brown
As you didn’t disagree with Moreno’s statement.
Did you see enough of Moreno’s presentation to be able to judge the content?
lol@Anthony
I am sure some doctored film will surface soon.
The enviromental’s after spending the 1900’s being bullied and pointed and laughed at finally have there 15 minutes of fame and what do they do with it, why bully, laugh and point.
And the way they treated him at the conference just goes to show they maybe all women in fake beards but to be honest they’ll stone the first person they can without a shred of integrity amongst them.
Did anyone see news night last night? people always look diffrent in person.
One argument for his non-attendence, that most certainly would have been put to him, is that by having a serious debate with sceptics shows that sceptics are worthy of serious debate, and that there must be ‘no public platform’ for deniers else they become legitimized as human beings with minds of their own and equal right to use them. The actual reason for his no-show is not yet known.
Who is James Cameron? He is a good story teller; movie maker. Is he a scientist? Definitely not. So why dabble in science? Because he does not know what science is, therefore he thinks he knows it. A real case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.
So there he goes, swinging his 6 shooter challenging everyone for duel, then seeing Henry Fonda coming out into the street and Romm tells Cameron that he’s got no chance against this guy Fonda, being the fastest gun around. So, the only thing he can do (and Romm) is run for it at when the clock strikes 12 noon. Can Cameron produce a remake of High Noon with such an ending? I wonder.
I know that it has been said a hundred times, but I cannot not say it. Chickens.
This episode reveals the true nature of the warmers as deeply disturbed people.
The whole movie had too much Gaea (sp?) for me. Totally science fantasy mixed with religion, up to and including a resurrection.
Noelene, yes I did see enough of his presentation to judge the content. Since Morano is not a scientist and was not able to actually talk about science, he instead focused on quotes from various people saying the debate is over, or he would show a pole number saying the majority of scientists do not believe GHGs are causing the warming, or he would show quotes stating it’s all junk science (though I’m sure he doesn’t think climate scientists like Lindzen and Spencer do junk science). It was primarily a “shock” value set of slides and quotes, a lot of it having no relevance to the actual debate over whether or not increases of CO2 in the atmosphere are altering the Earth’s temperature (though he did say that he believes CO2 absorbs infrared radiation and warms temperatures).
What seemed obvious was that the audience could see through his “fluff” and was frustrated that he was not showing any actual science to support his beliefs. They kept asking him to skip all these quotes he would show on every slide and get down to the real science of the issue. I think the presentation was simply one he normally gives to get people fired up and clap after each slide (sort of like a campaign rally).
I have seen numerous science talks in my life and they are calm and focus on showing data and calmly take and answer questions. This was my first time seeing a politcal talk on climate change and its methodology is completely different; yell, talk over people, don’t let people finish their sentences, go for shock value, etc. I truly felt like I was at a campaign rally.
Morano is not a scientist …
audience … was frustrated that he was not showing any actual science
Explains the ‘audience frustration’ very well indeed.
Maybe James Cameron would have shown them the science.
——————–
Henry chance,
Remember November!
Catchy phrase, that is.
John
jeff brown says:
August 24, 2010 at 8:03 am
I did see enough of his presentation to judge the content. Since Morano is not a scientist and was not able to actually talk about science…
So which are you complaining about – the fact that he “isn’t a scientist” or that he didn’t/couldn’t talk about the science (not being a scientist)?
Frankly, your accounting of what transpired seems very suspect, as do your motives.
If only there were a video, or even audio of what went on….Oh, right, they wouldn’t allow that. How convenient.