Yes, we have no bananas
From The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley in Cancun, Mexico at COP16 via SPPI
I dined with Dr. Roy Spencer as the Atlantic rollers swished and crashed against the long, sandy beach here in Cancun. We ate coconut-crusted camarones. Appropriately, shrimps in the Spanish-speaking world are named after the British Prime Minister, the truest of true believers in the New-Age religion that is the Church of “Global Warming”.
Cameron, or “Dave”, as he matily likes to be known, had been careful not to reveal his blind faith in the febrile fatuities of the forecasters of fashionable fatalism to his followers in Not The Conservative Party before they picked him as their leader: but, in his very first speech as Supreme Shrimp, he made it plain to the fawning news media that Saving The Planet would be his very firstest priority, yes indeedy.
One had rather hoped to accompany the crusted Daves with a bottle of Château Cameron, a Sauternes that would have set them off nicely. My noble friend and genial Highland next-door neighbour Lord Pearson of Rannoch, until recently the popular leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party that is springing Britain free from the same grasping tentacles of unelected, supranational bureaucracy in which the UN’s climate panel would like to engulf the planet, always serves this palatable little pudding wine at dinner, and murmurs as he pours is, “A taste of Château Pointless?”
Château Pointless, however, is not on the wine-list in the grim, crumbling concrete bunkers of more than usually repellent aspect that ruin the splendid Cancun beach for miles and miles and are amusingly called “hotels”. The Stalinist gruesomeness of the architecture recalls a joke going the rounds among the British ex-pats sipping their masticha on the 20-mile strip of ugly ribbon development that is the Limassol shoreline:
“I say, I say, I say, old boy, remind me of the Cypriot Greek for ‘concrete box’.”
“Can’t say I remember that one, Carruthers.”
[In an exaggerated peasant accent] “Lag-shoo-ree veellaa!”
So sorry, Señor: no Château Cameron. Indeed, no Château anything. Dr. Spencer and I decided to try banana daiquiris instead. After a good 20 minutes – well, this is the Mañana Republic – the head waiter hovered along to our table and told us our daiquiris would be along in a minute. He had hardly made this ambitious promise when the wine waiter shimmered in and explained that there would be no banana daiquiris because – yes, you guessed it – “we have no bananas”.
Ah, the sufferings we endure in your honor, gentle reader, as we save the planet from those intent on Saving The Planet. We had to put up with frozen margaritas instead. They were delicious. “Num, num”, as Malcolm Pearson would have put it had he not had the good sense to go to Davos instead.
Dr. Spencer, my urbane dinner companion, is one of the small, courageous band of eminent scientists who have not kow-towed to the New Religion and have not yet been fired for their recusancy.
He wears his profound knowledge with great gentleness, and thinks nothing of spending a year doing complex, difficult research to prepare for a single scientific paper that he knows will prove contentious.
His latest research demonstrates that – in the short term, at any rate – the temperature feedbacks that the IPCC imagines will greatly amplify any initial warming caused by CO2 are net-negative, attenuating the warming they are supposed to enhance. His best estimate is that the warming in response to a doubling of CO2 concentration, which may happen this century unless the usual suspects get away with shutting down the economies of the West, will be a harmless 1 Fahrenheit degree, not the 6 F predicted by the IPCC.
Dr. Spencer’s results, published some months ago, have gone entirely unreported in the mainstream news media. However, a mere restatement of the IPCC’s position published this week by a scientist who carefully skated round Dr. Spencer’s work with a single sentence to the effect that El Niño events had disrupted the temperature record has been publicized everywhere.
Last year the formidable Professor Richard Lindzen, whom I call “my professor” because he has so patiently answered so many of my fumbling, inadequate questions about climate science over the years, published a paper demonstrating that the outgoing radiation reaching the satellites is escaping to space much as it always has. Greenhouse gases are not, after all, trapping it in the atmosphere to anything like the extent that the IPCC would have us believe.
Since the radiation is escaping to space much as it always has, it is not causing as much warming as the IPCC thinks. Professor Lindzen’s estimate is that the warming in response to a doubling of CO2 concentration is around 1.3 F, similar to Dr. Spencer’s estimate.
Within months, a savagely-phrased and deliberately-wounding rebuttal was published by one of the most prominent of the Climategate emailers. It was one of those tiresome papers that pointed out one or two supposed defects in Professor Lindzen’s analysis, but without being honest enough to conclude that these defects could not and did not alter the Professor’s conclusion.
The discrepancy between the IPCC’s predictions and what the satellite data demonstrated was so wide that the pernickety demands of the Climategate emailers for greater precision were simply unnecessary. Nevertheless, as with Dr. Spencer’s paper, so with Professor Lindzen’s, the original research was not mentioned in the mainstream media, but the attempted rebuttal was.
Another example. Meet Dr. David Douglass, Professor of Physics at Rochester University in upper New York State. This very gentle soul – one of the most charming scientists working on the climate today – wrote a paper two years ago confirming his previously-published research pointing out yet another serious discrepancy between the IPCC’s model-based predictions and the inconvenient truths of observed reality.
According to a paper by one of the Climategate emailers, cited with approval by the IPCC in its Fourth Assessment Report, the wretched models predicted that, if and only if Man’s greenhouse-gas emissions were to blame for “global warming”, the tropical upper air would warm two or three times faster than the tropical surface.
Unfortunately for the IPCC’s theory, once again observation demonstrated its falsity. Fifty years of measurements of the upper atmosphere by radiosondes, drop-sondes and, more recently, satellites show no differential whatsoever between the rate of warming at the surface and higher up. Professor Douglass’ paper drew attention to this evidence that Man cannot be responsible for most of the warming observed over the past half-century.
Within a month, Professor Douglass’ paper was rebutted by the very Climategate emailer who had first proposed the existence of the absent tropical upper-troposphere “hot-spot”. Since none of the dozen datasets that recorded temperatures in the tropical upper air showed the “hot-spot”, the Climategate team had to create a new one.
The Climategate emails demonstrate that Professor Douglass, who is referred to 71 times, was hated by The Team (as they call themselves). The emailers had leaned heavily on the editor of the journal to which he had submitted his paper, bullying the editor into delaying publication until they could cobble together their attempt at a rebuttal.
Once again, Professor Douglass’ research went unnoticed in the mainstream media, which, however, crowed about the rebuttal.
Herein lies one of the central wickednesses of the IPCC’s modus operandi. Every time a scientist publishes a paper that strikes at the very heart of the IPCC’s climate-extremist case (and these devastating papers appear far more often than is generally realized), one of that small and poisonous group of true-believing scientists whose identities were so unexpectedly revealed in the Climategate emails swiftly publishes a rebuttal.
“And why is this a wickedness?” you may ask. “Surely the scientific method requires exactly this kind of point and counterpoint between scientists?”
It is a wickedness because of the way the IPCC operates. “IPeCaC”, as senior UN officials here in Cancun delightfully call it when they think no one is listening, does no original research itself. Each of Ipecac’s reports is, in effect, a giant review paper, trawling through the published scientific literature and reporting what it finds.
This approach requires Ipecac – let us all call it that from now on – to report not only the papers that support its political viewpoint but also some of the papers that do not: otherwise, its sullen prejudice in favor of climate-extremist alarm would be just a little too obvious.
For the extremists, it is accordingly vital that any sufficiently devastating paper showing up Ipecac’s computer models as defective must be rebutted, so that the next Assessment Report can nullify the critical paper by recording that it has been rebutted. If the rebuttal is full of bad science, no matter: the chapter authors can merely mention its existence without admitting that it is nonsense. Then the mainstream media can report that the original paper (whose existence they had not mentioned in the first place) has been rebutted, and that the rebuttal has been sanctified by an honorable mention in the Holy Scriptures of Ipecac, yea, verily.
A revealing episode shows what happens when a scientist writes a paper critical of the official position and times its publication so that it appears just before the deadline for papers considered by Ipecac’s working groups. Professor Ross McKitrick, who demolished the absurd “hockey-stick” graph purporting to demonstrate that the medieval warm period had not happened, wrote a further paper destroying the official temperature record.
His method was characteristically ingenious. He showed a strongly-significant statistical correlation between temperature change as reported by ground stations and economic growth in the regions where the measuring stations were located. No such correlation should exist if the compilers of the official surface-temperature records have made due allowance for the urban heat-island effect.
The inescapable conclusion was that insufficient allowance had been made for the growth of industrial activity close to numerous temperature monitoring stations, and that consequently the true rate of warming over land in the past half-century had been little more than half of what the official record showed.
Professor McKitrick published his paper just before the deadline for the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report. None of the Climategate emailers had time to rebut it. Ipecac mentioned it, through gritted teeth, and added that it disagreed with the paper. However, it was unable to give even a single scientific reason why it disagreed. If a nice, handy rebuttal had been available, Ipecac would have been able to cover its prejudice and reassure the faithful that the New Religion remained unsullied merely by citing the rebuttal (however unmeritorious).
Many worshipers in the Church of “Global Warming” here in Cancun have begun to realize that the game is up, the science is in, the truth is out, and the scare is over. To these pious believers, it is now becoming essential to be able to say that no one could possibly have known that Ipecac had made so many fundamental mistakes, just a few of which I have outlined here.
The mood is subdued, even sombre. The Nazified triumphalism of Copenhagen, with the green banners and political slogans (e.g. “Brad Pitt Saves The Planet”) draped over every public building, and the hobnail-booted Communists frog-marching past the now-redundant Danish Parliament building carrying red flags bearing the hated hammer-and-sickle emblem of Marxist tyranny for the first time since the Berlin Wall came down, are absent here.
A sullen, gloomy realization that maybe, just maybe, they got it all wrong is beginning to dawn upon the less unintelligent delegates. So the exit strategy is being quietly, hastily constructed.
Not the least element in the escape plan is a continuing and increasingly vicious denigration of any small boy who has dared to point out that the Emperor has no clothes. Dr. Spencer and I will be giving a press conference here in a couple of days’ time. I’d put quite a large bet on one of the mainstream media types asking a question designed to cast both of us an unfavorable light: “Dr. Spencer, why have you agreed to share a platform with that loony charlatan Monckton, who is not a scientist and is not even a real Lord?”
It is always a sad business when a religion passes into the night. A religion it is – or, rather, a superstition of the most childish kind. The president of the conference, a Ms. Figueres from Costa Rica, set the anti-scientific tone of the proceedings by opening them with a prayer to the Mayan Goddess of the Moon. Ms. Figurehead no doubt thought that this would be a nice way for the true-believers to pay a compliment to our Mexican hosts.
Be that as it may, I have important work to do. I must go to the market and get the hotel some bananas.
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See also Monckton’s Mexico Missive #1
Even better than your first Missive.
It would be nice if these folks would move on to a more tangible and solvable problem such as the Pacific Gyre and other patches of plastic garbage in the oceans. Then there would be no need for these conferences, rather they could meaningfully congratulate each other for something other than a debate in a vacuum…
/intelligence
Um…those would probably be the “Caribbean Sea rollers”, dude…
chuckle chuckle
Gaia is dead.
All hail New Gaia !
Lord Monckton, your writing style is a hoot to read. Thank you!
I am reminded of HST’s The Rum Dairy.
“The inescapable conclusion was that insufficient allowance had been made for the growth of industrial activity close to numerous temperature monitoring stations, and that consequently the true rate of warming over land in the past half-century had been little more than half of what the official record showed.”
Its tragic MSM has flushed journalism as well. Give them Hell Viscount and Thanks!!!
He had hardly made this ambitious promise when the wine waiter shimmered in and explained that there would be no banana daiquiris because – yes, you guessed it – “we have no bananas”.
Same thing happened to my wife and I on our honeymoon to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
“We have no bananas.” That was back in 1986. If we ever go back I’m bringing bananas with me.
No bananas ? My god man, it’s worse than we thought !
Thank God (Mayan or otherwise) for Lord Monckton.
I say old chap, jolly good summary. Always look forward to your prose.
Thanks again, Lord Monckton. And good luck on your search for Platanos.
Now let’s see – recusancy – where can I use that……
Posters may like to now that Dave Cameron, Prime minister of the UK is from the Conservative party and seen as a right wing politician in his methods of governance and is an enthusiastic member of the hard right alliance in the European parliament and a dedicated supporter of man made climate change, while Piers Corbyns, that well known and influential skeptic hails from a traditional left wing family and who’s brother is a hard left politician and an elected MP.
The trouble with mixing politics with science is you get these inconsistencies. It is also worthy of note that Lord Pearson of Rannoch draws most of the funding for his anti-European party from the European parliament. It is good to see his concerns do not extend to declining funding from that apparent nest of vipers. The rest of the posting was as usual very interesting, the science was convincing and well grounded. However I was also assured that our noble Lords were not suffering too badly in the tropics of the New world, and like certain other Martini Socialists to whom he has previously referred he is keeping his spirits up. I am informed that there little good single malt to be had in those climes, but I understand there is a drink known as “Tequilla” which our American cousins claim is a most acceptable substitute. Don’t forget your quinine Sirs, though Gin may be a more appropriate mixer if the Martini drinkers have cared to leave any in the stores.
Ipecac… why has it taken this long for this name to find a creative spark in someone’s brain? It’s so simple, so obvious…
Remember that only those admitted to the inner sanctum can now see the Emperor’s clothes.
It’s all getting down to the level of the Cairngorm National Park farce.
Monckton the Majestic Missive Master. All Hail!
careful not to reveal his blind faith in the febrile fatuities of the forecasters of fashionable fatalism to his followers
Love your wordsmithing, Lord Monckton. Thanks also for the insight into the mood of Cancun.
[My English teacher once told us: “Always avoid alliteration.” ~dbs]
SM says:
December 7, 2010 at 10:52 am
Um…those would probably be the “Caribbean Sea rollers”, dude…
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You correctly identified a defect in the paper. However, it does not alter the conclusion, dude…
Wonderful! I am full of admiration for Christopher Monckton. This is one of the best posts that I have ever read, being entertaining, amusing and serious in equal quantity.
Makes me proud to be English, and that has not happened for a long while!
So your Prime Minister has been “Taken away by the Green current” (” crayfish that sleeps is taken away by the current”) In Spanish, camaron (craw-fish) it is used the same word for those “camarones” (crayfish) living in a river….
is that the guy that doesn’t know his radians from his degrees or the guy peddling the persistent trendless red noise?
Who seriously cares if you are a ‘Lord’ or not. It’s the truth of what you say that counts. Just praise the only Lord and pass the ammunition.
Of course there are no bananas. They cannot grow in hot climates, right? Oh, yeah, not necessarily too hot but at least “disrupted”. No one needs disrupted bananas.
3rd para down: “he pours is” -> “he pours it”
3rd para up: “us an unfavorable light” -> “us in an unfavorable light”
If the Viscount is reading, can I get a pronunciation for Ipecac? I-Pee-Cack? I-Pee-Cock? Ippycock [sounds like poppycock]?
Lord Monckton is not being funny!
He is treating the Cancun conference with all the seriousness that it deserves.
The article written by Lord Monckton (above) it is really a piece of art!. Deliciously funny.
Brilliant
Not to forget, though, that “Global Warming” was just one of the strategies for attaining global governance. There is a wide paraphernalia yet available. Perhaps Lord Monckton’s keen observation could enlighten us about them.
What can you do but laugh in the face of such insanity? Well done!
Fabulous piece but;
Will anyone tell the politicians?
and/or
Will the politicians listen and act?
hehe he I love it
theduke…. this may explain; cac is a welsh and old english dialect word for, how shall we say this delicately ? ….. ‘poop’
@theduke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrup_of_ipecac
I would that death is imminent for the IPCC, but methinks Viscount Monckton is exaggerating a bit. Vampires take more than a roaring crowd to silence them.
Meanwhile in the UK, the “independent” QUANGO, the Climate Change Committee, carries on regardless. Of course, it’s Chairman is Lord Turner, who is also Chairman of the Finacial Sevices Authority, that QUANGO that oversaw the banking crash. Truly, in the UK we are led by idiots. And we are forced to pay for them.
A letter writer to today’s ‘Daily Mail’ put it succinctly by saying that the next climate jamboree should be next December in Murmansk and should be powered entirely by wind and solar. (He also coined the term ‘thermophobics’ – good one!)
Sun Tzu ones wrote something about that the general should always have an exit plan, one which he didn’t tell the men about. So when the foot soldiers were hard pressed between a rock and a hard place, screaming of fright, terror and doom and that gloomy crap, fighting tooth and nail to survive, little did they know about the general’s exit strategy in the back, where there was the latch to the hatch to freedom from an overly oppressive evilly slippery obviously cheating enigma of an enemy. If the minions is told before hand they of course wont fight so hard.
Crazy thing Sun Tzu didn’t really do to well on explaining the intricacy of the exit plane’s planing. Some do it better ‘an other, so you can always spot the politician, or the politburo administrator, they’d of course just show their head down the sand and hopes to the high heavens everything’ll just blow over. The so called rich and, by Hollywood, famous, have learnt from the teachers of the politicians as well, but missed a crucial part–nobody told them the difference between sand and sand stone.
The cultural (multi-millionaire) elite, you want to know. Well they’ll write you up in an exposé of words in some fancy lefty mag. about how you are a greedy capitalist and therefore ought to keep quiet. And if that doesn’t work, they blame it on the wine. What I remember nuthing of the sort! After all what is reality but relative to everything you can’t face without a sober amount of, well shit loads of, wine. How else is one supposed to whine?
The industrial folks. The billionaires to the zillionaires, well they’ll just go: Oh, shoot, now what? They’re, in their world, the center of the whole universe and therefor take little notice of the screaming phlegm that has seemingly, since they’re now so far and much higher up in the world then everyone else, become the sticky stuff under their shoes and why take notice of that crap.
And the climate hippies? These rather more ‘an challenged people are probably the easiest to spot in a crowd that think it has activated the superior, by enemy surly unknown, exit plan-strategy-thingy for they tend to stand in circles of seven (being a lucky number and all) with their heads up each others lubricated flatulent relief valves. Apparently, it’s a. Bong. Thing.
Apparently no one warned the good Viscount to never drink blended drinks in Mexico since the ice is rarely made with bottled water!
In the future, historians will point to this moment and say, here is where the cold war turned hot.
From: “Janes International Ballistics & Debate 2010”:
“The Monckton Missive is a multiple munitions delivery system, the original MK1 was superseded by the MK2, late 2010.
Capable of traveling 12,000 miles around the world, the device can deliver both conventional and unconventional wisdom to a host of targets.
Payloads include the reliable Wit and Wit2 area effect munition, the Laser guided Green-Scheme-Dream-Cluster-[snip]er, and the highly popular Anti-Personel Denial of Error countermeasures for dug in combatant non-combantants.
Its multi role deployment has seen operations in a number of European and South American theaters, halls and debating chambers.
It is deadly accurate, capable of demolishing an argument to within a full stop, comma or semi-colon. As yet no counter measure has been developed, it punches through primitive chaff and flare devices and easily evades superficial surface to Airhead barbs, stings, sleights and rants. Its also known as a AntiSkeptic Debunker Buster in the UK and USA.
It is expected to remain in operation for the foreseeable future, unforeseeable future and beyond, since its entirely empirical design does not depend on flawed computer modeling.”
Its not that they “have to bananas”. Its a case of they don’t OWN any bananas. Crops being pretty much owned and/or committed to the large multi-national fruit conglomerates. Try to get a banada daiquiri in St. Lucia, whose volcanic slopes are literally dripping in plantations …
Ipecac is pronounced “Ip PEH Kak”. Syrup of Ipecac induces vomiting. Every home with small children should have a bottle of it handy. I think Ipecac is a wonderful name for the IPCC. I would recommend avoiding the wine and the Mexican beers, but you should be able to enjoy some very fine Tequila. Order a double of straight Patron. It’s pretty tasty but it sells for about $60 a fifth here in the States.
Do we have video or a transcript of this “prayer to the moon goddess?” I would find this enormously entertaining.
err.. “to bananas”, “no bananas”, what’s in a word… pretty meaningless if you don’t own any bananas… A signature expression for copout16 … “…Banana manana”. Pronounced (since I can’t be bothered to look up the code) Ban-yanna Ma-yanna…
A very entertaining and witty read – I’m still chuckling. Don’t always agree with you me Lord but you are never ever dull.
I believe the Maya also made sacrificial offerings to their Gods especially the sprinkling of the blood of turkeys. I think that would have been more appropriate than a prayer to the Goddess of the moon.
Bugger. Man-yanna!
Well wrote! Thanks Chris!
It reminds me of the end of the movie “The Big Lebowski”, when the Nahilists are demanding money from The Dude, Walter and Donnie in front of the bowling alley.
Nahilist 1: “We wants tha money Lebowski”
The Dude: “Man, there never WAS any money! The gig is up!”
Nahilist 2: “But my girlfriend cut offs her toe!”
Nahilist 1: “Ya! How bouts you give us what you have on you, and we let you go?!”
Of course they don’t get the money and proceed to get a beat-down from Walter. I suspect the socialist whiners in Cancun will not get all the money they want either, and the Dude will get his rug back.
The posish can’t be all that desperate there, if the w.w. can manage a Wodehousian s.
Lord Moncton,
As you will undoubtedly remember, us Kiwis, our Aussie, Canuk and Saffer mates (some of the latter, anyway) and many others from former colonies of the old Empire were all British as of right and proud of it until the Brit parliament told us to push off so it could flirt with a European tart in the 1960s. It is nice but a little sad to be reminded by your example what ‘being a Briton’ once meant. Seeing the malodorous stuff that is being shovelled onto and over our poor old Pommie mates by the EU, it would be churlish in the extreme for me to say “Coulda told yer, Mate!” so I won’t.
And while I think of it, could you remind the idiots who have no idea of history on the BBC that all those Kiwis, Aussies, Canuks, and other fellow colonials who fought and died in horrendously large numbers for old England in two world wars, and assisted on the same basis through ‘police actions’ such ast the Malayan Emergency and the Korean stouch were as British as any Blighty-born Tommy. Those of us who know a little history get quite irritated at glaring inaccuracies, but the Beeb and its hordes of left-leaning luvvies is good at being in error through long practice.
Good on yer, Lord Moncton!
@Murray Sandland Grainger
I think you are correct. Politicians will not listen to the people (especially career politicians). They have proven that time and again. Too many times are the masses against a particular bill and the politicians pass the bill anyways.
The Government needs to go back to its roots and be filled with the average person again. One that will serve his or her time in office (what ever office that is) and then return back to their actual life their time is done. No more career politicians.
Once we get real people back in the Government, then will see the “Lies” like that of Global warming, or climate change… or what ever its being called today, go away and hopefully stay away.
Just the way I see it.
Great article by the way.
Cheers
Jeremy says:
December 7, 2010 at 11:18 am
Ipecac… why has it taken this long for this name to find a creative spark in someone’s brain? It’s so simple, so obvious…
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Heh! Good point! Well, as long as they are pounding down the tequila in Cancun, why not “I pee, si si!” ??
Gawd, I’d love to see the liquor bill for this Conference of the Parties! OT – Any word on the COP 16 hooker commerce, as we witnessed at COP 15, Copenhagen (aka. Gropenhage)?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,665182,00.html
I could not agree more. And then we have a thousand blog posts decrying the ‘fact’ that the MMS is severely biased toward sceptical views. Presumably because they actually report them once in a blue moon while spouting all sorts of alarmist nonsense at the drop of a hat.
Could the real reason for “Call me Dave’s” continuing love affair with the green charade be something to do with his Father-in-Law’s imminent investment in a white elephant, sorry I mean windfarm?
“Syrup of ipecac commonly referred to as ipecac, is derived from the dried rhizome and roots of the ipecacuanha plant, and is a well known emetic …”
As defined in wikipedia. BTW, an “emetic” is a substance that causes one to return one’s cookies to the table, floor or porcelain receptacle abruptly and in reverse of the normal alimentary direction.
“The Nazified triumphalism of Copenhagen”… “the hobnail-booted Communists frog-marching past the now-redundant Danish Parliament”
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I think you are insulting real Nazis and communists here.
How dare the CanCON delegates pollute those fine beaches.. and forget to bring the bananas. Most eloquent Lord Monckton. Thanks for the cheery update of the sullen. I loved every word I read!
Content-wise, this sort of thing is fine, but style-wise, I hate the smug certainty and contempt no matter what the source. I despise it among greenies, and I despise it among skeptics. It’s worse than preaching to the converted, it’s reveling in the very smugness that is being criticized in others. I could do with the simple straight facts and leave out all the contemptuousness. Why do people think this sort of style helps their cause? What possible advantage is there in it? What’s the appeal? Self-congratulations about being smarter than others? Who needs that other than the perpetually insecure?
Viscount Moncton said “Professor Lindzen’s estimate is that the warming in response to a doubling of CO2 concentration is around 1.3 F, similar to Dr. Spencer’s estimate.” This temperature rise would take place by 2100 I assume . I also assume that during the next 90 years that there is a potential for two cooling cycles based on the current sequence and past pattern of the 60 year ocean cycles . There is no gurantee that these cooling cycles will happen but merely a potential based on past patterns . These could delay the net global temperature rise by 2100 as they did during the past century.
dbs 11:25
“…..always avoid alliteration.”
Stealey’s simple symbolism simply supports silliness.
[Reply: You win. ~dbs]
Isn’t this Roy Spencer, whom Monckton praises, a proponent of Intelligent Design?
[And please continue, if Anthony permits. How is that relevant to the question at hand? Robt]
I find the Vicount’s attitude kind of weird.
Lots of creative energy expended in elaborate insults.
Lots of whining about the slightest slight recieved by him.
REPLY: Richard, it seems from your sentence composition above, you might need a typing tutor, or at the very least, a spell checker. – Anthony
Brilliant missive…..again.Anthony could you give the good lord M a regular spot, a monthly post would cheer people up no end in these austere times, plus he knows his science and we could learn more about the shenanigans of the Team and its congregation.
Without trying to fence with you as I think you make a good point. I will say that incompetent civil servants or anyone serving under the public dime are generally considered fair game for any sort of verbal/textual abuse in the U.S. American’s don’t like taxes, and we especially hate it when our money is given to imbeciles so they can fail us. It may not be this way in all countries, but it’s why I myself thoroughly enjoy the smugness from Monckton. Those who take public money and fail to meet the highest standards deserve the beatdown they get (IMHO of course).
ID proponents on the CAGW skeptics side are about as damaging for serious CAGW skepticism as that 10:10 video is for the CAGW side, and it really disappoints me. It is extremely damaging. It has general relevance I think.
Sorry, folks, but as a Scot I just can’t stomach the writings of this upper class english twit. If you have to ask why, then I know you won’t understand.
REPLY: And I just can’t stomach the insults of people who are too cowardly to give their real name and hide behind the safety of anonymity. Monckton signs his name to his opinions, where you do not. – Anthony
I love Lord Monkton, too. As one of you said above, what else can we do with such silliness as AGW terror but laugh at it?
And you other commenters are great, too. I get many a belly-laugh from the things so many of you say.
Roy Spencer blogged today that a new low temperature record was set today in Cancun.
The Gore effect strikes.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2010/12/gore-effect-strikes-cancun/
Splendid stuff…
Lazy Teenager,
I don’t think you read the same missive I read. When Monckton complained, he mostly complained about slights to the science and the agenda pushing by Ipecac. The charter for Ipecac calls for them to provide an assessment of the science regarding the threat of anthropogenic climate change. If is contrary to the charter for the authors to express an opinion which is not supported by the literature. For the report to say the Douglass paper was wrong when there was no rebuttal in the literature was just wrong. Hopefully, the new assessment report will not have any authors from the CRU cabal and we can get a more honest report. But I’m not hopeful.
Jeremy says: December 7, 2010 at 12:18 pm
@theduke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrup_of_ipecac
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Jeremy. Thanks – that bit makes sense to me now. Viscount Monckton’s statement is even more delicious for me with that bit of information!
Cheers
Douglas.
The Viscount’s reference to religion brings to mind something from Bobby Henderson’s Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a passage perhaps more apropos then I would have previously thought….
Religious Warfare is “…killing people over who has the best invisible friend.”
Cancun, Copenhagen, the Ipecac, AGW, all have that character of religious fervor, but the motive being purely one of profit.
conradg says: December 7, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Content-wise, this sort of thing is fine, but style-wise, I hate the smug certainty and contempt no matter what the source’ —-etc.
——————————————————————————
Well conradg. Of course you are entitled to say this – but let me say that you are a real killjoy – we have all enjoyed both the wit and humour of the Viscount’s ‘missives’ as well as the underlying enlightening message. Also conrdg – you are a pain in the ar—e!
Douglas
A praiseworthy piece of piercing prose , wittily wrought . But Sauterne ? I mean , really…
Red Etin says
December 7, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Sorry, folks, but as a Scot I just can’t stomach the writings of this upper class english twit. If you have to ask why, then I know you won’t understand.”
Sorry folks, but as a completely overeducated American, I love his prose.
Wonderful prose. Ipecac is recommended after swallowing the whole AGW load. Thank you, Lord Monckton.
Red Etin says: December 7, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Sorry, folks, but as a Scot I just can’t stomach the writings of this upper class english twit. If you have to ask why, then I know you won’t understand.
————————————————————————————
Red Btin. Well a lot of you Scots have never got over being whacked by the English – and have bludged off the hind tit ever since Union. Get over it or have another malt or read a verse of two of Rabby or whatever if it would make you feel better. What does it take to understand a Scot?
Douglas
A bit Off Topic, I know, but it relates to the British establishment’s position on Global Warming: Six months ago the Royal Society’s website was riddled with AGW propaganda, including this classic statement: “Once our actions have raised concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere, levels will remain elevated for more than a thousand years.”
I’m glad to say that today there is hardly a trace of the AGW New Age Religion. Credit where it’s due.
Global Warmingism is collapsing, having lost all credibility, leaving only a rump of hardline fanatics. Our task now is to persuade our governments to withdraw the funding.
Message to Gaia: We always hoped you’d be governed by the laws of physics. Had you got a couple of degrees warmer, in answer the prayers of Archbishop Hansen and Cardinal Gore, we’d never have been able to shut ’em up. Well done, old girl!
Spencer, Linzen, Douglass and McKitrick. Four significant and consistent results all empirical and all counter to the dangerous warming hypothesis….and greatly entertaining writing as well. Made my day.
Not sure if this has been reported else where, but looks like China might “get on board”…
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-offer-from-beijing-spurs-talks-20101207-18obx.html
Maybe the Chinese are yanking everyone’s chain?
Ipecac! Oh, I wish, I wish I had thought of that one! 🙂
As Missive #2 shows , #1 was just getting warmed up. I can hardly wait for #3.
what a post to wake up to this morning – Christopher Monckton, thank you 🙂
Ipcac.. **snigger**
Love it. Love the uprorious humour of it all. I-Pee-Cack.
And beyond the humour, there is a strange serendipity: (1) the Gore Effect noticed by Roy Spencer; (2) this email to Monckton which I sent today, and posted on Monckton’s earlier WUWT post, where I picked up exactly the same point as Monckton makes here:
The dirty process whereby Monckton is tarred so plausibly that people think they don’t even need to hear him at all, so they don’t realize he has, many times over, thoroughly demolished his detractors’ personal smears and supposed “debunks” of his science.
“People” included myself, once.
The protagonist point of view from Cancun:
http://reason.com/archives/2010/12/07/cancun-climate-change-shakedow
PaulH says:
December 7, 2010 at 3:44 pm
I used exactly that term–“ipecac” to describe the IPCC here on WUWT months ago. Not saying I coined the corollary, but the term has been kicking around.
As a Scot, I’m totally delighted to hear VCM batting for those of us, north of
Northumberland, who haven’t yet swallowed the toxic tisane that so inflames the psyche and disallows the normal transport of logic and reason to such an extent that ones gullet is so susceptible to the swallowing of CAGW venom that climate insanity rapidly follows!
The more that my dementia-ridden Scottish mouth-frothers rant and rave, the better I feel for the future of my nation.
By their madness, they will be seen; by their stupidity they will be shrugged off; and by their politics they will be shrunk into obscurity.
Strangely, though, I still feel that Alec Salmond, Scotlands first minister, is a force for the good in my country!
Absolutely brilliant. Period
Rocky Road,
That was a jaw-dropping article with a perfect title: Cancun Climate Change Shakedown. Some highlights:
It is deemed “too onerous” to ask for an accounting; it is the job of the U.S. to just hand over the money. We have no right to question how it will be spent, or who gets it.
These Cancun kleptocrats talk like neighborhood thieves discussing right in front of you how much of your hard earned money they are going to take from you and divide up between themselves. And they get highly indignant if anyone so much as mentions accountability.
The bogus AGW scare is the biggest financial fraud ever perpetrated. Anyone who doesn’t think this is an organized conspiracy to loot the West should read this article.
I just got an accounting from the hospital for the past two months; somewhere North of $121,000, waiting for my CMS statement to see if Medicare is going to keep me out of bankruptcy.
I’d rather give the money to the folks at Cancun to offset their liquor costs.
Interesting observation of US DOE Secretary Chu’s comments in Cancun:
Chu started out by noting that 2010 was one of the warmest years on record. However, he also reluctantly acknowledged that global average temperatures have been plateaued for the last 10 years.
Chu quickly added that we shouldn’t focus on just the past 10 years, but should look at 50 to 100 year temperature trend. But that raises the question: If the temperature plateau continued for another 10 years, would that be enough to cast doubt on the climate computer model predictions?
http://reason.com/archives/2010/12/07/cancun-climate-change-shakedow
@David L
In the words of another great Englishman: “It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine”
😉
Ipecac made me smile. I went directly to the drugstore to get some Ipecac syrup when I realized my fearless 2 year old had probably eaten a few little unknown mushrooms in the park. Soon enough the lightly chewed macaroni with mushrooms bits came back up.
The second most satisfying part of the story (after no known poisoning) was that when I called the poison control hotline after I gave my son the Ipecac, I discovered that I had done the exact right thing. But the “expert” at the other end of the line chastised me for not calling first. This was 15 years ago before the advent of mobile phones and I thought I was doing the responsible thing to get the Ipecac as soon as possible and I knew that mushrooms were not going to hurt him coming back up. I guess I was supposed to go to the emergency room and scare the poop out of the little fellow with sedation, a “stomach pumping” and a lot of humorless strangers.
He never tasted mushrooms from the park again though; seems the Ipecac imprinted a strong memory. But he is still fearless and even ate a wild mushroom at camp this summer that another counselor said was OK. He’s not noticeably more twitchy now, so I guess it was.
Different Planets
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2010/12/different-planets.html
Monckton’s report on gloom-fest at Cancun is entertaining enough to endure his snarky public school prose.
I especially enjoy the bit about praying to the moon-goddess. CAGW’ers communing with pagan superstition? In the chill breeze? Heavens! Whoda thunk it? It’s a crying shame, with all those Mayan pyramids so handy, that the developed world still resists having its industrial heart ripped out as a sacrifice to Gaia.
Does anyone have links to these four studies by Spencer, Lindzen, McKitrick and Douglas? Even the names of the studies Lord Monckton quoted would be greatly appreciated.
I’m having a difficult time finding these, so I thought I’d just ask. It’s tough taking the long route and learning about science the hard way, unlike most of the warmistas…
UK Government calls for 60% drop in productivity to fight Global Warming.
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/uk-government-calls-for-a-60-drop-in-productivity-to-fight-global-warming/
Source matters. Coming from a vilified and marginalized underdog who is at last having his day, it’s more than OK, it’s delicious.
PS: Turnabout is fair play.
“Cameron, or “Dave”, as he matily likes to be known, had been careful not to reveal his blind faith in the febrile fatuities of the forecasters of fashionable fatalism to his followers in Not The Conservative Party before they picked him as their leader: but, in his very first speech as Supreme Shrimp, he made it plain to the fawning news media that Saving The Planet would be his very firstest priority, yes indeedy.”
So he’s a conservative, except in the areas of free enterprise and individual liberties? I have some choice words for that, but never mind – in the spirit of the season, happy one year anniversary to Lord Monckton with the UK Independence Party.
Save up to £120bn a year by leaving the EU and a flat tax to all, Ho Ho Ho!
If someone had sent me to the Can Can I would have joined you for margaritas and camarones. We did actually meet briefly at one of the Heartland conferences. As I recall you mentioned something about an exponential increase of CO2 and I told you that this was nonsense because it is linear. What you say about rebuttals is not surprising. But for reasons unknown, no one has bothered to try to rebut my book. I guess that is because none of my previous work had any climate connection so it is safe to ignore an upstart who thinks he knows something. What I have done using satellites is to prove the following:
1. There was no warming when Hansen stood up in 1988 and swore that there was.
2. Official temperature curves showing warming in the eighties and nineties are all falsified and I show how it is done.
3. There has been no warming since 2002
4. The only real warming within the last thirty years started in 1988, raised global temperature by a third of a degree in four years, and then stopped.
5. Arctic warming is real but has nothing to do with the greenhouse effect. It started more than a hundred years ago and is caused by warm ocean currents, not a trace gas we exhale.
6. The unusual arctic melt in 2007 was not the work of carbon dioxide either but was caused by warm water coming through the Bering Strait. Poleward winds pulled it through and it proceeded to melt a big patch of sea ice on that side of the ocean.
The book is called “What Warming?” and it has been out for a year. A new edition should be out in a month.
And, I hate to tell you this, it is not just the IPeCaC crowd that don’t want to comment, it is also your friends you dined with at the beach who don’t even know about it.
I always thought they were saying IPyesyes…in redundant approval of the climate change organization, of course.
Correction:
4. The only real warming within the last thirty years started in 1998, [not in 1988]
conradg;
the smug certainty and contempt of your humorlessness is disgusting.
What remains worrying is that, despite the many credible people who have largely discredited the AGW theory, the Climate Negotiations Ritual is going on as if everything was absolutely certain.
Politicians are still too afraid of public opinion and NGOs to bluntly come out and call the whole thing off. There are more and more big corporations (Walmart, IBM, GE, car manufacturers…) that continue to present AGW as a fact and are positionning themselves to monetize it, true or false. Most of the mainstream media are still beating the AGW drum.
Despite the growing numbers of non-believers, the AGW monster is still alive and kicking. The menace of a damaging global climate treaty has not been avoided: too many people are still working very hard to make it a reality.
“richcar 1225 says:
December 7, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Roy Spencer blogged today that a new low temperature record was set today in Cancun.
The Gore effect strikes.”
The ‘Gore Effect’ is much stronger than the greenhouse effect due to man-made carbon dioxide. The science behind the ‘Gore Effect’ is not at all settled. Nor have IPCC scientists incorporated the ‘Gore Effect’ into their computerized climate models.
“SM says:
December 7, 2010 at 10:52 am
Um…those would probably be the “Caribbean Sea rollers”, dude…”
Duuude, the Caribbean is like, all part of the Atlantic and stuff.
Bill Jamison says: “Apparently no one warned the good Viscount to never drink blended drinks in Mexico since the ice is rarely made with bottled water!”
Unfortunately, sometimes the bottled water isn’t made with bottled water.
BernardP says:
December 7, 2010 at 7:17 pm
“Politicians are still too afraid of public opinion and NGOs to bluntly come out and call the whole thing off.”
Public opinion seems to be largley questioning AGW. Politicians are far more afraid of the liberal bias in the MSM in case their “oxygen of publicity” is cut off.
Disappointed at the snip, mod
I’m like Don Cherry, I call them like I see them.
[d]
Didn’t read all the posts so forgive me if this is a repeat comment. The new AGW will be Biodiversity. It is threatened and we are all (well those with money) responsible. Now send your bio-taxes to…
So we have had Spencer’s 1 degree F for the first CO2 doubling already even at only a 40% CO2 increase. Does that mean it has stopped for good now, or will it resume after the first doubling has completed? I don’t understand what he means.
Ah Hah!!! Now I know why, whenever I try to digest anything produced by the IPCC, I have to barf!
Yes, we have no bananas, we have-a no bananas today:
What? Two Lords of the realm in one place at the same conference? Is this an example of Peer review?
theduke says:
December 7, 2010 at 11:56 am
If the Viscount is reading, can I get a pronunciation for Ipecac? I-Pee-Cack? I-Pee-Cock? Ippycock [sounds like poppycock]?
————————————————————————————————-
Well I think poppycock was a polite way of saying (in polite company) Cocky kack – pretty well sums up AGW in my opinion (LOL). Ippy kack is probably an alternative.
Gee I love this web site.
Cheers.
Red Etin says:
December 7, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Sorry, folks, but as a Scot I just can’t stomach the writings of this upper class english twit. If you have to ask why, then I know you won’t understand.
REPLY: And I just can’t stomach the insults of people who are too cowardly to give their real name and hide behind the safety of anonymity. Monckton signs his name to his opinions, where you do not. – Anthony
OK, I ranted, but why have you not replied to the other anonymous ranters and meaningless commentators?
Yours too cowardly, James Parker.
[REPLY :Personal insults are not the same as rants and meaningless comments – mj]
You might want to check out this report from Mexico from today’s Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/dec/07/cancun-monckton-crashes-business-lunch
Monckton crashes Cancún business lunch
“Lord Christopher Monckton is asked to leave corporate lunch party after airing his sceptical views on climate change
“COP15 Lord Monckton Invades SustainUS Booth Last year Lord Monckton called US students “Hitler Youth” at the Copenhagen climate summit.
“The Caribbean sun was shining, the talk was of carbon prices, profits and enterprise and 400 of the world’s most successful green corporate executives were nibbling salmon and prawns in Cancún’s glitzy Ritz Carlton hotel. But then the protest began. This was not peasant farmers or Greenpeace hanging from the roof, but the impeccably dressed British climate sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton. Holding forth in the centre of the UN climate conference lunch party, he claimed that man-made climate change was not happening and businesses should hesitate before investing in green energy.
“A heated debate on climate change between the Guardian’s environment editor John Vidal and Lord Christopher Monckton Link to this audio http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/audio/2010/dec/07/cancun-climate-change-summit-monckton
“Most people steered clear, but Monckton had no hesitation in barging in on conversations, reeling off statistics and arguments that, he said, proved not only that the world was not warming but that “certain newspapers” were not reporting the reality.
“But it seems that the man who in Copenhagen last year compared young protesters to Hitler Youth because they gatecrashed a meeting of climate sceptics, had not actually been invited to the largest business conference of the summit that featured Lord Stern, Richard Branson and several Mexican billionaires.
“After an hour of tolerating Monckton, the patience of the organisers wore thin. “Who is this man?” asked one American green venture capitalist. “These are weird views,” said another. A few minutes later he was asked to leave. Surprisingly, considering Cancún is so close to the US, such climate sceptics have been all but absent at the UN meeting. The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow , a US free-market thinktank that used to take money from oil companies, had a small stand in the non-government group halls, but otherwise it is a sceptic-free zone. Opinions were sharply divided over the reasons for their absence from the public arena. One group of people believe that they have no appetite for a fight and have exhausted themselves; another says that they are holding their guns for better sport later. Both opinions will, of course, be fiercely contested.”
As usual, the comments below the article say as much about the subject as the article itself.
We owe a great deal to Christopher Monckton, Anthony and all the other bloggers/communicators – and, of course, the honest scientists – for their tireless work in bringing this lunacy to the attention of the wider world.
The always-entertaining Lord is right to concentrate on the role of the media as it is here where the battles must be fought and won. I have said many times on this blog that the non-scientists among us must make a positive contribution by taking the fight to the media.
Will all the good folk who contribute here please make an effort to post on the media sites – I know many of you do as I see you cropping up on the BBC, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail sites. Keep going guys! Conversations here on WUWT are hugely important but once you are done here, please go off and make a posting on at least one MSM site. This is where the battle for hearts and minds is taking place.
I have just been on to Richard Black’s blog to make readers there aware that David Jordan, the lead author of the new BBC guidelines, explains that when it comes to climate change, the word ‘impartiality’ has a different meaning to the dictionary definition. (In a shameful episode of Newswatch from November 29th – at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vjxv3/Newswatch_29_10_2010 –
“If both sides of the debate were to be reflected it would give the impression that both sets of views were equal and we don’t have to approach impartiality in climate change in that way”, says Jordan. (No, really, he actually said that).
My comment on the site was “How BBC journalists can cope with this level of humiliation beats me”.
We also need to bring our friends and colleagues up-to-speed with the issues, alert them to the existence of WUWT and generally be proactive in this matter. If Christopher, Anthony and others are the standard-bearers then we must be the footsoldiers.
Dear Lord Monckton: Buying your own bananas is a very good move. And I trust you also brought a ‘Food -Taster’ with you.
There’s also no pressure to read any bloggers remarks here, if they can’t spell your name correctly.
Lord Monkton, the voice of reason…..laughable
From Dr. Dave on December 7, 2010 at 12:37 pm:
WRONG! Avoid using it!
Short version: It doesn’t help. Ipecac induces vomiting in about 20-30 minutes. For a “normal” poison, that’s long enough for significant absorption. For a corrosive substance like drain cleaner, vomiting may cause further damage of the esophagus etc, and then there’s the possibility of aspirating the substance (sucking it into the lungs).
It is NOT RECOMMENDED to keep ipecac syrup at home.
Reference, from the National Capital Poison Center (US), please read:
http://www.poison.org/prepared/ipecac.asp
Call the poison center, 1-800-222-1222 in the US. They will tell you what to do. They WILL NOT be telling you to use ipecac syrup at home.
John V. Wright: ““If both sides of the debate were to be reflected it would give the impression that both sets of views were equal and we don’t have to approach impartiality in climate change in that way”, says Jordan.”
Two or three years ago, I had a meeting with a journalist to see if I could get a climate-sceptical article into their highly-respected paper. They explained that they tried to match content with expert opinion, and with expert opinion running 95% in favour of the consensus, I had no chance.
>>“I say, what is the Cypriot Greek for ‘concrete box’.”
>>“Lag-shoo-ree veellaa!”
Perhaps this joke needs some elucidation, for those not blessed with a Public School indoctrination and sense of humour …..
Lag.shoo.ree …. translates as luxury
Veellaa …. translates as villa
So a concrete box, in Cyprus, is a ‘luxury villa’. Quite apt really, but more suited to the former USSR in my opinion.
I presume the jest has some connection with the Greek translation, but I’m afraid that my Greek is somewhat limited, so I don’t know.
.
Mike Jonas said:
……..John V. Wright: ““If both sides of the debate were to be reflected it would give the impression that both sets of views were equal and we don’t have to approach impartiality in climate change in that way”, says Jordan.”
Two or three years ago, I had a meeting with a journalist to see if I could get a climate-sceptical article into their highly-respected paper. They explained that they tried to match content with expert opinion, and with expert opinion running 95% in favour of the consensus, I had no chance……….
Keep going Mike! Don’t let them grind you down. Two years ago, the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 routinely included the phrase “Most scientists believe…” in their global warming coverage. There was a howl of protest and they were challenged to show the research to back up this claim. Now the line they use is “Most Governments believe…” which puts them on safer ground.
Your journalist, however, is flatly wrong when it comes journalistic balance. In any story where there is a contradictory element, or dispute between parties, the media is required to mention early on in the piece that this contradictory view exists and then, later on, allow the other side to expand on its point of view.
This is, of course, a somewhat old-fashioned approach to journalism in much the same way that observing and recording data is an old-fashioned approach to scientific investigation as opposed to the model-constructers and proxy-manipulators of today. But sometimes the old values are good values.
So keep fighting the good fight, Mike – in the face of such breathtaking arrogance and barefaced partiality displayed by the BBC’s David Jordan we need people like you to show that we continue to care about truth, balance and integrity.
His lordship is an eloquent writer and speaker. However, after seeing a youtube video of him addressing an american audience I think his sincerity is on a level with that of Dave the shrimp.
He was laying it on with shovel about what an honor it was to be in America ( a country he adored) while it was still a free country …. blah, blah.
Basically, totally condescending, spewing heaps of platitudes of what he believed americans like to hear. Really trying to jerk his audience off.
It was not working too well, they apparently realised he was pumping them. To judge by the comments here, this audience is a little less discerning.
Despite his stylish command of the english language, I gravely doubt his sincerity and motives.
It’s perhaps unfortunate for a serious and rigorous scientist like Dr Spencer to be seen so hobnobbing with his lordship who anticipates well the obvious question:
“Dr. Spencer, why have you agreed to share a platform with that loony charlatan Monckton, who is not a scientist and is not even a real Lord?”
But does not offer an answer. Perhaps Dr. Spencer should also anticipate the question and tell us. I presume he does have a good solid reason.
“Strangely, though, I still feel that Alec Salmond, Scotlands first minister, is a force for the good in my country!”
From my viewpoint on the Solway, with the noon coastal temperature at -10C at my back door, I feel that Alec Salmond’s “no nuclear in Scotland” and “Scotland will be a net exporter of renewable energy” stance, has already been exposed as the ill-informed wishful thinking of the credulous, fatuous idiot that I always supposed him to be..
And my reason for this opinion? A 360 degree view of both land and sea based wind farms, lying idle in the breathless grip of the fourth fierce winter in a row.
Cold Comfort Farm indeed.
[REPLY :Personal insults are not the same as rants and meaningless comments – mj]
I’m sorry if it came over as a personal insult – it was in fact inspired by some early Monty Python sketches.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Class_Twit_of_the_Year
Bob such says:
December 8, 2010 at 2:42 am
‘Lord Monkton, the voice of reason…..laughable’
Al Gore the voice of reason …. ridiculous. And why won’t he ever debate his cult beliefs?
Alexander K:
That’s “Canuck,” not “Canuk” — we’re not all Ukrainians here, you know.
Red Etin says:
December 8, 2010 at 1:49 am
Red Etin says:
December 7, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Sorry, folks, but as a Scot I just can’t stomach the writings of this upper class english twit. If you have to ask why, then I know you won’t understand.
Gareth says: I’ll try and explain.
I sympathise, coming from Wales. We in keeping with Scotland and Ireland were the first colonies England ever had. Interestingly would you have given James such a hard time if he had been an Irish republican? While Lord Monckton does indeed talk sense with regard to climate change, he uses it as a vehicle to promote his little England and imperialistic credentials. This sort of writing is designed to provoke anyone who has suffered from English colonisation. Lord Monckton with his close links to UKIP also has a negative view of our current situation where Wales, Scotland and Ireland now have our own governments and have equal standing in Europe with England under the umbrella of the United Kingdom..
In the United States they quite rightly respect the brave people who liberated the American colonies from English oppression. Can you imagine how you would feel if a then Lord had agreed with your ambitions, but used his platform to tell you in how English imperialism was a wonderful concept and equality was a myth? If Lord Monckton is really an adherent of leaving the European Union and allowing England to have self determination, perhaps he would give Wales, Scotland and Ireland the same benefit? We are 4 countries in the UK and are happy with that. But No, along with Lord Pearson ( erstwhile leader of UKIP) he believes Wales, Scotland and Ireland should be part of England and to stop their struggles for self determination within the United Kingdom and as an recognised entity with Europe. Every time we see “England” substituted for the united Kingdom it grates and is within the philosophy of these 2 old imperialists. If you have any doubt look at UKIPS view of devolution.
I love your website. I think you are an heroic and hard working person for making clear what many of us had suspected, but had no way of expressing our concerns. Our worry is though that you are being hijacked by right wing extremists who will use your achievements for their own ends. It would be great if you could welcome Lord Moncktons observations on climate, but use your light hand of moderation ensure that they were of a scientific or witty nature, and not right wing rants designed to promote a past glory of English imperialism which should never be resurrected.
Best wishes, Gareth
( I think you have my details on file!)
Ynys Mon
Cymru
Gareth Phillips
Gareth,
I wasn’t going that far but my worry was that on our side “we” end up with our own version of the buffoonery of Al Gore. But it is evident from some of the postings that many seem to like the style of the writing.
>>Gareth
>>Every time we see “England” substituted for the united Kingdom it
>>grates and is within the philosophy of these 2 old imperialists.
United Kingdom? What United Kingdom?
What really grates, is that the unproductive fringes of the Kingdom get a parliament, while the wealth generating core has none. That, is hardly United. If certain politicians like to harp on about separatism, then expect the championing of Merry England and St George.
.
Again, a most funny and witty report from an IPCC meeting; Cancun without bananas?
Thanks to Lord Monckton!
I think the Aussie Raw prawn decriptor suits Cameroon better.
and see this..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/dec/07/cancun-monckton-crashes-business-lunch?&EMCENVEML1631
like some of the other loopy stories there, ie mistletoe vanishing…in 20 years…
just a thought…why not a mango daquiri?
I see that the European Commission has sent the former UK Deputy Premier, one John Prescott, as its special envoy to Cancun. For the information of non-Brits, this left-wing socialist, is chiefly known for his persistent emasculation of the English language, his penchant for luxury cars, for punching a heckler and for having a dalliance with his young secretary. It should be very heartening for sceptics to see that the EC gravy train is so desparate as to appoint such a buffoon to represent it. I bet Monckton keeps his head down if he sees Prescott.
Red Etin Says
Sorry, folks, but as a Scot I just can’t stomach the writings of this upper class english twit. If you have to ask why, then I know you won’t understand.
Gareth says: I’ll try and explain.
I sympathise, coming from Wales. We in keeping with Scotland and Ireland were the first colonies England ever had.
Just for information: Wales and Scotland were never colonised by England; they were defeated by French/Norman warlords – namely the Plantagenets – as was Anglo Saxon England in the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066AD. The Normans gradually took on English names and appearances – but even today, the power elite is largely derived from Norman aristocracy. The Scots go on and on and on about how ‘oppressed’ they have been by ‘The English’ and celebrate the Battle of Bacnnockburn in 1314 – where Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, defeated Edward IInd of England.
Robert the Bruce’s real name was Robert de Bruis and he was as Norman as Edouard Plantagenet – Edward the Second. The English survived 800 years of Norman occupation and gradually reasserted themselves – creating along the way, the first world language, the industrial revolution, the jet engine, antibiotics, Isaac Newton and a few other small things. But here’s the irony, for the wee-Scotlanders and the Wee- Waleser’s cringing and whingeing eternally in their English-taxpayer-funded enclaves:
the English have had many things, but they have NEVER had an English King or Queen.
William the Conqueror and the Plantagenets were all French; Henry VIII and Elizabeth Tudor were Welsh, the Stuarts were all Scots and the rest were Dutch (William of Orange) or German -the Windsors (Queen Elizabeth Windsor is ‘really’ Elizabeth Saxe-Coburg von Gotha) – they changed the name after the Battle of the Somme/
Petty nationalist whingeing aside, Monckton is to be praised for his long, long battle for truth and his constant pointing out that the IPCC Emperor has no clothes. Yes he is an upper-class aristocrat – but he also has a razor sharp wit and tireless determination to get to the truth. You don’t have to like him as a person to give credit for what he has done, and continues to do in opposing this insane new religious death cult.
>>Graham
>>Henry VIII and Elizabeth Tudor were Welsh, while all the Stuart kings
>>of Britain were all Scots….
And you forgot to mention that the New Labour ministers were heavily Scots – from Tony Blair* and Gordon Brown, to Robin Cook, Donald Dewar, Gavin Strang, George Robertson, Alistair Darling and Derry Irvine. The so-called United Kingdom was the Scottish Kingdom for the last 12 years.
Indeed, eight of the 17 Labour leaders have been Scottish, an influence out of all proportion to the relative size of populations (nine, if you include Blair).
* Educated in Scotland.
>>Graham
>>Robert the Bruce’s real name was Robert de Bruis and he was as
>>Norman as Edouard Plantagenet – Edward the Second.
But don’t forget that the Normans were actually Scando-Scots in the first place. The father of the Normans was Rollo, who was a Scandinavian prince who was exiled to the Shetland Islands (in Scotland) – before setting off to conquer northern France. The Normans were the Norse-Men.
This is why most of England’s monarchs from William the Conquerer through to Elizabeth I were all firey redheads – they were all red headed Scado-Scots.
William the Conqueror
http://www.englishheritageprints.com/image/william-the-conqueror-j980082_1067070.jpg
William Rufus (the red)
http://knutthelastviking.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/william-rufus.jpg
Richard I
http://www.frenchentree.com/france-limousin-living/images/Richard-Lionheart.jpg
Elizabeth I
http://englishhistory.net/tudor/eliz1-ermine.jpg
.
Ralph said@ “But don’t forget that the Normans were actually Scando-Scots in the first place.”
I bow the knee to thy historiography. Actually the very word ‘Norman’ means ‘The Norse Man’ – the Normans were in fact Scandinavian Vikings who came down and conquered Normandy – and later the whole of France. They also went inland into the Ukraine and Russia and all over Europe, including Ireland (Dubh Linn – is a Viking name). Most of the Northern Islands of Britain are distinctly Scandiwegian in genetics and culture – so the Scandinavian/Scottish eventually Vikings merged their Norman Viking cousins when England and Scotland eventually came together. “We’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns” – as they say up here.
However, it was MINUS 14 degrees C on the River Tweed last night and it is already Minus 10 degrees C tonight – it did not rise above minus 5 degrees C all day. Glasgow is forecast for Minus 12 degrees C tonight and there seems little prospect of this ending before February – apart from a couple of days milder weather at the weekend. The main motorway between Edinburgh and Glasgow was blocked for 48 hours and thousands of people were trapped in their cars for 12-20 hours – total failure of all emergency systems.
Fuel is being rationed in Aberdeenshire and some places are running out of food. And this is only the first 10 days! This is deadly serious. And all those hundreds and hundreds of bloody wind turbines are standing silent and unmoving – since there has been virtually no wind at all these last ten days. Last winter we had an identical high pressure cold incursion that lasted from 18th December to mid March – more than 12 weeks when the wind turbines failed to generate enough power to run a single village.
“T-P Ruoko says:
December 7, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Does anyone have links to these four studies by Spencer, Lindzen, McKitrick and Douglas? Even the names of the studies Lord Monckton quoted would be greatly appreciated.”
I hope the following list helps. Viscount Monckton ought to include the references in his piece for confirmation that these are what he referred to. Apologies if my list is incorrect.
Lindzen
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/07/23/new-paper-from-lindzen/
Douglass
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joc.1651/abstract
http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~douglass/papers/addendum_A%20comparison%20of%20tropical%20temperature%20trends%20with%20model_JOC1651%20s1-ln377204795844769-1939656818Hwf-88582685IdV9487614093772047PDF_HI0001
Spencer
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2010/06/revisiting-the-pinatubo-eruption-as-a-test-of-climate-sensitivity/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/08/28/congratulations-finally-to-spencer-and-braswell-on-getting-their-new-paper-published/
McKitrick
http://www.uoguelph.ca/~rmckitri/research/jgr07/M&M.JGRDec07.pdf
My sympathies to those enduring the bitter cold (no doubt caused by global warming!) in Scotland and nearby places. Just remember: It’s not winter yet! Here in Virginia it has been 10-15 degrees F below average for this time of year, not getting out of the 30s yet this week, with lows in the teens. Our average high is 53 for early December. Frankly, I could use a little warming, for I can’t do much outside with the ground frozen.
Graham UK says:
December 8, 2010 at 8:36 am
Petty nationalist whingeing aside, Monckton is to be praised for his long, long battle for truth and his constant pointing out that the IPCC Emperor has no clothes.
Gareth syas,
Actually I don’t think he whinges, he is obviously proud of his English heritage and we should recognise that. He can be a bit of a twit, and is obviously worryingly right wing, but some of his scientific observation are spot on and we should respect him for that.
As a Celt I’m rather pleased to see England become more proud of it’s wonderful history and celebrate St Georges day. When English people do not have this pride, it is then they fall into the trap of equating England to the UK. It saddens me to see fascists hijack the cross of St George for their own perverted ends, and it it gives me endless joy to see it reclaimed by people such as Billy Bragg.
We welcome our English visitors to our increasingly snowy mountains, and who knows? If Monckton is correct we may end up with Ski resorts in Snowdonia and home internationals in ski competitions. While we are never going to be able to compete with England on the soccer field, I fancy we may have a chance on snowboards!
I haven’t bothered to scan all his stuff, but my impression is that he refers to Britain or the UK, rather than England. Rather too much touchy and petty historical nationalism going on here, all a distraction from the main points: neither national nor EU elected officials can institute, cancel, reverse, or control the decisions of the EU Commission, and the UN seems to think this is a grand idea.
Boy oh BOY! Eloquence at it’s VERY best. I daresay no one has been disappointed, Sir.
It also gives me a true hope, indeed!
Perhaps once your Cancun-Crashing Days are behind all of us, we may choose to enroll our children and grandies into the ‘Christopher Monckton School of Higher Learning’ where ‘all future global heresies’ shall be brilliantly dispatched with a wave of learned hands.
‘Dining on Daves amidst the bunkers…without whine nor fruit…’ ~ you stalwartly trudge on (none could do it better, in my humble opinion) for Lovers of Truth which span this REALLY cool globe. (It’s damned chilly out here in the Outback, p.s. ~ and I truly don’t care which ‘kid’ they call it – Boy(Nino) OR Girl(Nina)!!!) Regardless, I applaud your pluckiness, Your lordship!
Me thinks now that the Chinese have stopped buying our Aussie Crays (a result of, perhaps ~ the former PM’s leaks?), that I shall nonetheless – “Save the Crays” today
and rather ~ choose our prawns tonight ~ in your honor.
Prawns tonight, will symbolize that we’re not gonna be PrAWNS in this global game any longer – (Even after just reading Missive #3) – Not in Politics or Weather or Eugenics – or… heck, whatever else these numskulls can throw at us.
The Game is ON, and more and more kindred Spirits are joining in – they are dressed and quite ready to lend hearts and hands. It’s a truly glorious day to be alive, guys.
….now, if I can just get this silly Aussie computer to allow me to post those ‘volcanic sunsets’ someday for Anthony to see, all will be ‘right’ in my little world… OH!!!
Whomever reads this, chalk it up to Katharine Gibbs Secretarial School in downtown Boston, AGES ago, O.K.? ….but, Chris? it there ‘was’ a tiny error that caught ‘this eye’ nonetheless…
Me thinks you meant ‘persnickety’, in your wonderful commentary. (I like editing, not nit-picking, though.)
Cheers, Gentlemen!
…I’m off to find and boil my PrAWNS… in effigy, if you will.
C.L. Thorpe
I’ve never been comfortable with associating the AGW believers with religion. Lord Monckton has finally given me a better word to use: superstition. I am going to start using that from today forward.