Paging Lord Deben
I had debated with myself a couple of days as to whether or not to cover this particular bit of ugliness, after it first being brought to my attention by Bishop Hill. But then, Lord Deben of the UK made this observation:
I challenge Lord Deben to find examples of climate skeptics doing anything remotely close to this sort of ugliness that is much like of the tactics of the Klu Klux Klan – showing up at somebody’s house with mask covered faces, torches, and a threat:
Source:
‘The People’ Confront Enbridge Executive In Solidarity With MI CATS 3
http://www.tarsandsblockade.org/enbridge-home-demo/
(update: their website is no longer serving that page, so here it is as a PDF Tar Sands Blockade – Enbridge )
One of these days, they’ll show up at the wrong house, like their comrades did with the wrong petrol station, and the person inside won’t be as tolerant as Mr. Maki was, and that won’t be pretty:
In case Lord Deben doesn’t know, this “tar sands blockade” is an organization that is part of Bill McKibben’s 350.org and their mission to stop Keystone XL due to their concerns about the supposed effect on the climate.
(Update: Amazingly, McKibben supported this action, see screencap below)
And, perhaps Lord Deben doesn’t recall this example of ugliness from like minded people in the UK on climate, who decided that blowing up school children would be a great way to get the message of climate obedience and compliance across:
It was so bad, 10:10 tried to disappear it, but they were unsuccessful.
And, maybe Lord Deben hasn’t seen this:
Lefty Feud Over Keystone Worsens, Ed Schultz Telling Enviros to ‘Go to Hell’
It seems even the left leaning media is realizing the KXL people are going off the rails.
I challenge Lord Deben to find similar examples from climate skeptics. I’ll even given you a guest essay here to highlight it if you like.
Reference:
‘your journey towards the dark side will be complete’ with apologies to “Emperor Palpatine”
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tty:
re your post at February 9, 2014 at 2:20 pm
I wonder why it took you so long. I provided it above.
Richard
rabbit February 9, 2014 at 12:22 pm
“To this day I cannot fathom what 10:10 were thinking.”
It’s pretty clear what they were thinking. It’s less clear how they rationalised that disgusting thought to themselves. The producers tried to argue that it was all in jest, but that was such obvious rubbish even their natural supporters (a gullible lot, by nature) wouldn’t swallow it.
Minor correction: please note that it is “KU Klux Klan”, not “KLU…..”
Usual apology if this has already been covered.
Ian M.
When I worked in London some years back there was one guy who came to work Monday to Friday from Wales.
If Gareth Phillips says he isn’t a paid Eurocrat then he isn’t.
From his first posts my guess is that he is a geographer or statistical mapmaker from South Wales or maybe Herefordshire, probably with a PR role.
But I still don’t know which adaptation policy he thinks anyone on WUWT has disagreed with or what evidence of the case for climate change he thinks would persuade anyone on WUWT ir anywhere.
Gareth Phillips says:
February 9, 2014 at 12:02 pm
Hi Glenn, no problem. If you have a look through the posts with the Black Swan title, I’m sure you will find lots of examples. If you want heavy stuff on the other side of the debate I’d suggest Skeptical science. For an example of a site which manages to hold pretty civil discussions check out And then there’s Physics where Anders manages to keep things civil during pretty interesting debates.
———————————————————————————————————————–
Gareth,
While I disagree wth your position on climate change, your point here is fair and well presented and it’s a shame that some here take issue with it. I’d go so far as to say that their (admittedly polite) disagreement supports your initial contention by effectively “calling you out” on something that’s as plain as a a pikestaff. Demanding justification of a self-evident statement is aggressive no matter how politely it’s phrased.
They would, no doubt, hide behind the “need for empirical evidence” of your claim, as if everything in life must be evidenced and cross-referenced as thoroughly as they (rightly) expect in scientific matters. That’s lunacy when you only need to read any web forum to see for yourself that some people on all sides of all debates will inevitably reach for invective at some point, in many cases as a weapon of first choice.
What I hope you, in turn, would accept is that it’s rare (in fact, I can’t think of a single example) for climate sceptics to rally in public in ways designed to cause physical intimidation to their opponents. Nor do they, as a rule, attack in mob style even on forums. A post similar to yours on most AGW sites would have illicited far more than the 2 or 3 challenges yours has in the last 80+ posts.
It’s also almost unthinkable that such a post on, say, Real Science, would garner even one supporting post (as this one is intended to be) from “the faithful”. The accepted culture on all AGW fora I’ve found has been very much to reject anything posted by an identifed sceptic out of hand. If I were to post on most of them that “I’m a climate sceptic and I had Shredded Wheat for breakfast this morning” there’s a better than even chance that I’d be told they were obviously Cornflakes.
Nor is there anyone I can think of on the sceptical side of the debate who spends so much time hurling insults, while complaining loudly about those received, as many of the “higher profile” AGW proponents do. Mud-slinging within the sceptic camp is mostly kept where it belongs – in the unwashed ranks. For the other side the Generals very much lead by example!
“Get off my lawn!”
-Clint Eastwood (“Gran Torino”)
Thanks Joe, much appreciated. Cheers G
Brad, no that is not me. My problem is that my blog is a professional blog only open to the members of that blog. If I gave out the details of the blog some members of the blog may feel compromised and would not be happy. I can’t really ask hundreds of people for their permission, but I have to ensure their professional confidentiality. Hope you understand, many thanks, G.
Gareth Phillips says:
February 9, 2014 at 3:02 pm
Thanks Joe, much appreciated. Cheers G
———————————————————————————–
You’re more than welcome 🙂
Btw, can I take your lack of disagreement as tacit agreement with the points in the second half of my post? 😉
Deferring to PURE applejack (an inebriating substance) …
.
Par Frank & Gail,
Indeed, cancer is a matter of age and thus of life expectancy: the cancer risk doubles for every 10 years you get older…
Some other study looked at the increased cancer mortality in the Texas “cancer alley”, where most of the chemical factories and refinaries were situated. The study showed that cancer incidence was in fact lower than average, but cancer mortality was higher. As relative more poor people live in less attractive neighbourhoods, that seems to show more about the food & health conditions of these people and the health care system in the US than about the risk caused by chemicals…
That study was from 15-20 years ago, maybe the situation is better now…
But of course, it can be assumed you have NEVER heard of, let alone visited Climate Audit and reviewed the literal ‘decomposition’ of M. Mann’s obsequious work by S. McIntyre …
We have here, ladies and gentleman, a poseur of unusually high order.
John Robertson
I understand your concern but there is an issue here (as e.g. Jimbo has recognised).
Shills employed to undermine WUWT need to be exposed.
This was what Randle Dewees suggested
http://www.sindicatum.com/author/gareth-phillips/
No clear denial has been obtained. But mystery has increased.
For example, can you equate these two posts?
I provided the requested info.and Brad suggested a blog of someone else who – seeking sponsorship – would want many visitors. This was the reply.
One of those posts is true.
I leave you to ponder why the former was provided if the latter is true. The latter is more cogent.
Richard
Richard,
Nicely played…
Maybe we should contact Sindicatum and let them know someone may be pretending to “not” be their Gareth Phillips?
Just thinking out loud…
onlyme says:
February 9, 2014 at 11:38 am
“The remark that started ‘Lord’ Deben off is found at https://twitter.com/lorddeben/status/432571803425587201 in which he calls #Anthropogenic #GlobalWarming sceptics ‘deniers/dismissers’ the holocaust referencing Godwins’ law invoking term used by so many alarm spreading followers of #IPCC dogma. This was followed by the remark Antony responded to at https://twitter.com/lorddeben/status/432575875666968577 in which he now labels #CAGW sceptics dissenters.
The use of the epithet #Denier has been habitual and continual with Deben, and to me is not the kind of behavior that is fitting on part of someone who is supposed to be part of the nobility. There is nothing whatever noble about such speech, and when he is called out on this practice of his, his response is as detailed above, to blame sceptics for attacking, even though he is the first to hurl the slurs.
I also take exception to his classification of sceptics on the matter of anthropogenic global warming as dismissers, we do not dismiss the evidence but the interpretations and question the models which to date show limited skill at prediction beyond 5 to 10 days.”
Deben is NOT “nobility” or anything like. As John Selwyn Gummer he was an MP and became Lord Deben when he left the House of Commons in 2010. He became a member of the Cabinet and Secretary of State for the Environment under John Major. He is Chairman of the (supposedly Independent) Committee on Climate Change. He also Chairs a “sustainability consultancy” Sancroft International and Veolia Water UK. Nobility my a***!
What were we talking about again? Let me think , oh right something about a note to a lord and a pipeline,Maybe a bit of advice?? If you think the person ” invading and “polluting ” any site, answer him?her just with one word: “troll” it would save a little of cyberspace which we all know can only exist due to those evil pipelines. It sure as heck would have saved me a lot of time trying to follow the original subject!
drumphil:
I am not an employed shill and I declare my interests. Exposing shills employed to undermine WUWT is not a “witch hunt”.
Richard
Mods:
I mow have two posts in moderation but I know not why.
Thank you M Courtney. He has carried out a lot of comments that don’t actually lead anywhere. I suspect that if he continues here he will soon become a sceptic. Just ask Dr. Judith Curry and about her interactions with sceptics. She soon turned even after calling us the ‘D’ word. Pay heed Gareth as Dr. Judith Curry is a fully certified climatologist unlike the demented astrophysicist Dr. James Hansen. Dr. James Hansen once warned us that the world’s oceans would end up in the atmosphere. He later recanted. How can I take Hansen Fruitcake seriously?
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/02/09/black-swans-dispatches-from-the-front-line-of-climate-change/#comment-1563087
Still awaiting an answer.
Living in denial is obvious an occupational hazard that climate fobia afflicted people need to learn to deal with.
john robertson says:
February 9, 2014 at 1:56 pm
_________________
Bravo. Nail, meet hammer.
Gareth Phillips says:
February 9, 2014 at 3:06 pm
Brad, no that is not me. My problem is that my blog is a professional blog only open to the members of that blog. If I gave out the details of the blog some members of the blog may feel compromised and would not be happy. I can’t really ask hundreds of people for their permission, but I have to ensure their professional confidentiality. Hope you understand, many thanks, G.
In my opinion, an honorable person would have said that when first queried.
One with something to hide on the other hand would act in deflective manner, which you have.
Just an observation.
i pretty much ignore any CAGW abuse or reporting that uses the trick of calling AGW “climate”.
meanwhile, MSM, almost all of which subscribes to Reuters, NEVER seem to report inconvenient truths such as the following. i can find it nowhere else, and – apart from the first para – it’s subscribers’ only here:
U.S. coal-fired electricity hits 3-year high due to cold weather
NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Blistering cold weather across the United States in the last six weeks sent power generated by coal to the highest point in three years as utilities relied on the carbon-heavy fuel to meet peak demand, data from Bentek Energy showed on Friday…
http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/reutersnews/1.4013485
one-time consumer-protector obviously ignores the science, but he knows to use “climate change”; he knows to speak of “deniers”; he knows to frame “deniers” as republicans. and he believes Steyer, Bloomberg, Paulson & Gore are genuinely concerned about saving the planet from CAGW! yikes.
7 Feb: Albany Tribune: Ralph Nader: Climate Disasters and Ending Congressional Stupor Now!
Every year brings the world more climatological science that man-made climate change, or overall global warming, is chronically worsening.
Every year, from Antarctica to Greenland, from the Andes to Alaska, the ice is melting, the permafrost is melting, and very soon the Arctic may have a re-unprecedented ice-free season. Every year, more and more businesses are speaking out on how climate change is damaging their businesses. Insurance companies were in the lead on sounding the alarm on global warming. Just a few days ago, Coca-Cola’s vice president for environment and water resources, Jeffrey Seabright, told the New York Times that “increased droughts, more unpredictable variability, 100-year floods every two years” were affecting the supply of sugar cane and sugar beets, “as well as citrus for [Coca-Cola’s] fruit juices.”…
In Washington, Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, has put climate change on center stage for becoming what he said is a chief contributor to rising global poverty rates…
Every year, its seems records are being set for sea level rises, more furious storm surges, heat waves, floods, typhoons, and droughts…
The Republicans are aggressive climate-change deniers. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) calls global warming a massive hoax and is willing to debate any Democrat. While, by and large, most Democrats are concerned but unwilling to make it a campaign or electoral issue. They’re even unwilling to take on Mr. Inhofe…
The Pentagon’s study a decade ago would be brought to bear with its dire message that climate change is a national security priority…
Where would the $25 million annual budget come from for such a lobbying group working to prevent trillions of dollars and millions of lives from being lost?…
Megabillionaire Michael Bloomberg, just named the United Nations special envoy for climate change and cities, already funding efforts to reduce coal usage, could write the check out of his hip pocket. Billionaire Tom Steyer, a big time opponent to the XL pipeline from Canada and a proven environmentalist from California, could also handily write the check.
Very wealthy Henry M. Paulson Jr., former head of Goldman Sachs and U.S. Treasury Secretary, who is working with Bloomberg and Steyer to commission an economic study on the financial risks connected to climate change, region by region across the U.S. economy, could also write the check.
And don’t forget Al Gore, the leading global publicist of what climatologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University called a “clear and present danger to civilization.” Former Senator Gore – who received the Nobel Prize in 2007 for highlighting the perils of global warming and climate change – could also fund and lead such a group.
(Ralph Nader is a politician, activist and the author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!, a novel.)
http://www.albanytribune.com/07022014-ralph-nader-climate-disasters-ending-congressional-stupor-now-oped/
don’t know why Nader’s piece appeared in online Albany Tribune, but the Trib is owned by this lot:
Seractus – About Us
Seractus executives have vast experience in the area of industrial and
strategical consulting, risk management, energy, renewable energy,
communications, external affairs and in the defense sector…
Being a part of a Multinational company, Seractus connects and represents
different industrial sectors from Automotive to renewable energy…
http://www.seractus.com/