Yesterday Al Gore testified before a congressional hearing. Lord Monckton wasn't permitted to speak but Newt Gingrich did a good job of exposing Gore's usual lies and distortions:
Also, here's Lord Monckton with Michael Savage (April 24th about 1/3 in).
Lord Monckton is chief policy adviser for the Science and Public Policy Institute.
[h/t]
As is usually the case, Rootin'-Tootin'-Newton has got it right. However, now that much of the political establishment has bought into this AGW hype it will be extremely difficult to have a reasonable debate on the subject. The U.N. along with most western governments have too much to lose by allowing the facts to be presented in a reasonable scientific manner.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the difficulty of having meaningful debate. Essex and McKitrick's book "Taken By Storm" does a good job of explaining the reasons for this - "convection of certainty", etc.
ReplyDeleteBut there's also some encouraging signs popping up - e.g. Lawrence Solomon's column today: "Australia becoming a Denier Nation" in which he notes how Australia is backing away from emissions trading and the Aussie mainstream press is fairly reporting opposition to AGW orthodoxy.
I honestly don't what the point of this Lord Monckton stuff is.
ReplyDeleteI'm mean, there are tons of people who would like to testify before various Congressional committees. Obviously, the committees can't hear everyone's testimony. And obviously that means they have to choose who they will and will not invite to testify.
In this case, the committee heard testimony from two former leaders of the two major US political parties who expressed opposing views about the legislation at hand. It's not as if they suppressed a particular person or viewpoint.
Who cares if they heard from this one guy or not?
Dear JR:
ReplyDeleteSince you seem sincerely interested in being educated on this topic, let me help you out.
Lord Monckton is a total fraud, as you can see here, while the book Taken by Storm is utter crap, as you're welcome to discover here.
If you need any further enlightenment on this issue, you know where to find me. I'll be hanging out with all the folks who actually know something.
Oh, and one of my commenters points us to this delightful story about Lord Monckton. Feel free to ignore it totally. That's how you Blogging Tories operate, right?
ReplyDeleteSo, CC thinks he’s qualified to “educate” me because he hangs out “with all the folks who actually know something”. There’s little evidence of that anywhere, certainly not in any of the refs he links to.
ReplyDelete“Lord Monckton is a total fraud ...”. That lame exchange between Monbiot and Monckton? Big deal. All it proves is that Monbiot is a pain in the neck who can’t take “NO” for an answer.
“‘Taken By Storm’ is utter crap ...” I’ll see your review and raise you two. As for the linked review (Deltoid/Tim Lambert) I’m not up on Lambert’s general competence but for some insight into his style and attitude as well as some good discussion of relevant issues see the exchange between Tim Lambert and Ross McKitrick here. And for more discussion involving Lambert, Essex and McKitrick check out these posts at Climate Audit. See also McKitrick’s reply to critics (in the comments).