Christopher Monckton
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| − | Monckton found himself booted from the Doha Climate Change talks for | + | Monckton's behavior and pronouncements have earned him the nickname "potty peer" in various corners of the blogosphere. Consider the episode in which Monckton found himself booted from the Doha Climate Change talks for taking the unoccupied Burmese delegate's chair and addressing the speaker for a minute from the microphone. Earlier he had been seen dressed in traditional Arab garb handing out climate change denial leaflets. <ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/07/doha-climate-talks-ukip-lord-monckton]</ref> |
== Web 2.0 == | == Web 2.0 == | ||
Revision as of 02:07, 26 August 2013
“”You won't see them flashing past, as they scuttle down to their noisome lairs—there to snivel in the darkness.
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| —on the Climategate scientists,[1] who were completely exonerated shortly after |
Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley is a British aristocrat, deputy leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) and a climate change denier. He constitutes an excellent argument in favour of revolutionary socialism.
One Guardian commenter said "If he didn't exist you really would have to invent him." It's not entirely clear the amusement gained would be worth it.
Science
In his role as Ukip science spokesman, Monckton said that they would cut funding for climate science unless there arose "sufficient evidence" to change his mind. He also said that health risks associated with excessive salt consumption are merely "unjustifiable fears" and compared embryonic stem cell research to "the killing of very small children."[2] Monckton is a big promoter of the global warming conspiracy theory in which Barack Obama will cede US sovereignty to the United Nations, which will then enact a communist world government.[3]
His views on AIDS aren't much better. He wrote an article entitled The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS for a 1987 edition of American Spectator, stating quite clearly:[4]
“”There is only one way to stop AIDS. That is to screen the entire population regularly and to quarantine all carriers of the disease for life. Every member of the population should be blood-tested every month ... all those found to be infected with the virus, even if only as carriers, should be isolated compulsorily, immediately, and permanently.
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He has since conceded that this would presently be unfeasible, but not that it would in any way have been a bad idea.
At least he considers "alternative" medicine should only be NHS-funded after it has been proven clinically.[2]
According to him, scientists "perhaps" should be required to certify that they are Christian belong to a religion before they are allowed to practice. No kidding:
I'm a Lord really, m'Lord
“”Nice to see the two logos side by side: one can see that in Monckton's version the chains are unhinged and there is empty space beneath the crown. Can anyone explain the symbolism?
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| —Vagueofgodalming |
Monckton's father Gilbert was one of those kicked out in 1999 when the hereditary complement of the House of Lords was cut to 92, thus leaving Christopher's status as Viscount of Brenchley a matter only of interest to the aristocracy nerd contingent on Wikipedia. Since Christopher inherited the title in 2006, he has consistently misrepresented himself as being a member of the House of Lords. He has various pseudolegal theories as to why this is the case, usually revolving around the notion that a hereditary peerage can only be withdrawn by the Crown on an individual basis, as the letter patent was granted on an individual basis.[6] This may well be true (though there's not much reason to care any more), but has nothing to do with whether said hereditary peer gets an automatic seat in the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.[7] The main point appears to be to represent himself in other countries as having governmental power and status that he does not when talking up climate change denial.
The House has asked that he desist in his frequent habit of implying, or outright claiming, to be a member in any way whatsoever. They have also requested, rather stridently, that he stop using a personal insignia closely resembling the portcullis insignia of the House of Lords, and are presently "taking steps with a view to ensuring that Lord Monckton does not in future either claim to be a member of the House or use the parliamentary emblem or any variant thereof."[8] Buckingham Palace (who control use of the insignia) did not directly comment on the claims, but just happened to point an enquiring journalist at the relevant trademark laws and the possible penalties for their violation.[9]
The House finally got fed up and wrote an open letter to Monckton in July 2011, telling him in unusually blunt language that "you are not and have never been a Member of the House of Lords."[10]
Monckton vs. scientists
“”It is particularly hard [to challenge climate scientists], if like me, you have no scientific qualification to do so.[11]
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Monckton vs Rachel Pinker
Before Tim Lambert of Deltoid fame appeared at a live debate with Monckton, he noticed that Monckton had been quote mining a paper by atmospheric scientist Rachel Pinker and her colleagues by using a figure they calculated for surface solar radiation to stand in for total climate sensitivity. Lambert then played a recording of her letter explaining Monckton's misuse of her work during the debate.[12] However, that didn't stop Monckton from quote mining the paper again in Congressional testimony, which prompted another response from Pinker and co-author Ellsworth Dutton.[13]
Monckton vs John Abraham
John Abraham, a professor of thermal engineering at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, created and published on-line a presentation[14] debunking a talk delivered by Monckton in October 2009 at Bethel University in Minnesota. When the rebuttal gained attention, Monckton wrote a hilariously lengthy and pompous reply (466 questions!),[15][16] accusing Abraham of libel (among other things) and demanding a retraction, an apology and large donations to a charity. To top it off, in an interview with Alex Jones (yes, that one!), Monckton kept it classy by calling the university a "half-arsed Catholic Bible college" and its president a "creep."[17]
Abraham's laconic reply makes the whole thing reminiscent of the Lenski affair. In its entirety:
“”I am replying to your letter of June 10, 2010, on behalf of myself and, at his request Fr. Dennis Dease, President of the University of St. Thomas. I stand by my original position. Point and counterpoint are the standard in academic discourse.
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| —John Abraham[18] |
Monckton vs Peter Hadfield
In February 2011, Peter Hadfield debunked Monckton's presentation's misrepresentations point by point in a youtube video under his account potholer54. Monckton replied. Peter Hadfield replied again[19].
It's "peer-reviewed"!
Monckton likes to claim he has "peer-reviewed" publications under his belt. What he's usually referring to when he says this is an article he had published in the American Physical Society's "Forum on Physics and Society" issue of its newsletter. In fact, the first sentence of the article is part of an editor's note reading "The following article has not undergone any scientific peer review since that is not normal procedure for American Physical Society newsletters."[20] Not that it would have gotten past peer review[21] as just about every sentence contained an error.[22]
In an October 2012 opinion column on World Net Daily in which he insists climate change had nothing to do with Hurricane Sandy, he claimed to be "an appointed expert reviewer for the forthcoming 'Fifth Assessment Report' to be published by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change". [23] Blogger Graham Readfearn contacted the IPCC secretariat on how one is "appointed" to be an "expert reviewer". The reply he received follows:
"Anyone can register as an expert reviewer on the open online registration systems set up by the working groups. All registrants that provide the information requested and confirm their scientific expertise via a self-declaration of expertise are accepted for participation in the review. They are invited to list publications, but that is not a requirement and the section can be left blank when registering. There is no appointment."[24]
Monckton: The last refuge for the deniers
With the Climategate brouhaha debunked and plagiarized "research" like the Wegman Report discredited, Republicans got really desperate. In 2010, Monckton was called as the only witness for the GOP at a subcommittee hearing on climate science. During Monckton's pathetic testimony, Rep. Jay Inslee of Washington issued a definitive smackdown right in front of the entire committee, saying:
“”And I would note there is a dispute over whether we actually landed on the moon, and there is a dispute about whether the Earth is round, and there is a dispute about gravity in some places.
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Inslee went on later in the testimony:
“”You come here, you call yourself a Lord to try to convince the world to ignore something that threatens our grandkids, and you're not even a Lord.[25]
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Ouch, ice burn. On top of that, twenty-one climate scientists issued a lengthy rebuttal to Monckton's testimony.[26]
Uninvited spokesman for Burma at Doha
Monckton's behavior and pronouncements have earned him the nickname "potty peer" in various corners of the blogosphere. Consider the episode in which Monckton found himself booted from the Doha Climate Change talks for taking the unoccupied Burmese delegate's chair and addressing the speaker for a minute from the microphone. Earlier he had been seen dressed in traditional Arab garb handing out climate change denial leaflets. [27]
Web 2.0
Monckton is a keen user of the Internet, an IP address geolocating to just near him having added all manner of strange claims (e.g., that the Guardian had paid him £50,000 in settlement of a defamation claim) to the Christopher Monckton and George Monbiot articles on Wikipedia.[28] Monbiot, a long-term critic of Monckton, asked him what was up with that and got a series of nonsensical evasions in response.[29]
He is also a fan of using sock puppets.[30]
Oh, and a Nobel
Monckton has claimed since 2007 to be a Nobel Peace Prize winner. When cornered, he said he was merely joking, although he had claimed several hours before to be a Nobel laureate in apparent seriousness;[31] the claim is still present on the staff page of the Science and Public Policy Institute.[32]
Miscellaneous nuttery
“”The probability that the “birth certificate” and other Obama identity documents are genuine is just 1 in 75 sextillion.
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| —[33] |
Monckton also is a birther,[34] though he claims not to be.[35] Despite his denial, he knows enough about his audience to entertain them with birther jokes.
Eternity
Apart from being a repellent bog creature with buckets of cash, Monckton is also an amateur mathematician. He does really quite good things like the Eternity Puzzle, one of the world's hardest jigsaw puzzles, that was only 209 pieces (each a polyform based on 30°-60°-90° triangles) but took sixteen months for anyone to solve.[36] "It appeals to anybody with a warped mind like mine," said Monckton. Indeed.
So, what's with his eyes?
Graves' disease,[wp] the same thing Marty Feldman had. There are a lot of reasons for which Monckton can (and should) be mocked, but his physical appearance is not among them.
External links
- Climate Denial Crock of the Week (with Peter Sinclair) - Debunking Lord Monckton Part 1 and Part 2
- Monckton Myths - a one-stop-shop for Monckton misinformation, SkepticalScience.com
- Monckton category at Deltoid
- Lord Monckton's Rap Sheet and The Church of Monckton, Barry Bickmore
- Monckton Watch at The Conversation
- Potholer54's "Monckton Bunkum" series
- Monckton profile at OSS
- The Hamster Wheel: Lord Monckton
- Christopher Monckton Speaking in St. Paul ([http://www.friendsofscience.org/assets/documents/monckton_2009.pdf Powerpoint slides) - an example of how he presents his claims.
Footnotes
- ↑ YouTube clip, blog post
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ukip answers questions about its science policy
- ↑ Lord Monckton warns of a world government.
- ↑ http://www.desmogblog.com/christopher-monckton
- ↑ What is science without religion?img, The SPPI Blog, attributed to "The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley"
- ↑ http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/07/12/a-detailed-rebuttal-to-abraham-from-monckton/
- ↑ "No-one shall be a member of the House of Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage." (House of Lords Act, 1999). Assented to by the Crown. The same Crown that issues the letters patent granting hereditary peerages.
- ↑ http://friendsofginandtonic.org/files/867576d3dfe135ff8dcd26715bd86ac5-187.html
- ↑ Lords distance themselves from climate sceptic Christopher Monckton (Leo Hickman, Guardian, Wed 11 Aug 2010)
- ↑ http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2011/july/letter-to-viscount-monckton/
- ↑ Monckton, at the Heartland Institute's 7th International Conference on Climate Change
- ↑ Monckton's McLuhan Moment, Deltoid
- ↑ Rachel Pinker on Monckton's Testimony to Congress, Deltoid
- ↑ A Scientist Replies to Christopher Monckton: Abraham v. Monckton
- ↑ http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/07/i_think_that_they_might_have_t.php
- ↑ The Guardian - Monckton's response to John Abraham is magnificently bonkers
- ↑ Lord Christopher Monckton: Real Data Disproves Al Gore's Global Warming Theory - Alex Jones Tv 5/6 (TheAlexJonesChannel on YouTube)
- ↑ http://rabett.blogspot.com/2010/07/gold-amongst-dross.html
- ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K74fzNAUq4
- ↑ Monckton's Climate Sensitivity Reconsidered
- ↑ Okay, maybe at Energy & Environment
- ↑ A detailed list of the errors in Monckton's July 2008 Physics and Society article, Arthur Smith. For more fun, see also Eli Rabett: The biter bit, Lord Voldemort bleats
- ↑ http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/global-warming-did-not-cause-sandy/
- ↑ http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/11/11/1173691/climate-denier-lord-moncktons-ipcc-appointment-that-wasnt/
- ↑ The entire hearing can be seen here and Inslee's remarks can be seen here
- ↑ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/21/climate-scientists-christopher-monckton 'Chemical nonsense': Leading scientists refute Lord Monckton's attack on climate science, The Guardian
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/95.145.99.96
- ↑ http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2007/10/03/did-lord-monckton-fabricate-a-claim-on-his-wikipedia-page/
- ↑ Monckton uses a sock puppet
- ↑ http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-diary/nobleman-is-no-nobel-man-20100125-muky.html
- ↑ http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/personnel.html#20100812img
- ↑ WND:Win or lose, Obama was not and is not the president
- ↑ WND:A sad farewell to the U.S. Constitution
- ↑ Daily Caller: Lord Monckton: ‘I’m no birther,’ but Obama birth certificate ‘plainly a forgery’
- ↑ The Eternity puzzle solved? (BBC News, 2000-10-02)