Climate change debate now a one-man show (Lord Christopher Monckton to speak in Orem, Utah)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14719378

Climate change debate now a one-man show

Environment » Naysayer to debunk scientific evidence of global warming.

By Judy Fahys

The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 03/20/2010 04:59:54 PM MDT

...

In a telephone interview Friday, he acknowledged his lack of formal training in the hard sciences but also defended his qualifications to criticize the climate-science mainstream, as well as the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Monckton said he has a solid understanding of science -- he's lectured physicists, solved complex problems for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and poked holes in the IPCC's findings.

Plus, he said, he has scientific training in architectural studies that made it possible for him to build his own home, which is still standing.

"I do have some scientific knowledge, but it would be wrong of me to claim that I am any kind of qualified climatologist," he said. "I just quietly get on with the science. Then I tell people what I think the science shows."

...

("I'm not a climatologist, but I play one on tour.")

[wtmusic]

1. Preaching to the choir - right out of Dubya's playbook.

Of course all of his speaking fees are donated to charity.

[malakai2]

2. I laughed out loud at this

"Plus, he said, he has scientific training in architectural studies that made it possible for him to build his own home, which is still standing."

LOLZ

[wtmusic]

4. It would be terribly inconvenient if his home wasn't still standing.

:rofl:

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. The sad thing is...

The "denier" crowd take his credentials seriously.

Well, I may not know much about "science" but I know what I believe!

[joshcryer]

3. How much he getting paid?

[guardian]

6. Now if only he had a background as a cartoonist

THEN he could be taken seriously and be a YouTube star. I believe the actual formula is something like

(cartoonist_background / kool_aid) = climate_genius

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. So, you believe he /isn't/ on You Tube?

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lord+monckton

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. Monckton's McLuhan Moment

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/02/moncktons_mcluhan_moment.php#more

Monckton's McLuhan Moment

Category: Monckton
Posted on: February 12, 2010 12:49 PM, by Tim Lambert

You know that famous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpIYz8tfGjY">scene in Annie Hall where a bore is going on and on about Marshall McLuhan's work and Allen produces McLuhan who tells the bore that he got McLuhan all wrong? Well, that's kind of what happened in my debate with Monckton. Based on what he had identified as his most important argument in previous talks I was pretty sure he would argue that climate sensitivity was low based on his misunderstanding of Pinker et al http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;308/5723/850">Do Satellites Detect Trends in Surface Solar Radiation?. And sure enough, he did.

If you read the title of Pinker's paper, you'll see that it's about changes in surface solar radiation, not climate forcing as Monckton would have it. In ideal world I could have had Rachel Pinker appear from behind the curtain to tell Monckton that he was wrong about her paper, but I was able to do the next best thing. I first played a recording of Monckton's building up Pinker as good scientist who was not interested in the global warming debate, and where he got her gender wrong again and again. Then I played a recording of a female colleague with an American accent reading out Pinker's http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/upload/2010/02/debate_australia_tim_lambert.pdf">message to me on how Monckton had misunderstood her work. It was as if she was there.

I finished off by correcting his climate sensitivity calculation by http://julesandjames.blogspot.com/2006/03/climate-sensitivity-is-3c.html">comparing the current climate with the last Ice Age. The fun bit here was that I got all the information about the Ice Age from "Heaven and Earth". Plimer's book + Monckton's calculation proves climate sensitivity is about 3.

My slides are http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/upload/2010/02/monckton.pdf">here and audio of the first part of the debate (our talks and questions to each other) is http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3F3kbD-1xCDZWE3YTBmYzktZWIxOS00MGIyLTk1ODMtNmRiMjU5ZGJkNWVj&hl=en">here.

...