Who Is This Monckton Person Anyway?
Christopher Monckton is a member of a very small group of people who are actively engaged in trying to undermine the international scientific consensus on climate science. He is a propagandist.
I decline to refer to him by his inherited title because he is acting against the best interests of the country which granted him the right to the title.
Monckton is not and never has been a member of the House of Lords:
With regard to the complainant's claim to be a member of the House of Lords, the newspaper pointed out that, while the complainant may have a hereditary title, this had been irrelevant to membership of the Upper House of Parliament since 1996. The complainant himself accepted that he had no right to sit or vote in the House of Lords. The question of whether the IPCC had taken account of the complainant's ‘contribution' to its 2007 report was irrelevant - the blog was simply, and within the bounds of fair comment, taking a swipe at Viscount Monckton's claim that he could be reasonably termed a Nobel Prize winner because certain statistics in the report had been amended as a result of his intervention. As to the claim that he had ‘boasted' of telling untrue stories, the newspaper pointed to an article from the Scotsman (to which the blog had itself linked) in which the complainant admitted to telling a tall tale for personal benefit. The blog had not disputed the complainant's claim to have filed patents in relation to treatments for various diseases; it was simply raising questions about their efficacy.
http://www.pcc.org.uk/news/index.html?article=NjQwMg
If you look around the websites dedicated to debunking mainstream
climate science, it is very common to find Lord Christopher Monckton, 3rd
Viscount of Brenchley, cited profusely. Indeed, he has twice testified
about climate change before committees of the U.S. Congress, even though
he has no formal scientific training. But if he has no training, why
has he become so influential among climate change contrarians? After
examining a number of his claims, I have concluded that he is
influential because he delivers “silver bullets,” i.e., clear, concise,
and persuasive arguments. The trouble is his compelling arguments are
often constructed using fabricated facts. In other words, he makes it
up. (Click here to see a number of examples by
John Abraham, here for a few by myself, and here for some by Tim Lambert).
Barry R. Bickmore, Brigham Young University
http://www.ourplanettoday.com/monckton-makes-it-up
Christopher Monckton is a journalist and hereditary peer. He was a member of a special team of journalists put together at Margaret Thatcher's request for the same purpose as the media team at the White House.
If it is true that Christopher Monckton was an adviser to Lady Thatcher when she was PM, then it is also true that every journalist within the walls of the White House may justly claim to be an adviser to President Obama.
Who is Christopher Monckton in reality?
He is the son of a PR man and grandson of a WW2 propagandist and has studied rhetoric formally. He has an MA in classics and a diploma in journalism studies.
Monckton has recently posted an article at whatsupwiththat.com in which he claims:
We were among the first to show that CO2 concentration is not rising at the fast, exponential rate that current anthropogenic emissions would lead the IPCC to expect, and that global temperature has scarcely changed since the turn of the millennium on 1 January 2001.
But of course the WUWT were among the first to make that claim. That is what they do. It's called propaganda. It is refreshing to see WUWT claiming to be 'among the first' and not 'the first'.
Monckton's use of the term 'we' is quite inclusive. He and colleagues have bounced this nonsense across the internet having first publish on scienceandpublicpolicy.org, a haven for anti-science activists and propagandists.
Anthony Watts, who boasts about his 'most popular science site' having over 50 million hits is quite happy to promote anything from scienceandpublicpolicy.org, presumably to help boost its waning popularity.
