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John Abraham’s Critique Devastates the Florid Lord’s Denier Diatribe

Christopher Monckton, the self-celebrating Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, toured Canada and the U.S. last year calling the world’s best climate scientists and activists “liars” for setting out their concerns about the dangers of climate change. In his presentations and his PowerPoints, Monckton was graceless and taunting in tone, making fun of Al Gore’s accent along with his science. The record now shows that Monckton was also wrong - and frankly, wrong is such a way that he himself must be found to be either a flagrant and shameless liar or the most incompetent compiler of information since church scholars gathered to argue for the flatness of the earth.

The new critique was assembled by John P. Abraham, an engineering professor at St. Thomas University in St. Paul Minnesota. A diligent - even painstaking - researcher, Abraham is also unreservedly respectful in his own presentation, giving Monckton the benefit of every doubt.

The facts, however, are less accommodating. As Prof. Abraham demonstrates time and again, Monckton has consistently misinterpreted, misrepresented or flat-out lied about his “evidence” arguing against the theory of human-induced global warming. He has mangled references, misrepresented findings, cobbled together unattributed graphs and staked his case to critically compromised scholars.

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Lord Christopher Monckton, Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley is again sharing his pearls of wisdom on climate change. His latest offering is an “original paper” produced for the non-peer reviewed, and mysteriously funded front group called the “Science and Public Policy Institute”.

A real scientist named Dr. Andrew Glikson at the Australian National University took the time to rebut Monckton’s arguments, which is available here.

I would point out that “Lord” Monckton is not and never has been a member of the British House of Lords, having received zero votes in his latest bid to be included in that body. Nor is he a scientist, instead receiving an undergraduate degree in classics and a diploma in journalism studies.

However, he does have quite a bit to say on the subject of climate science, referring variously to researchers in the field as “liars”, “frauds” and “bed-wetters”.

It is strange that someone that spends so much time hectoring scientists never seems to attend scientific conferences, or have his material published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

It is like someone bragging that they are a better golfer than Tiger Woods without ever entering a tournament.

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The Science and Public Policy Institute, which has been the chief vehicle for peddling the discredited article by Dr. Klaus-Martin Schulte, has a perfectly appropriate alternative web address: sppinstitute.org.

No science to be found, but plenty of "sppin."

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Laurie David has a piece on Huffington Post today outlining just how desperate the climate denial industry has gotten.

This latest salvo comes from none other than Rob Ferguson and the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI). Since leaving the oil-industry backed and former Philip Morris sponsored Frontiers of Freedoms, Ferguson and the SPPI have been aggressively promoting the denialist message.

In a related, but separate matter, Ferguson has been reticent to respond to my emails regrading his involvement in the recent online campaign to discredit the fine work of Dr. Naomi Oreskes.

Guess he's too busy reading children's books.