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costs Australian sceptics $100,000
Digg it
It's astonishing, but aside from travel costs, climate sceptic Lord
Monckton will get a $20,000 stipend as the organiser in Noosa,
Queensland calls for donations
Posted by
Leo Hickman
Wednesday 13 January
2010 12.30 GMT
guardian.co.uk
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Environment
Climate change
Costing the earth … Lord Monckton at his home at Carie Loch Rannoch, Scotland. scepticism ∙ Travel and Latest from environment
The cost of his trip to do a climate sceptic talk in Australia will be $100,000. transport ∙ Climate
Photograph: Murdo Macleod change ∙ Pollution
Most viewed Latest Most commented
What price climate scepticism? Ever wondered? Well, now we have an World news
Australia Last 24 hours
answer. With just a few days to go now before the climate sceptic Lord
Monckton sets off from his Highlands estate and embarks on his grand 1. British supermarkets at root of vegetable
More from Environment supply problem
tour of Australia to spread the good word, a local newspaper in blog on
Queensland called the Noosa Journal has revealed how much 2. Greenpeace to build £14m flagship
Monckton's trip down under is costing his loyal fans. Nice work if you can Environment
Climate change 3. Arctic permafrost leaking methane at
get it, judging by the comments made by Case Smit, the Noosa resident scepticism ∙ Travel and record levels, figures show
who has invited Monckton to speak in his home town: transport ∙ Climate
4. Video: How climate change is shrinking
change ∙ Pollution
the river Nile
Mr Smit said getting Lord Monckton to Australia came at a
World news
substantial cost and he was appealing to supporters for 5. Asia's greed for ivory puts African elephant
Australia
donations. "We have to fly Lord Monkton to Australia, cover at risk
all his domestic travel and accommodation and provide a More blogposts More top stories
stipend of $20,000 [£11,500],'' he said. "Our aim is to cover
these costs from donations from individuals, appropriate Related
associations and corporations. We expect the required total
8 Dec 2009
to be about $100,000. We would like to keep the cost of Ian Plimer's uncritical
admission to Monckton's lectures to around $20 to maximise coverage in the hacked Green shopping
the number of people that will come to hear him. We have emails row is frustrating |
already had a number of offers of $1,000 and would prefer Bob Ward
What a double act – Plimer and Monckton together on the same stage. On this blog Sites we like
And, by all accounts, it is building up to be quite the social event, too: Activists Grist
infamous "Hitler Youth" jibes during the Copenhagen summit are Wildlife Environmental Graffiti
common knowledge down under, as is his habit of making grandiose Transport GreenBiz
unfounded claims on his curriculum vitae. The Australian news site
New Scientist
Crickey, for example, isn't exactly enamoured by the thought of Monckton environment blog
hitting the nation's airwaves and lecture halls:
Environment blog weekly archives
It is tempting to scoff at the simple-minded mid-west
Americans who lap up [Monckton's] fairy stories, until we Jan 2010
remember that Senator Nick Minchin believes them too … M T W T F S S
Monckton and his associates are to climate scepticism what 28 29 30 31 1 2 3
black-clad anarchists are to the anti-globalisation
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
movement, except that the Moncktonians are no longer just
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
embarrassing parasites on the body of sceptical thought but
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
have colonised the host entirely.
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Showing first 50 comments | Go to all comments | Go to latest comment More top stories
Motheroftwoandahalf Recommend? (19)
13 Jan 2010, 12:55PM
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Free P&P at the Guardian bookshop
I'm guessing a lot of its residents will be deniers right up to the day where the
waves are lapping at Murdoch junior's front door. They're welcome to Monckton -
it's his kind of place.
I don't know what sort of planet these people think they're living on but it's
becoming increasingly clear that it isn't the same I live on
Those mainstream climate scientists who, according to the 'sceptics', are just
in it for the money must be kicking themselves.
It really proves a point, doesn't it, that the Copenhagen conference, with its
fantastic outcome, cost so much less.
I can't actually remember the cost of Copenhagen, but no doubt you can find out
on the internet.
mangledbadger
13 Jan 2010, 2:37PM
Well, at least if the extremes of both 'sides' of (A)GW are distracted knocking
petty tribal spots off each other, their various 'leaders' and their various
professional 'arrangements', maybe the way is let clear for those who are
actually doing something worthwhile as regards the future to get on with it... and
maybe even score some objective press as they do so.
But I rather doubt it. Name calling is so much more satisfying personally, and
professionally doesn't hurt the ratings I guess.
Does rather detract from those keen on maintaining the moral high ground,
mind.
And let's not even start to talk about Al Gore. After all, you could right books
about the double standards with that guy.
The problem is that Monckton is merely offering a point of view. Nothing wrong
with that. The likes of Pachauri and Gore, however, are influencing public policy,
yet their genuinely nasty goings-on are ignored by The Guardian, because they
are perceived to be on the "same team".
Pathetic.
@Gregchivs- agree.
It would be cheap to hear the truth that Monckton tells us, at ten times the price.
Don't forget how much money we will be able to save, if and when we take his
advice!
steve26
13 Jan 2010, 2:45PM
its such a great photo of him.
How about a caption competition?
They're not much cop at getting topical photographs on here , wheeling out the
same tired old shots time and again.
Even a comic with a half decent illustrator could do rather better.
$20,000 is cheap
usualsuspect83
13 Jan 2010, 4:49PM
and also.. whats the other $80'000 for then? $10'000 per talk in setting it up?
Definately cheap, given that a single ticket to hear Al Gore speak at a dinner
could set you back $500.
http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/environment/article/730496--bold-
action-needed-on-climate-change-al-gore-says
With 1300 guests that's quite a nights work (even after the 100k donation thats
still over half a million dollars).
Mezzum
13 Jan 2010, 4:58PM
footienut
13 Jan 2010, 5:22PM
if theres any left over it probably goes straight to the companies that fund the
lectures of people like him (most likely oil companies). Even if the stuff about
climate change was proved wrong he would still have us tear up the rainforests,
dump plastic and toxic chemicals into the sea and build a factory in every
village. All in the name of `development`. What a cock.
Weird how climate change hubrists bang on about how AGW is all some scam
to make money, but don't notice how their gullibility is being so ruthlessly
exploited by cranks and demagogues laughing all the way to the bank. That the
hubrists seem so remarkably keen to hand over their money to gross
charlatans like Plimer, a man incapable of answering questions about his own
book, and 'Bedwetter' Monckton, whose speech to the Heartland conference
remains one of the most disgusting, meretricious, fawning pack of lies,
distortions and rabble-rousing I've ever read (the only comparable speeches I
can think of all invoke Godwin's law), is yet another demonstration of the ease
with which a fool and his money are parted. Especially a desperate fool.
Easy money then. Just write any old crowd-pleasing nonsense, tell the
audience everything is fine, nothing to worry about, it's all a commie plot and
here's the invoice (cash please, non-sequential bills).
@Alexander2000
damn!
Come on, Leo. How about an "expose" on how much Gore costs the warmists
and thus prevents from being used for preventing climate change?
But I do have to genuinely ask what Leo was thinking with this CiF.
Did he simply not think about how much people like Gore charge on the
speaking circuit?
NeverMindTheBollocks
Come on, Leo. How about an "expose" on how much Gore costs
the warmists and thus prevents from being used for preventing
climate change?
We're just going to ignore the fact that the money he raises goes to his research
foundation then? What's Monckton going to do with the money he gets, I
wonder?
Compared with Al Gore's fees this seems to be a bargain! And one gets a
speaker who is articulate,entertaining and understands scientific issues.I don't
see a problem.
"We have to fly Lord Monkton to Australia, cover all his domestic
travel and accommodation and provide a stipend of $20,000
[£11,500],"
gpwayne
.
And how quickly you were confirmed correct in your description (apart from the
use of 'hubrist', rather than Denier) :
PASKMP
cor1cor2
Finally, you may wonder why it is that a member of the Upper House of the
United Kingdom legislature, wholly unconnected with and unpaid by the
corporation that is the victim of your lamentable letter, should take the unusual
step of calling upon you as members of the Upper House of the United States
legislature either to withdraw what you have written or resign your sinecures.
An open letter to Senators Snowe and Rockefeller
When he has actually tried to get a seat in the Lords, this is how popular he
was :
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/HoLNotice070307.pdf"
rel="nofollow">
Conservative Hereditary Peers? By-election, March 2007: Result
V. Monckton of Brenchley - 0 votes
A SCOTTISH aristocrat who claimed he was forced to sell his ancestral pile after
losing a fortune on a $1 million puzzle has admitted that he invented the story to
boost sales.
THE SCOTSMAN
"I was selling the house anyway and they asked me if I would be willing to tell
people I was selling the house because I was afraid somebody might solve the
puzzle too fast. I said 'yes'. They said, 'Don't you mind being made to look an
absolute prat', and I said, 'No - I'm quite used to that'. History is full of stories that
aren't actually true.
He is dangerously bigoted :
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.
AMERICAN SPECTATOR
Previously Robert Mugabe, dictator of Rhodesia, who had refused to leave office
when he had been soundly defeated in a recent election, had also won plaudits
at the conference for saying that the West ought to pay him plenty of money in
reparation of our supposed ?climate debt?.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/17/lord-monckton-barred-from-copenhagen-
conference-pushed-to-the-ground-by-security/" rel="nofollow">WTF
Swivel-eyed maniacs.
But, in covering the beginning of the Copenhagen summit, the BBC got its act in
order ? and included a clip in its news report from Christopher Monckton, 3rd
Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, no less. Ooh-er. Chris thinks the United States
is signing itself to a communistic world government and a transfer of power from
the west to the third world. You can see him swiveling his eyes about here.
ROD LIDDLE
.
.
As for his court 'victory', I presume that those who have only read about it from
dodgy Denier sites might be confused as to the actual result. Sorry to expose
the truth to you like this, but it's best to stay in the real world :
Mr Justice Burton:
# Stuart Dimmock is a father of two sons at state school and a school governor.
He has brought an application to declare unlawful a decision by the then
Secretary of State for Education and Skills to distribute to every state secondary
school in the United Kingdom a copy of former US Vice-President Al Gore's film,
An Inconvenient Truth ("AIT"), as part of a pack containing four other short films
and a cross-reference to an educational website ("Teachernet") containing a
dedicated Guidance Note.
# In the circumstances, and for those reasons, in the light of the changes to the
Guidance Note which the Defendant has agreed to make, and has indeed
already made, and upon the Defendant's agreeing to send such amended
Guidance Note out in hard copy, no order is made on this application, save in
relation to costs, on which I shall hear Counsel.
DIMMOCK
People want to hear what they want to hear and the price is very clearly stated.
On this subject, more people want to hear about global warming so Gore gets
the lions share while the deniers mentioned barely squeze enough out for room
and board.
The next speakers will be those who will have the latest skinny on the coming
Ice Age followed swiftly by survival experts who will not be staying around for
long.
I guess when the money runs out no one will have the time for this foolishness.
Don't worry we will make sure Monkton gets a warm welcome, hopefully a few
45C plus days whilst he's in Australia. Nick Minchin is a Rumsfeld clone, a very
dangerous man who had the former Liberal leader Malcom Turnbull ousted as
he was proactive in dealing with Global Heating. Plimer has been proven a
charlatan. Here are some useful peer reviews of his book.
Given the errors, the non-science, and the nonsense in this book, it should be
classified as science fiction in any library that wastes its funds buying it. The
book can then be placed on the shelves alongside Michael Crichton's State of
Fear, another science fiction book about climate change with many footnotes.
The only difference is that there are fewer scientific errors in State of Fear.
Professor David Karoly, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne
Sources:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2009/2593166.htm
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25433059-5003900,00.html
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/ockhamsrazor/stories/2009/2589206.htm
ted208
14 Jan 2010, 4:46AM
This article is trashy journalism. I would have been too ashamed to sign off on
it. To hypocritically pick on Monckton in this fashion without looking at the AGW
side of the equation is just plain trashy, and reeks of desperation.
Monckton isn't going to make one single penny if the world's politicians
suddenly agree with him. Strong, Pachauri and Gore stand to make billions of
$s if the world's politicians agree with them. I should have thought the
distinction between Monckton and the three AGWers was obvious even to the
most thick headed warmist, but what do I know?
BTW if George Monbiot was invited to talk I would expect him to ask for a
stipend, as he gets for his column, that in no way negates his arguments, the
only way his arguments can be negated is by an interchange of ideas.
The alarmists on here seem to be under the impression that Monckton takes
money for giving lectures is evidence that his arguments are wrong. It is the
quality of the alarmists arguments that's made me a sceptic.
DodgyGeezer
DodgyGeezer
£1500 a day for a training course maybe, £1500 a lecture is a little high!
Anyway this is for training, in Microsoft technologies I assume? If I wanted to
goto a lecture about the latest technology Microsoft are working on, say Azure
or .net 4, I would more than likely find something for free in Reading.
A quick google of public lectures show a long list of lectures open to the public
covering amongst many other thing climate science presented by actual
professor from world leading universities. I had the good fortune to see a
Stephen Hawkins lecture a few years back without paying a penny.
There will always be people like Monckton, Plimer and Gore who exploit the
situation, what ever it is, to make money. I'd be more than happy to ignore all
these people and look only at the published science on this subject ... I doubt
the sceptics would be so keen to do that though.
gpwayne
14 Jan 2010, 10:17AM
ted208
.
Wessel: I would like to give you my card, if you would like to discuss this.
CHICKEN...
gpwayne
14 Jan 2010, 10:34AM
"Have you ever shaken hands with an American vice president? If not, now is
your chance. Meet Al Gore in Copenhagen during the UN Climate Change
Conference," notes the Danish tourism commission, which is helping Mr. Gore
promote "Our Choice," his newest book about global warming in all its alarming
modalities.
"Tickets are available in different price ranges for the event. If you want it all, you
can purchase a VIP ticket, where you get a chance to shake hands with Al Gore,
get a copy of Our Choice and have your picture taken with him. The VIP event
costs DKK 5,999 and includes drinks and a light snack."
It shows they are losing the war when they have to resort to such childishly
pathetic playground stuff like this.
@Patrickdj
"on the one side you have a man (Monckton) who has no training
whatsoever in climatology and whose asserted credentials are
viewed as unfounded self-promotion versus Gore and Monbiot
who have at least researched the work of real scientists."
"on the one side you have a man (Monckton) who has no training
whatsoever in climatology and whose asserted credentials are
viewed as unfounded self-promotion versus Gore and Monbiot
who have...also no training whatsoever in climatology."
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