TVMOB (aka The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley) would be a Monty Python-esque self-parody were he not a prolific promoter of hate speech (see Monckton repeats and expands on his charge that those who embrace climate science are “Hitler youth” and fascists and links below). 

He is probably the most thoroughly debunked disinformer on the web (see “Climate scientists eviscerate Lord Monckton’s attempt to disinform the U.S. Congress” and “MN professor eviscerates Monckton in must-see video“).  But because TVMOB continues to spread disinformation at an impressive rate, physicist John Cook of Skeptical Science has put all of his myths — along with their rebuttals — in one place (click here).

Here is Cook’s intro to his new resource:

To loosely paraphrase an old saying, a piece of misinformation can travel halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on. This is the conundrum facing climate scientists as they attempt to communicate the realities of climate change, amidst the noise and fury of the internet. The problem is global warming skepticism is a renewable resource. When you take the time to closely follow online discussions, blog posts and op-eds, you find the same skeptic arguments appear repeatedly, well after they’ve been thoroughly debunked in peer-reviewed research.

Christopher Monckton is a prolific climate skeptic. Perusing all the articles published by Monckton and the arguments he uses, Monckton appears to be zealous about recycling skeptic arguments. The same ideas appear over and over again. Recycling is usually good for the environment but sadly not in this case.

Of particular interest are the arguments Monckton uses most often. There are several sitting atop the pile which  presumably are Monckton’s killer blows. A close examination of these favourite arguments reveals much about how Monckton presents the science to the public.

Monckton’s most popular argument is that climate sensitivity, a measure of how much the earth warms from rising CO2, is low. As our planet warms from increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere, Monckton suggests negative feedbacks suppress the warming. This is supposedly our Get Out Of Jail Free Card – we can pollute as much as we like and nature will take care of things. To back up this claim, Monckton cites the work of Richard Lindzen who uses satellite measurements of outgoing radiation as evidence for negative feedback.

However, Monckton only presents half of the story. A number of subsequent papers have examined Lindzen’s work and found fatal flaws in his analysis. As well as a questionable choice of end-point dates in his data, Lindzen looks only at the tropics. A number of other analyses using similar satellite observations spanning the entire globe find positive feedback that enhances global warming.

On top of this, many studies using a range of different observations find that the overall climate feedback amplifies global warming. Climate sensitivity has to be high to explain the dramatic climate changes we see in the past. To argue low climate sensitivity based on one study presents only half the story. In fact, not even that. It gives you barely a fraction of the full body of evidence.

Monckton’s other favourite argument is that sea levels are not going to rise much in the future, citing the words of Nils M¶rner who claims it’s physically impossible for sea level to rise much above its present rate. Again, this gives you only a fraction of the full picture. The expectation of future sea level rise is based on many different observations. Recent research into glacier dynamics in Greenland and Antarctica yield a prediction of 80 cm to 2 metres sea level rise by 2100. Another recent study takes a different approach, matching past sea level rise to past temperature change to yield a prediction of 75 to 190 cm sea level rise by the end of this century.

Meanwhile, the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are losing ice at a faster rate every year. Two decades ago, the Greenland ice sheet was in approximate mass balance – as much ice was growing in the middle as was being shed at the edges. One decade ago, the ice sheet was losing ice at a rate of 100 billion tonnes per year. Currently, it’s losing ice at a rate of over 200 billion tonnes per year. Greenland’s glaciers are sliding faster down into the ocean.

A clearer picture of our future can be found in the past. Around 120,000 years ago, global temperatures were about 1 to 2 degrees warmer than now. At that time, sea levels were over 6 metres higher than current levels. Many lines of evidence indicate we’re facing significant sea level rise this century.

In Unsound Advice, Monckton describes “one of the shabbiest tricks of the climate-extremist movement” is to give only one half of the story. Misleading the public by giving only half the story is indeed shabby behaviour. Giving them barely a fraction of the story is even worse.

For this reason, at Skeptical Science we’ve developed a resource Monckton Myths. We’ve compiled a database of Monckton’s articles and the skeptic arguments he uses. As Monckton publishes new articles with the same recycled arguments, let us know and we’ll add it to the database. While misinformation may burst out of the blocks quickly, by the time it’s circled the world to start all over again, perhaps this time it will find the full facts dressed up and ready for action.

Should you be interested in learning more about TVMOB, go to the Science & Public Policy Institute website where he is Chief Policy Adviser. You will learn he has astonishing scientific credentials such as a “Nobel prize pin,” because he commented on the IPCC Fourth assessment report. This has “earned him the status of Nobel Peace Laureate. His Nobel prize pin, made of gold recovered from a physics experiment, was presented to him by the Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Rochester, New York.” Also “his limpid analysis of the climate-feedback factor was published on the famous climate blog of Roger Pielke, Sr.” I kid you not.  [For the record, commented on the report does not actually allow one to claim to be a Nobel laureate, but when have the facts ever meant anything to TVMOB?]

Monty Python is alive and well.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/02/01/207434/monckton-myths-debunking-the-viscount/?mobile=nc

Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart has asked the chairman of Fairfax Media to resign if he cannot reverse falling circulation and revenue at the company's newspapers.

In an open letter to Roger Corbett, Ms Rinehart asked him to step down by November if a number of performance milestones had not been met.

Ms Rinehart is the largest single Fairfax investor with nearly 19 per cent of the company's shares.

In her letter to Mr Corbett, Ms Rinehart said the performance of Fairfax Media over the past five years had been distressing for shareholders.

She called for the Fairfax share price to rise from current levels of around ?? cents to 87 cents before November's annual general meeting.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-29/rinehart-takes-on-fairfax-chairman/4101256

Why don't she buys the paper like most of us, one paper at a time...

keep reading "butt" where "mitts" is in the toon at top...