Lord Monckton’s Rap Sheet
If you have been reading my blog, you may have already guessed that I find Lord Christopher Monckton to be a fascinating character. But given his hearty acceptance by the climate change contrarian community, as evidenced by the fact that he has TWICE been asked by Republicans to testify about climate change before committees of the U.S. Congress, I ascribe him more significance. To me, Lord Monckton is a living symbol of the fact that many climate change contrarians will believe anything that seems to support their case, even if it’s coming from the most ridiculous source. He’s the gift that keeps on giving to folks that are trying to convince the public that we need to do something about climate change. His strange behavior comes up so often, however, that it’s easy to forget the older examples. To fully appreciate Lord Monckton, you have to keep in mind the sheer volume of kookiness he produces.
With that in mind, I have created this page to collect Monckton’s entire rap sheet into one place for easy reference. I have allowed comments, so please write if you want me to update the page with a new example, or even if you want to defend him. I’ll not update the text with any charges that I don’t think are adequately backed up, however, and I have no problem linking to any responses Lord Monckton wants to post on the Internet.
[UPDATE: If you want to see who has been using Monckton as a trusted source of information, check out The Church of Monckton. UPDATE: For a compilation of rebuttals of Monckton’s favorite arguments, see Monckton Myths over at the Skeptical Science site.]
Being a “Snake Oil Salesman” Who Actually Sells the Equivalent of Snake Oil
Nobody could make this stuff up.
1. Monckton claimed that he has developed a cure for Graves’ Disease, AIDS, Multiple Schlerosis, the flu, and the common cold. This is no joke–he actually filed applications to patent a “therapeutic treatment” in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. Bluegrue speculates that Monckton is likely filing his applications and then letting them lapse after a year without paying the fees necessary to have the Patents Office take the process forward. That way, he can claim he has filed for a patent, but never has to have the Patent Office determine whether his “therapeutic treatment” is patentable (or pay any fees). Is it homeopathy? Massive doses of vitamin C? The world waits with bated breath.
2. The list of diseases cured by Monckton’s miracle tonic expands from time to time. At one point he claimed, “Patients have been cured of various infectious diseases, including Graves’ Disease, multiple sclerosis, influenza, and herpes simplex VI.” At another time he said, “Patients have been cured of various infectious diseases, including Graves’ disease, multiple sclerosis, influenza, food poisoning, and HIV.” Maybe some of you physicians out there can help me interpret this, but it looks to me like Monckton is claiming that his Wonder Cure will 1) wipe out any virus without harming the patient, and 2) cure auto-immune disorders that may (or may not) have initially been triggered by a viral infection. It is unclear to me whether bacterial infections are supposed to be affected since, for instance, food poisoning could be caused by either. [UPDATE: Monckton apparently is saying the miracle cure should be effective against both viral and bacterial infections, as well as prions.]
Shady Business Dealings
1. According to The Scotsman newspaper, Monckton lied about his personal circumstances to sell more of his Eternity puzzle, and admitted it.
Inflating His Résumé
1. Monckton represented himself to members of the U.S. Congress as a member of the U.K. House of Lords (the upper house of Parliament.) When people started pointing out that he doesn’t appear on the official list of members, however, he started saying that he is a member “without a seat or vote.” When queried, the House of Lords responded that there is no such thing as a member without a seat or vote, and Lord Monckton had never been a member because he inherited his title (Viscount) in 2006, after all but 92 hereditary peers had been barred from membership in the House of Lords since 1999. When asked to respond about this misrepresentation by members of Congress, Monckton basically acknowledged that the British government doesn’t recognize him as a member of the House of Lords, but claimed that they’re wrong because his “Letters Patent” that granted his title to the family (and presumably mention membership in the House of Lords) had never been revoked by specific legislation. He said that the Lord President of the Council in the House of Lords had admitted that letters patent could only be annulled by specific legislation. However, Tim Lambert actually looked up what the Lord President of the Council said, and it turns out that she used the House of Lords Act 1999 as an example of legislation that altered the effect of Letters Patent. In other words, she said the exact opposite of Monckton’s claim. UPDATE: I should have mentioned that Monckton has also gone about using a logo that it quite similar to that of Parliament. Derek at Friends of Gin and Tonic sent an inquiry to the House of Lords Information Office about Monckton’s claim to be a member and his use of the logo, and they responded that, “The House is currently taking steps with a view to ensuring that Lord Monckton does not in future either claim to be a member of the House or use the parliamentary emblem or any variant thereof.” UPDATED UPDATE: Leo Hickman at The Guardian followed up on this with the House of Lords, and found that it’s just possible Monckton could do prison time. We can only hope, but it appears that Monckton may be quietly backing down! In his latest post on the Watts Up With That? blog, Monckton has changed his logo to a gaudy coronet, rather than the gaudy coronet and pink portcullis. ANOTHER UPDATE: Monckton is still claiming to be a member of the House of Lords, and he has added the portcullis back into his logo (although with wavy chains instead of straight). Now the House has taken the step of publishing a “cease and desist” letter on their website. Full story by Leo Hickman in The Guardian. Here is a nice summary of the legal arguments that have been advanced.
2. Monckton claimed to be a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Al Gore and the IPCC because he supposedly sent the IPCC a letter pointing out something that needed to be corrected in a draft report. At one point he said the claim to be a Nobel laureate was all a joke, but it continued to be posted by Monckton in his bio at the Science and Public Policy Institute until early 2012, and the sorts of people who believe Monckton have often repeated the claim with a straight face. (This brings up an important question. On whom was Monckton playing the joke?)
3. Monckton has made several dubious claims about what he did as a member of Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit.
4. One example of these dubious claims is that he was the author of “a 1200-word article for the Daily Telegraph on the reasons in international law why the Falkland Islands are British, read out on the BBC World Service’s Argentinian broadcasts every 20 minutes during the Falklands War.” George Monbiot phoned up the BBC, and they said they had never done any specifically Argentine broadcasts. Maybe Monckton was confused about who did the broadcasting, however.
5. Monckton is now claiming to be “an appointed expert reviewer for the forthcoming ‘Fifth Assessment Report’ to be published by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.” But all you need to do to be an “expert reviewer” is to make a self-declaration of expertise and volunteer. The IPCC doesn’t “appoint” anyone as a reviewer.....
Deflating Others’ Résumés
Misrepresenting Scientific Literature
Making Up Fake Data
Abusing Scientific Equations
Threatening Those Who Disagree With Him
etc,etc
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