DeSmog Blog editor Richard Littlemore concedes defeat. Lord Christopher Monckton, a global warming expert and former senior policy advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has an outstanding challenge to Al Gore and other ardent proponents of the theory that humans are causing a global warming crisis to publicly debate the issue. While Al Gore and most other prominent proponents of alarmist global warming theory refuse to publicly debate or defend their claims, Richard Littlemore, editor of the DeSmog Blog Web site, agreed to debate Lord Monckton Sunday, August 17, on Canada’s Corus radio network. Corus host Roy Green moderated the debate. A transcript of all pertinent parts of the debate appears below, followed by some post-debate analysis. Audio of the Monckton-Littlemore debate can be found
here.
Lord Monckton fluidly presented his analysis and the scientific data he was citing, while Littlemore, clearly flustered, stammered painfully throughout the debate and made multiple serious gaffes (for example, claiming that melting Arctic sea ice would raise sea levels, when melting sea ice in fact has no effect on sea level). On Littlemore’s own DeSmog Blog, even his most ardent supporters conceded that Littlemore was taking it on the chin throughout the debate.
“Richard, you’ve got to show them you’ve got more than insults,” wrote one sympathetic DeSmog Blog reader. “I’d have to say that Monckton ‘won’ the debate. He came across as more prepared and had answers at his fingertips, whereas Richard appeared to verbally stumble on occasion,” wrote another. After the debate ended, Littlemore himself admitted defeat on his DeSmog Blog.
“In hindsight,” wrote Littlemore, “I played perfectly into the hands of Monckton and his happy radio host, Roy Green, who share the same goal - not to win an argument about global warming science, but merely to show that there still IS an argument. Of course there’s not. But while we danced angels around the head of a pin, I can imagine Green’s listeners thinking, ‘Oh my. This is very confusing. No wonder the government says it’s too early to take action.’
“Score one for Monckton. Thanks (and my apologies) to those of you who volunteered some much-preferable debating strategies. Maybe next time.” While Littlemore blamed Monckton and the moderator for his poor showing, the reality is that poor showings by global warming alarmists are par for the course. On March 14, 2007, an audience at New York City’s prestigious Intelligence Squared debating society declared three prominent global warming “skeptics” the winners in a debate against three prominent global warming alarmists.
The debate was taped by National Public Radio (NPR) and distributed to NPR affiliates across the nation. A pre-debate poll indicated that by a 2-to-1 margin (57 percent to 29 percent, with 14 percent undecided) the on-site audience believed global warming has become a crisis. After the debate, however, the audience indicated by 46 percent to 42 percent they do not believe global warming is a crisis, with 12 percent undecided.
Since the 2007 Intelligence Squared debate, prominent global warming alarmists such as Al Gore, James Hansen, Michael Mann, Gavin Schmidt, Susan Solomon, etc., have refused to publicly debate the science and defend their assertions.
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/political-climate