with Peter Sinclair
Two prominent British climate change sceptics travelled to the Vatican seeking to convert the Pope to their cause – only to be interrupted by “papal heavies” half-way through making their point.
Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, a hereditary peer, and James Delingpole, a right-wing commentator, were in a group that attended a papal climate conference ahead of Pope Francis’s eagerly awaited climate change “encyclical” – a letter to clergy in which he is expected to advocate action against global warming.
They are attending the summit in Rome with scientists from the Heartland Institute, a conservative think-tank backed by the US philanthropist Charles Koch.
Climate sceptics and US conservatives are concerned that the Pope’s letter could lend further credibility to the overwhelming scientific consensus that global warming is real and caused by human activity. But Mr Delingpole complained that not everyone was getting a fair hearing.
“Papal heavies shut down an awkward question at a Vatican press conference,” the former Daily Telegraph columnist said of a press conference at the summit, hosted by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon. Mr Delingpole said that Marc Morano, the founder of the sceptical Climate Depot website, tried to ask Mr Ban if he had anything to say about Heartland’s mission.
“Before he could finish, the conference hosts interrupted to ask which organization he worked for, then directed the microphone to a more tame questioner, while a secretary guard came over to mutter in Morano’s ear ‘You have to control yourself or you will be escorted out of here’,” Mr Delingpole wrote on his blog.
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April 28, 2015 at 10:23 pm
I said it on another thread—-the Swiss Guard needs to stick the point of a halberd against Monckton’s, MorOno’s and Delingpole’s butts and show them off the Vatican grounds. It is a travesty that they have been allowed to attend this conference—-not a one of them has any scientific training or anything to contribute beyond obfuscatory denier BS. Papal heavies? LOL. A reasonably intelligent 12-year-old is “heavy” enough to deal with the likes of the Lord, the Moron, and the Wuss.
(And Delingpole the Wuss should leave before someone “intellectually rapes” him again. How many times can that happen to him before he suffers a complete breakdown?)
April 29, 2015 at 8:35 am
I, for one, would have preferred to see a nun march up to Morono and Delingpole, rap each one on the knuckles with a ruler, and then pull them out of the room by the ear.
April 30, 2015 at 5:01 pm
Oh that would have been sweet to see and then have them write manmade climate change is real – 100 times on a blackboard and sign it 🙂
April 29, 2015 at 2:02 am
After years in the doldrums it is gratifying to see Climate Change growing support from three very powerful sources, working together – The Pope, U.N Secretary General and the President of the U.S.A.
The Pope is at least making media headlines and promoting the science (and importantly damping down on denial).
This from the inter-press agency Reuters 28th April report: (pity they still label Monkton and co sceptics and not deniers)
“Vatican and U.N. team up on climate change against sceptics”
http://www.trust.org/item/20150428153042-kid3t/?source=fiOtherNews2
April 29, 2015 at 3:13 am
All three should have been put in straitjackets and escorted to a suitable establishment for treatment years ago…
April 29, 2015 at 8:22 am
It’s a shame that our “modern” society would so waste resources. If we were able to time travel back to Tombstone AZ in the 1880’s, they would have been “escorted” into the street for a gunfight. Since they are likely not any more skilled at gunfighting than they are at climate science, the “suitable establishment for treatment” would have been a 6 foot deep hole on Boot Hill. Fitting (and cheap).
April 30, 2015 at 5:18 pm
Yup it’s frankly what they deserve. Given the immediacy of the seriousness of climate change, the deniers are tantamount to being guilty of conspiring to commit genocide.
April 29, 2015 at 7:40 am
[…] The Flat Earthers won’t win this time around. […]
April 29, 2015 at 7:49 am
That’s how BBC puts it: Vatican presses politicians on climate change
April 29, 2015 at 8:06 am
Maybe these loonies are becoming more widely recognized for what they are– not before time. Their effectiveness as propagandists is on the wane, I think.
April 29, 2015 at 11:31 am
The Heartland Institute is…
A shameless parasitic pathogen that ingests filthy money and exudes poisonous delusions at the public through multiple orifices.
April 29, 2015 at 12:17 pm
I liken them to Graffiti taggers in 3-piece suits. Someone else builds a bridge to take us to the future. Their ‘job’ is to paint the bridge the color of mud and beckon you take the leaking rowboat instead.