NASA has announced that this year is the hottest year so far, just as climate scientists predicted it would be. This has been accompanied by the fastest decline in Arctic sea ice in satellite records, and other extreme weather events around the world, many of which were also predicted by climate scientists. It is against this backdrop that one of Britain’s most prominent climate change ‘sceptics’ has admitted he’s driven by “ideological war”.
NASA has announced that this year is the hottest year so far, just as climate scientists predicted it would be. This has been accompanied by the fastest decline in Arctic sea ice in satellite records, and other extreme weather events around the world, many of which were also predicted by climate scientists.
It is against this backdrop that one of Britain’s most prominent climate change ‘sceptics’ has admitted he’s driven by “ideological war”. Many of you will be familiar with James Delingpole, seen here with our prime minister in a former life. He now writes regularly for The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator.
Last week he was on the BBC advocating for the establishment of a British Tea Party Movement, but perhaps you’re more likely to remember him from his appearance in Channel 4’s “When Boris Met Dave” when he recalled his disappointment at not making it into “the Buller” (that’s the Bullingdon Club to you and me) like his old uni chums Boris and Dave.
Anyhow, this week Delingpole was given an award for his Telegraph blog posts about climate change by the Exxon-funded International Policy Network, a ‘free market think tank’ that is run by former Big Tobacco lobbyists. As the Telegraph’s comment editor described in a piece applauding him for winning, Delingpole’s blogs have:
“… made a huge international impact on the debate over global warming.”
They certainly have. But what’s interesting about Delingpole is that in a recent must-read blog post titled ‘Only the Tea Party can save us now’, he admits to his real motivation for homing in on the climate issue:
“As you all know, since Climategate I’ve been dedicating far more of my time than is healthy to exposing the great Global Warming scam. This is not because I’ve suddenly realised I’m a scientist manque who wants to spend the rest of his life obsessing about forcings, feedbacks and solar radiation.
“It’s because I understand that “Environmentalism” is but one strategically significant theatre in a much greater ideological war being waged across the world.
“It’s the same one Toby Young is fighting over education; the same one the likes of Rod Liddle, Andrew Gilligan, Nick Cohen and Mark Steyn are fighting over political Islam; the same one Melanie Phillips is fighting over Israel; the same one Douglas Murray is fighting on pretty much everything.
“And its ultimate outcome is at least as important as those of the ones we fought in 1914-1918 and 1939-1945.”
This is just the latest illustration of how the ‘climate change denial’ netroots is being motivated not by any real scientific questions but by right wing political ideology. Earlier this year Left Foot Forward exposed how the man who is perhaps the world’s most influential climate sceptic, Anthony Watts, was tweeting links to the neo-nazi British National Party.
77 Responses to “UK’s leading climate sceptic admits he’s driven by “ideological war””
Anon E Mouse
Henry – Well let’s test your comment. Leaving aside the legalised theft of taxpayers money in the Union Modernisation scam to the Labour Party which cost the UK taxpayer around £10 million / year let’s start with the Non Doms.
(I do this because as an ordinary working man Chris above said I should approach Lord Cashcroft for help)
Labour Big Business Non Dom Donators
Lord Paul – £69,250 in donations to Labour, including £45,000 to Gordon Brown’s leadership campaign
Lakshmi Mittal – £4.125 million in donations to Labour
Sir Ronald Cohen – £2.55 million in donations to Labour
Sir Christopher Ondaatje – £1.7 million in donations to Labour
Sir Gulam Noon – £532,826 in donations to Labour
William Bollinger – £510,725 in donations to Labour
Mahmoud Khayami – £985,000 in donations to Labour including £5,000 to Hazel Blears’ deputy leadership campaign
Dr David Potter – £90,000 in a donation to Labour
Big Business Supporters
Paul Drayson – £10000 in two donations to Labour
Alan Sugar – Not sure how much
JK Rowling – At least £1 million
Tony Gallagher – £5000 donation to Labour
Euan Snowie – £5000 donation to Labour
Hunter Esson – £5000 donation to Labour
British Airways, British Midland and on and on
Truth to tell it would be easier to just see who got a gong from Gordon Brown – Lord Myners for example – to see who’s been donating.
The facts are no matter how you try and spin it, Labour has hammered the poor of this country and sucked up to big business – remember the tobacco advertising fiasco?
The reason I hate these stupid unproven environmental stories is because I remember the Thatcher government inventing the whole Global Warming then Climate Change thing in part to crush the miners and if you live where I do the ramifications are still being felt.
We have 400 years of coal in the hills not 10 miles from here yet keep importing coal from Germany – it’s madness and if these people who earn their living from perpetuating the Thatcher myths it can only get worse.
Under Labour the poor always get poorer…
Collis Gretton
RT @leftfootfwd: UK’s leading climate sceptic admits he's driven by "ideological war" http://bit.ly/bAq5SO
Chris
Yawn, Walter put your sock puppets away.
“Which bit about Joss Garman wasn’t true? He makes grandiose claims in public forums and should be open to scrutiny or shouldn’t make the claims. People died over the lies spread on GM by his cohorts – I don’t think that’s right. Why do you?”
Yawn, this is a blatant smear.
“To mock someone who has never taken a penny in benefits (except for my kids) was made redundant, went self employed and got through a massive recession to (hopefully) employ two people in the new year is a disgusting attitude Chris.”
LOL, where is my violin. You claimed to be working on LESS than the NMW yet now your about to employ two people? Are you going to be paying them less than the NMW? Get your story straight Walter.
“The Lib Dems are sorting the removal of tax on the first £10K earnings – Labour removed the 10p tax and wanted to increase NI. That’s why your core vote will never come back Chris.”
The removal of 10p band was a scandal and a total fuck up on Brown’s part. However, I don’t agree with the increase in threshold to £10k because it is mainly a tax cut for higher earners. Of the £18 billion it is expected to cost just £1 billion of that goes to removing low paid workers from tax altogether.
“People like you with this attitude of dishonest lies to justify what is simply unfair have made Labour unelectable and you continue to do it.”
You were caught red handed copy and pasting from tory press releases.
“Anyway you forgot to say why you thought lies about GM resulting in thousands of people starving to death was acceptable.”
This is an untrue smear, I’ve shown you the rebuttal.
“This is the forth time you’ve avoided answering it. Well?”
I told you the first time and even provided the link to the rebuttal.
@sock puppet 1
“Because you don’t know the difference between your and you’re I’m tempted to dismiss your posts as the rantings of a teenager or a retard.
Ah, my fingers don’t always type what I’m thinking. Big deal.
@sock puppet 2
“people like you have ruined the labour party”
That is interesting, I only joined in April.
“come up to a working mens club in the north east”
I’ve no wish to go cottaging.
“with your attitude and youll get a real geordie welcome.”
Yawn, your geordie sock puppet isn’t very good mousey, not believable in the at all.
“wats wromg with anon e mouse doing a normal job you f***ing toff?””
He didn’t claim to be doing a normal job, he claimed to be working for much LESS than the NMW. And I’m no toff.
@Walter Mitty again
Which tory press release did you copy the list of donors from?
“Leaving aside the legalised theft of taxpayers money in the Union Modernisation scam to the Labour Party which cost the UK taxpayer around £10 million / year let’s start with the Non Doms.”
Trade unions play an important role in promoting workers rights and providing assistance to workers in a wide variety of ways. Why shouldn’t the state recognise the role they play and help modernise unions so they can better represent their workers.
“(I do this because as an ordinary working man Chris above said I should approach Lord Cashcroft for help)”
Your no working man, mousey.
“The facts are no matter how you try and spin it, Labour has hammered the poor of this country and sucked up to big business – remember the tobacco advertising fiasco?”
Tax credits, massive improvements in the NHS, massive improvements in education, opening up of HE – the poor benefited massively from Labour’s time in office. The libdems, who you currently claim to support, are funded by Indian arms dealers.
“The reason I hate these stupid unproven environmental stories is because I remember the Thatcher government inventing the whole Global Warming then Climate Change thing in part to crush the miners and if you live where I do the ramifications are still being felt.”
Oh, your a climate change denier as well, should have guessed from your overt hatred of all things green.
“We have 400 years of coal in the hills not 10 miles from here yet keep importing coal from Germany – it’s madness and if these people who earn their living from perpetuating the Thatcher myths it can only get worse.”
IIRC, Walter, you claimed to be from South Wales, the truth is the coal fields of South Wales were never economically viable the coal seams too thin and too tricky to mine.
“Under Labour the poor always get poorer…”
This is totally untrue and a disgusting misrepresentation of the facts of the past 13 years.
inks
““It’s the same one Toby Young is fighting over education; the same one the likes of Rod Liddle, Andrew Gilligan, Nick Cohen and Mark Steyn are fighting over political Islam; the same one Melanie Phillips is fighting over Israel; the same one Douglas Murray is fighting on pretty much everything.”
That list of people sounds like the dinner party from hell. It doesn’t sound like the winning side in any sort of fight, even an imaginary one.
“And its ultimate outcome is at least as important as those of the ones we fought in ”
Perhaps a tad self-aggrandising coming from someone who mostly cut ‘n’ pastes stuff off the Watts Up With That blog without bothering to read it.
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