James Delingpole, the champion of online climate conspiracy theorists, claims he was ‘intellectually raped’ on television on Monday night, reports Joss Garman.
James Delingpole, the champion of online climate conspiracy theorists, was ‘intellectually raped’ on television on Monday night by the new head of the prestigious Royal Society. (Reportedly Delingpole’s own words.)
In a must-watch interview for the BBC’s Horizon, the Nobel-prize winning Sir Paul Nurse gently questioned the columnist about his forthright views on climate change science, which he espouses regularly for The Spectator and The Daily Telegraph and in the regular TV and radio spots he is offered by, amongst others, the BBC.
Here’s the video clip of the interview on YouTube:
Surprisingly, the question that tripped him up was one he should surely have seen coming. Delingpole, who had just been attacking the use of consensus in science, was asked if he would submit to a consensus scientific opinion if he needed treating for cancer. Stumbling wildly, he eventually feebly tried to change the subject, saying:
“Erm, shall we talk about climategate?”
Having been (unusually) simply lost for words, later he says:
“It is not my job to sit down and read peer-reviewed papers because I simply haven’t got the time, I haven’t got the scientific expertise… I am an interpreter of interpretation.”
But he apparently does have the time to obsessively blog misleading information about climate change and smear scientists in the process.
Anyhow, perhaps the most beautiful thing about his embarrassing interview is that Sir Paul clearly didn’t try to set him up. Delingpole needed absolutely no help in making himself look stupid. Sir Paul ended his programme urging scientists to speak up. He said:
“Scientists have got to get out there… if we do not do that it will be filled by others who don’t understand the science, and who may be driven by politics and ideology.”
As Left Foot Forward has previously noted Delingpole has admitted how his obsession with climate change is driven by “ideological warfare”.
39 Responses to “Telegraph columnist ‘intellectually raped’ by Royal Society scientist”
Cat Gee
This is fookin' brilliant. Delingpole gets owned. (I've forgotten who posted it first, soz). http://ow.ly/3KJ8c
James van Gils
Climate change denier, James Delingpole, 'intellectually raped’ (his own words) by Royal Society scientist: http://tinyurl.com/6apxn79
Robert Gordon
Hand on heart!
How many of your posters read the ‘peer-reviewed papers’. Surely then you will have come across numerous peer reviewed papers which challenge the coterie around the IPCC? The role of trace CO2 is well understood ,but the chaos of the climate is not. The models just don’t work.
All your posters do is ‘interpret’to suit their political taste.
PS The cancer cure analogy is different to the arguments about climate in that an individual must decide for himself/herself. The Christians go into the arena together, but die alone.
Climate change (a natural, on-going physical process) is not medical science.
The question reminds me of the standard Bundeswehr question conscientious objectors were asked at the hearings:
Would you defend your sister if she were being raped by enemy soldiers?
(at the time the enemy being Communist Russians, who had left a horrifying memory in the German sub-concious after 1945)
Roger
Pedants Corner: you don’t call a Sir Paul Nurse ‘Sir Nurse’ – he is ‘Sir Paul’ (or to a any good Republican “Sir” Paul or just Nurse).
I used to only see this error from Americans (who to be fair fought a legthy war so they would no longer have to remember the nuances of our absurd ‘honours’ system) but it is becoming so common now amongst even well-educated writers that I can only conclude that people are just not reading Victorian and Edwardian novels any more…
Shamik Das
Roger, my apologies! But what a video eh?! Ex. Cell. Ent.