Fracking/Climate Change – The Tentacles of Greed and Lies – Know Your Enemy

You know how it is; you’re idly flicking through the newspaper trying to maintain control in the face of so much unpleasantness and the plight of the England cricket team on top of all that and an article catches your eye…

Viscount Monckton of Brenchley has come onto my radar before. Apart from his appearance (which is quite startling and is maybe a warning shot across the bows of the perils of in-breeding but, he is what he is and makes the most of it) it’s really his quirky views that have attracted my attention previously. With him being a prominent climate-change sceptic, I’ve followed, albeit loosely, his occasional outbursts but it was the article in The Independent of Thursday 21^st May (‘Climate-change sceptic Monckton claims tombstone artwork is a ‘death threat’) that arrested my attention. VERY briefly, His Lordship (his words not mine) took exception to an artwork completed by a student at Anglia Ruskin University on a plywood sheet mounted at an angle on a plinth. On this surface were chiselled the words; ‘Lest We Forget Those Who Denied’ followed by a list of six names of prominent climate-change sceptics, including Lord Lawson, Owen Paterson, James Delingpole and his noble Lordship (his words not mine) Christopher Monckton. Down the surface of this sloping monument runs a constant stream of oil which, not surprisingly, won the Anglia Ruskin Sustainability Art Prize 2015.

Using his now familiar rhetoric of snobbish belittlement and Nazi overtones Christopher Monckton made an effort to have the artwork taken down, conjuring up visions of the Third Reich to add weight to his case. He also made the following remark when dealing with the university’s vice-chancellor who had mentioned that Lord Monckton was a climate-change ‘denier’:

‘It mattered not to the vice-chancellor, nor the “artist”, that I do not deny the existence of climate change…I do not even deny that man may have some as yet unquantifiable but probably insignificant and even net beneficial influence on the climate.’

You wanna read that again?

I can wait…

OK, now, I don’t know about you but that sort of statement sets alarm bells ringing in my head. I’m reminded of a one-man show I wrote and performed years ago and in it I had my character say, ‘Be very suspicious when a politician tells you that what he’s doing to you he’s doing to you for your own good’. I mean, why come up with this stuff in an interview that was, ostensibly, about discussing a work of art that you don’t think is very good…? When all else fails, turn to Mr. Shakespeare; ‘methinks he doth protest too much’. So, I did a little research as I wanted to work out just what Lord Monckton’s qualifications were for making such statements and why he and others (later) are so set on denying the existence and level of seriousness of both fracking and climate-change…

Pour a coffee and kick back; it’s detailed and lengthy so you’ll need to pay attention but at the close I trust you’ll know why it’s important to know the details and just what we sign up for when we vote.

Viscount Monckton was educated at Harrow School and then went to Cambridge where he gained a B.A. in Classics then went to University College, Cardiff to gain a diploma in journalism studies. So, from that, we can rule out a knowledgeable contribution concerning climate-change from the said Lord on the grounds of educative excellence in such disciplines as climatology, geology or earth sciences. Thing is, you see, the noble Lord has ‘previous’ when it comes to making claims about which he has no knowledge and is not averse to ‘being economical with the truth’ to back up his claims.

In 2011 he was advised by the then Clerk of the Parliaments, David Beamish, that he ‘should desist from claiming to be a Member of the House of Lords, either directly or by implication, and also that you desist from claiming to be a Member without the right to sit or vote.’ You know, sort of one-upmanship in impersonations, like impersonating a police officer…but, as he’s one of the upper crust, he chose to impersonate being a member of the House of Lords instead…yes, he was a peer of the realm, but…

Then there was the time on the BBC in 2011 (not a vintage Monckton year this) when he claimed that one of the companies he was a director of (Resurrexi Pharmaceutical; still is, I believe) had followed his methods when he had cured himself of Graves’ disease and had, to date, had found cures for multiple sclerosis, influenza, herpes and had reduced the viral load for HIV (more later). To be fair he backed off from these claims on Australian radio but…

Then there were his claims that he’d served as science advisor for Margaret Thatcher (I mean, sure, with those degrees you’d snap him up, wouldn’t you) something that John Gummer (of all people) called ‘laughable’ and searches by far more ‘connected’ people than myself have failed to unearth even a single mention in either government papers or biographies of his involvement in this or any other position of advice, scientific or otherwise.

Then there was the time (2012) when the noble Lord ran a scam that allowed him to take over the seat allocated to Burma at the COP18 Climate Change Conference in Doha where he made a speech attacking the idea of man-made climate change saying, amongst other things, there had been no global warming in the last sixteen years; he was escorted from the building and given a lifetime ban from attending any future UN climate talks…

Then there was the time Lord Monckton advertised his scientific qualifications when he proposed (this, a board member of a pharmaceutical organisation remember…you know, as in ‘making decisions on how to develop and use drugs for the betterment of mankind’) that; ‘…there is only one way to stop AIDS. That is to screen the entire population regularly and to quarantine all carriers of the disease for life. Every member of the population should be blood-tested every month…all those found to be infected with the virus, even if only as carriers, should be isolated compulsorily, immediately, and permanently’ also claiming that ‘…official survey after official survey…’ (never once mentioning which ‘official surveys’ he was quoting)  ‘…had found that homosexuals had an average of 500-1,000 partners in their sexually active lifetime, and that some had as many as 20,000…’ (…sexually active and ‘out’ at, say, 14 and an expected lifespan that saw you dead at, say, 80…that’s 66 years of sexual activity…that’s…303 sexual partners per year…every year…that’s a shag every 1.2 days…; oh, for the energy)…

Then there is the ‘project’ he runs called ‘50 to 1’ who’s key purpose is to communicate the noble Lord’s recent calculations on the cost of climate mitigation versus the cost of adaptation. That is the cost difference; it is 50 times more expensive to attempt to stop climate change than it is to adapt, in the event that adaptation becomes necessary, and heaven forbid we should spend a bit of money.

Then there are the paid for speeches he gives to the Republican Party on climate change…oh, OK, hang on… How does he get invited to speak, this man of no scientific qualification, to the men who brought us Big Oil? Well, he gets invited because he is ‘Chief Policy Advisor to the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI – more later) in the USA’.

Well there we are then. From the humble beginnings of England’s landed gentry this son of a Viscount (shurely shome mistake. Ed.) with no education in this scientific field is now one of the figureheads of a scientific institution that denies climate change…cripes and bugger me! Well, let’s see how well our boy’s done, shall we?

Remember that old chestnut used by successive governments, world-wide, whenever they want to push through yet more legislation to impinge on the privacy of the citizen? The one we in the UK are going to have to battle against now the Conservatives have got a majority? The one where we’re told, ‘If you’ve nothing to hide then you’ve nothing to fear’? Well, this is where governments and money-men play us at our own game. These people love inventing GROUPS to cover their activities with emotive and cod-official words like Foundation, Freedom and Policy figuring large. They make up ‘institutes’, ‘policy groups’, ‘working groups’, ‘QUANGOS’, ‘research establishments’ and ‘consultancy firms’ then people them with folk like Lord Monckton (pay-offs for the pliable) people who have little or no ability, experience, or social morals, and use them as a mouth piece for their own agendas; so it is with The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI).

An off-shoot of the ‘Frontiers of Freedom’ (great name, huh?) a climate-sceptic organisation which, according to a 2003 New York Times report has an annual budget of around $700,000 and received $230,000 of that budget from Exxon in 2002 (up from $40,000 in 2001 - according to Exxon documents). As an aside, when asked about this level of funding from within the oil industry their president (yet another president) George Landrith, told the New York Times; ‘They (Exxon) determined that we are effective at what we do and they’d like to make it possible for us to do more of that.’ Well, that’s big of them, isn’t it? Cut to the chase. Very basically, SPPI is a lobbying practice run for the benefit of US state legislators to promote the ‘correct’ bills and steer them through congress…and in an effort to show they have nothing to hide so nothing to fear, I’m sure the following will be helpful in maintaining that level of innocent involvement in what could, possibly, be construed as ‘a very shady business’. Let’s see how perspicacious you are in spotting the common thread contained in the following.

On SPPI’s quasi-board are several people who, at first glimpse, seem to be worthy scientific types, it’s only when we turn over the stones we discover just how ‘worthy’ and ‘scientific’ they are.

SPPI member 1) Robert Ferguson is its President (grand title that…these people, people like Lord Monckton, REALLY LOVE titles…I’ve always thought those people who send their title into a room before them are usually hiding a physical inadequacy but, let that pass) who has a degree in history from the Brigham Young University, a worthy place of education that was formed by the founder of the Mormon religion (Church of the Latter Day Saints) Brigham Young (just in case you were unsure, no slouch in the self-advertising dept) who led his people to Salt Lake City in Utah, had divergent views on how to treat Native Americans and people of black, African descent and decided to stop a 55 wives. Mr. Ferguson also has a master’s degree in legislative affairs, which must come in real handy given how the SPPI operates (later).

SPPI member 2) William Kininmonth is an Australian and runs his Australasian Climate Research Institute (titles, titles) from his house with no website or ’phone contact and has the dubious honour of being so clever as to be able to defy the laws of physics when he stated; ‘Greenhouse gases emit more radiation than they absorb and their direct impact is to cool the atmosphere. More greenhouse gases will not cause the atmosphere to warm’. Way t’ go, Mr. Kininmonth.

SPPI member 3) Bob Carter, also from Australia, is on the payroll of the Heartland Institute (institutes, institutes) which is funded by Exxon, the Scaife Foundation (foundations, foundations) and the Koch Family Foundation and here, I’m afraid, we have to digress a little in order to understand what we’re up against when it comes to opposing fossil-fuel stupidity, fracking obfuscation and the serious money backing these self-styled voices of reason.

The Heartland Institute’s president (yet another) is a Mr. J. Bast who, although describing himself as an economist apparently holds no undergrad or graduate degrees in economics and got no higher an education than the completion of high school; all very laudable but… The organisation he is in control of, is the spokesman for, promotes climate-change scepticism, funds climate-change deniers (fair enough, you could say) in their work against the UN climate change reports and dabbles with school curriculums in the science of climatology, oh, and also runs a rapid mobilization group to counter new findings in climate science; what’s more worrying, and what gives an insight into this institute’s social conscience and core, however, is the Heartland Institute’s involvement with the tobacco industry; it also gives an insight into Mr. Bast’s credentials as a person to be relied on to do the best for humankind, which I’m sure he does.

An ally of the tobacco industry for many years, the Heartland Institute opposes tobacco control measures and denies the effects of second-hand smoke. Indeed, a Mr. Roy E. Marden, who was on the ‘board’ of the Heartlands Institute, was a key player in Phillip Morris as manager of industry affairs and a specialist in the lobbying of congress. The fierce lobbying by tobacco companies to overturn legislation world-wide, legislation that in any way threatened their profit margins, is well documented et al but it’s worth noting that Mr. Bast is quoted as, ‘ a Tobacco Policy Expert’ by non other than the National Association of Tobacco (association, association).

The Koch Family Foundation is owned and run by two of the richest men on the planet, the multi, multi billionaires (yup, that’s right ‘multi, multi’) David and Charles Koch. It’s worth quoting the New Yorker who described these two brothers as, ‘…longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation’ and who have built up, ‘a labyrinth of tax-exempt groups and limited-liability companies help[ed] mask the sources of the money, much of which went to voter mobilization and television ads attacking President Obama and congressional Democrats.’ So, we know how they stand on equal rights and such then. It’s also worth noting that the brothers have apparently contributed over $7m to Islamophobic groups in the US between 2001/9 so we can also see their credentials for world peace and inter-religious tolerance too then. What have these two generous givers to do with the Heartland Institute? Well, in 2011 they gave $200,000 to fund this institute’s even-handed approach to climate change.

SPPI member 4) Craig D. Idso…(we use the middle letter to differentiate between the family members as it would be so easy to get Keith, Sherwood and Craig mixed up, wouldn’t it)…Craig D. Idso is Chairman (lovely) and founder of the Centre for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change (centre, centre) and, coincidentally, the son of Sherwood B. Idso and the brother of Keith E. Idso, president and vice president respectively of ExxonMobil who part fund the Centre for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change…so there’s lucky then, having such high-powered and well-versed people to call on if you need to tease out some details about climate change. Mind, Mr. Idso (D.) has had a good grounding in the vagaries of fossil fuel use and markets seeing as he was Director of Environmental Science at Peabody Energy which is the largest private-sector coal company in the world with total revenue of $6.9 billion.

SPPI member 5) David Legates is Professor of Geography at the University of Delaware and the Director for the University’s Centre for Climate Climactic Research and he and it run on funding from many companies involved in fossil fuel production (ExxonMobil) and various institutes and foundations (institutes and foundations, institutes and foundations) who fight climate change, including the Koch Bros.

SPPI member 6) Joseph (Joe) D’Aleo is a retired meteorologist who has registered the name ICECAP which is an organisation set up to challenge this tomfoolery of global warming. On the payroll of ICECAP are:

Robert C. Balling Jr. who has acknowledged receiving $408,000 in research funding from the fossil fuel industry over the last decade including contributions from ExxonMobil, the British Coal Corporation, Cyprus Minerals and OPEC.

Sallie Baliunas who, between December 1998 and September 2001 was a Scientific Adviser to the Greening Earth Society (dontcha just love the way they use soft-and-cuddly English) a group funded and controlled by Western Fuels Association, an association of coal-burning utility companies.

Robert M. Carter who is on the advisory board of the Institute of Public Affairs which is funded by the mining and tobacco industry…oh, and Monsanto.

SPPI member 7) Your own, your very own Lord Monckton of Brenchley who we’ve had quite enough of, thank you very much.

And finally, saving the best ’til last, we bring you (drum roll) ExxonMobil. The largest oil company in the world they are heavily involved in policy-making globally, USA politics in particular, have a disturbing role in the exploration (some would say ‘exploitation’…not me you understand, but some would) of oil and gas from Chad-Cameroon and is heavily monetarised in fracking.

So after all that sound and fury, what does it signify? Well, it means that the playing-fields of England, certainly when it comes to fracking and meaningful movement on tackling climate change in the UK (and elsewhere in the world) are heavily stacked against the ‘concerned citizen’ and the proofs of scientific research. There a number of Conservative members who decide on tax breaks and policy for these things who are heavily involved in the smooth progress of fracking and dumbed-down climate-change rules, including our beloved Chancellor of the Exchequer’s father-in-law. My guess is that it was pure coincidence that his son-in-law stated that ‘fracking has the potential to keep energy bills low for millions of people’ and announced a new low tax regime for fracking companies. Aligned with him are such luminaries as Lord Browne, Ben Moxham (until recently David Cameron’s advisor on energy and the environment) Sarah Hogg, Sam Laidlaw, Ian Taylor and David Cameron’s chief advisor, Lynton Crosby. All these people have sunk considerable investments in oil, gas and shale-gas exploration operations, and Mr. Crosby, bless, runs a lobbying company, Crosby Textor, that  is employed by…Phillip Morris! This lobbying company also represents Dart Energy who holds shale gas extraction licences in Scotland…bet he was thrilled skinny with the election results and the cessation of shale gas extraction licences north of the border then… There were calls for Crosby to be sacked, Cameron refused…wonder why?

I think that, in many cases, it isn’t what they do that’s a major part of the concern of how they treat the earth and view the safety of our planet but how they go about it that gives me most annoyance. The brutal methods used and the short-sighted, ‘profit first-well-being second’ that runs through all their dealings with people, countries and environments can never be justified when all it buys is another yacht in Monaco and the ways-and-means to buy a Presidency.

So, there you have it, your cut-out-and-keep guide to the machinations of how our democracies work. Thing is, these people, the companies, the fancy names, the institutes, foundations, freedom, policy think-tank organisations have all sunk millions, nay billions into the continued use of fossil fuels and the extension of fracking, the people best placed to be our planet’s guardians, the folk we voted into power have sunk considerable portions of their personal fortunes into the very industries that threaten our degradation. There’s no way they’re going to roll over and play dead to what they see as the fawn-snuggling lefties. Opposition to what they see as the swelling of their already massive personal coffers (in some cases their billions) will be fought with lies, dirty tricks, the law and scare-mongering; we have a real fight on our hands, and money talks.