Climate Science Glossary

Term Lookup

Enter a term in the search box to find its definition.

Settings

Use the controls in the far right panel to increase or decrease the number of terms automatically displayed (or to completely turn that feature off).

Term Lookup

Term:

Settings

Beginner Intermediate Advanced No Definitions Definition Life:

All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

Home

Arguments

Software

Resources Comments

The Consensus Project

Translations

About Support

	Climate's changed before
	It's the sun
	It's not bad
	There is no consensus
	It's cooling
	Models are unreliable
	Temp record is unreliable
	Animals and plants can adapt
	It hasn't warmed since 1998
	Antarctica is gaining ice
	View All Arguments...

Latest Posts

Climate Misinformation by Source: Christopher Monckton

Christopher Monckton is a British consultant, policy adviser, writer, columnist, and hereditary peer. While not formally trained in science, Monckton is one of the most cited and widely published climate skeptics, having even been invited to testify to the U.S. Senate and Congress on several occasions.

For a comprehensive rebuttal of many of Christopher Monckton's arguments, check out this presentation by Professor John Abraham. Abraham has compiled many examples where Monckton misrepresents the very scientists whose work he cites. Check out this PDF of Monckton quotes versus the scientists who in their own words explain how Monckton misrepresents their research.

Articles

A Climate Science Brief

URL: http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/commentaries/c...
Date: 21 August 2009

Arguments by Monckton	vs	What the Science Says
"Arctic icemelt is a natural cycle"		Thick Arctic sea ice is undergoing a rapid retreat.
"Arctic was warmer in 1940"		The actual data show high northern latitudes are warmer today than in 1940.
"Climate is chaotic and cannot be predicted"		Weather is chaotic but climate is driven by Earth's energy imbalance, which is more predictable.
"Climate sensitivity is low"		Net positive feedback is confirmed by many different lines of evidence.
"Climate's changed before"		Climate reacts to whatever forces it to change at the time; humans are now the dominant forcing.
"Hockey stick is broken"		Recent studies agree that recent global temperatures are unprecedented in the last 1000 years.
"IPCC overestimate temperature rise"		Monckton used the IPCC equation in an inappropriate manner.
"Lindzen and Choi find low climate sensitivity"		Lindzen and Choi’s paper is viewed as unacceptably flawed by other climate scientists.
"Models are unreliable"		Models successfully reproduce temperatures since 1900 globally, by land, in the air and the ocean.
"Most of the last 10,000 years were warmer"		This argument uses regional temperature data that ends in 1855, long before modern global warming began.
"Oceans are cooling"		The most recent ocean measurements show consistent warming.
"Phil Jones says no global warming since 1995"		Phil Jones was misquoted.
"Sea level rise is exaggerated"		A variety of different measurements find steadily rising sea levels over the past century.
"Sea level rise predictions are exaggerated"		Sea level rise is now increasing faster than predicted due to unexpectedly rapid ice melting.
"There's no tropospheric hot spot"		We see a clear "short-term hot spot" - there's various evidence for a "long-term hot spot".
"Was Greenland really green in the past?"		Other parts of the earth got colder when Greenland got warmer.

Back to Articles by Monckton

Back to Climate Misinformation by Source

The Consensus Project Website

THE ESCALATOR

(free to republish)

Home | Translations | About Us | Privacy | Contact Us