Bishop Hill largely in the absence of supporting facts

The deny-o-skept-o-sphere's take on the Hackgate scandal has posed a question I'd been meaning to ask for some time:

Which Andrew Montford sidesteps


This is in the context of a cop being arrested as part of the Hackgate police op. But has Monty made up the claim of bribery and corruption , or can he support it?



A question Monty refuses to answer. Instead I recieve a few ad homs from Bishop Hill devotees. This is my personal favourite:

A troll I may be but asking for supporting facts is normal especially when serious allegations of bribery and corruption are made. So is his claim supported or not ? Or did Bishop Hill aka Andrew Montford invent his allegation of bribery of a police officer ? 



In a nutshell this is how climate *skeptic* blogs work. Andrew Montford is not used to being called to support his accusations , his blog followers will deal with the correspondence whilst he moves on to the next attack. It's only a week since this thread but already Monty has made at least one other claim of corruption . To date Bishop Hill has not addressed the question directly posed above . Bishop Hill is a blog that maintains serious allegations against some of the world's top scientists yet if it is not convenient the Bishop Hill blog (and the skept-o-sphere in general) will obfuscate and obscure rather than set the record straight and admit a false accusation has been made.

The strange case of "Doctor" Corbyn

Apparently global warming is nothing to do with mankind. "We know theres no evidence in history for CO2 being a driver for temperature or climate in the real atmosphere we live in."  Thus spake Piers Corbyn who is in no doubt that climate change is dictated by solar activity and the moon.

What is in doubt though is Piers Corbyn's credentials. He is often referred to as a doctor, indeed he is captioned on The Great Global Warming Swindle as Doctor Piers Corbyn. And it's disputed here. So who's right?

The Great Global Warming Swindle. Swindle
In a missive to wikipedia editors Piers writes "Instead of speculating about me and making up things some would do well to ask me or go to source. Degrees are easy to check for example. I have a first class degree in Physics from Imperial College and an MSc In Astrophyics from Queen Mary College for example." So no doctorate.  Why are there numerous references on the web to 'Dr Piers Corbyn' then ? And why doesn't Piers Corbyn correct erroneous citations? In this interview he's introduced as Doctor Corbyn but he makes no effort to correct it.

Odd that Piers Corbyn should express so much certainty in  his climate theory yet tolerate so much uncertainty over his own credentials. I've emailed his office but Piers hasn't replied.


Lord Lawson Class Warrior or Hypocrite

The Global Warming Policy Foundation's anti-windfarm campaign takes a sideswipe at the landed gentry that fail to shout "get oorrff moi laaand" at renewable energy . Under the headline "Aristocrats Cashing In On Britain's Wind Farm Subsidies "  we learn the names of toffs receiving "generous subsidies - that are added to consumer energy bills "

The Global Warming Policy Foundation is led by Lord Lawson of Blaby. Lawson divides his time between his London home and a large 18th century farmhouse in the south of France,  an arrangement which enabled him to pocket more than £16 000 before the expenses scandal broke, he avoided prosecution . The GWPF's Board of Trustees consists of five Lords, one Baroness, a knight of the realm, one Bishop but only one person , plain Henri LePage, bereft of any title whatsoever.


What are Fox Expert's Scientific Qualifications?

There's not much I can add to this excellent little video , but I notice that Fair and Balanced Fox calls on Chris Horner's expert opinion (at about 3 mins in). He has a Juris Doctorate, which sounds fancy but it's a legal qualification. I wonder what his scientific qualifications are.


Dear Dr Horner,
I am a Wikipedia and Sourcewatch editor and was wondering if you could supply me with a little information about yourself that is relevant to our profiles of you.
What are your scientific qualifications? Which Institutions awarded them, when?
I’ve viewed both your Heartland Institute and Competitive Enterprise Institute profile pages and neither of them list any scientific qualifications at all. Your frequent contributions to Fox News on such subjects as global warming would, I suggest, carry more weight if your scientific qualifications could be added to the context of what you have to tell us.
Salutations and thanks in advance,
Hengist McStone

SpongeBob more convincing than Morano

Two shorts from Fair and Balanced Fox News . First, today's final nail in the coffin of AGW is that SpongeBob Squarepants has come out as a warmist. Note that Fox cannot actually point to any errors in SpongeBob's worldview, just 'disputed facts', disputed by Fox that is.



To set the record straight here's Marc Morano, who sadly isn't able to keep his testimony as error free as our underwater imaginary friend . "The global warming theory is in utter collapse " spouts Marc , " you can go from A to Z from the Antarctic to the Arctic ..." Ok Marc's spelling is a little shaky but what about his science?   "They're now saying chinese coal will save us from global warming" attests Marc, in fact what scientists are really saying is that chinese coal is so polluting it will blot out the sun for a while.  Marc goes on...  "scientists are predicting cooling from the sunspot cycle" , yes but that doesn't mitigate carbon based warming.



Oh and Marc, Richard Tol is not a climate scientist like you suggest, his field of learning is the dismal science of economics, oh,  what's the point ?

Hat tip : Bob Ward