On Oct. 2 Lord Christopher Monckton, the third Viscount of Brenchley, a businessman, journalist, architect and mathematician, presented a lecture to detailing his view on climate change.
Before he began speaking, Monckton personally shook hands and introduced himself to all in attendance of the lecture titled “Is CO2 Mitigation Cost-Effective?” where Monckton boldly presented an argument against the relationship between carbon dioxide and climate warming.
“On this particular topic of the climate, there is a profound intolerance of alternative points of view,” said Monckton.
Nevertheless, Monckton pledged to use logic and rationality in his argument against CO2 effects on temperature and the futility of using financial means to reverse the effects.
His lecture pointed out the fallacies in argument of the opposing side and suggested that scientific data used to report claims of CO2 effects were skewed and misrepresented. He went on to say that even if CO2 levels did affect the climate in a hazardous manner, reversing the issue would be too financially devastating to make any real progress. Monckton used a series of logarithms to back up his claims.
Though his views are controversial and have earned the ire of several members of the scientific community, Monckton’s attempts to state his case and persuade others to feel differently about CO2 mitigation were not in vain.
“I thought it was an intriguing and informative lecture,” said junior Dustin Williams, computer science major. “I never really fully believed in global warming, and now I really don’t.”
The bottom line of Monckton’s argument was that global warming is a non-issue and that other “solvable” and “real” environmental issues such as desertification, deforestation and over-fishing should be focused on instead.
“With these things you can very easily put numbers on what we would achieve if we do the right thing, and what we will lose if we don’t,” Monckton said after his lecture. “You can show very clearly that there is a benefit to doing the right thing on these real environmental problems which are solvable and don’t waste your time on a known problem that isn’t solvable. The correct policy to address a known problem is to have the courage to do nothing.”