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>Christopher Walter, the self-aggrandizing Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, is barnstorming through Western Canada next month, pretending scientific expertise that he doesn’t have and spreading complacency about climate change.

Monckton’s four-city speaking tour is billed as “Apocalypse Cancelled: The Overheated Hype behind Global Warming.” Promoted by the right-wing think tanks, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the Fraser Institute, as well as by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and (shame) the Calgary Herald, the advertising flyers say that Monckton will be “arguing the importance of getting the science right.”

If true, this will be a change of policy for Christopher the journalist, classicist and failed politician.

There is no questioning Monckton’s enthusiasm for self-promotion, but his adherence to the truth on matters personal or scientific has been more than a little suspect. People like Tim Lambert at Deltoid blog and George Monbiot of the Guardian have caught Monckton lying about everything from whether he sued Monbiot for libel (successfully or at all) to whether he is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Monckton’s favourite pastime is to chase the shadow of Al Gore, offering airy criticisms of Gore’s award winning movie and claiming “victory” over Gore in a UK Court case in which the judge ctually endorsed the movie and rejected the complainant’s bid to have it blocked from being shown in UK schools.

If you’re stubbornly determined to see how slippery Monckton can be, here is a link to a “debate” twixt him and me last year. This might also be instructive for people who wonder why people like George Monbiot are wary about getting into the mudbath with the likes of Ian Plimer without his opponent binding himself to a serious set of rules beforehand (and by rules, I mean promising to be accountable for the accuracy of your information).

The offensive thing about Monckton’s current tour is the actual fact of it. At a time when the world is struggling to come up with relevant policy options for Copenhagen in December, the oil lobby appears to have nothing but money to spend on a lecture tour for a denier who has never had a lick of training in climate science and who has, again, been caught out saying whatever comes to mind - irrespective of the evidence. (And if this party is NOT being financed by oil interests, I invite the FCPP, the Fraser Institute or the Calgary Chamber to tell us where the funding actually originated).