I could do this all day ...

Over at SDA, Kate has yet another precious “Settled Science” post about the IPCC report and she’s pulling out the big guns. She links directly to an article written by Christopher Monckton in the Jakarta Post, which contains the following opening paragraph (emphasis added):

“As a contributor to the IPCC's 2007 report, I share the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. Yet I and many of my peers in the British House of Lords - through our hereditary element the most independent-minded of lawmakers - profoundly disagree on fundamental scientific grounds with both the IPCC and my co-laureate's alarmist movie An Inconvenient Truth, which won this year's Oscar for Best Sci-Fi Comedy Horror.”

Well ... don't hold back there, Chris, tell us how you really feel.

Since I’m willing to give Kate the benefit of the doubt (OK, I’m really not), I looked into Mr. Monkton. Interesting guy.

According to Wiki, “Christopher Walter Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (born 14 February 1952) is a retired British international business consultant, policy advisor, writer, and inventor. He served as an advisor to Margaret Thatcher and has attracted controversy for his public opposition to the mainstream scientific consensus on global warming and climate change.”

And, strangely enough, he has just the tiniest problem with credibility. From the same Wiki posting:

Although he has in the past stated that he is "a member of the Upper House of the United Kingdom legislature," Monckton has never been a member of either the House of Lords or the House of Commons. The 1997 reform of the House of Lords ended the right of all but 92 hereditary peers to sit in Parliament, with the remaining 92 being elected by fellow peers within their party caucus. Monckton was one of 43 candidates for a Conservative seat in the House of Lords in a March 2007 by-election caused by the deaths of two peers, but received no votes. He has been highly critical of the way that the Lords has been reformed, describing the by-election procedure as "a bizarre constitutional abortion."

In 1987, Monckton founded a consultancy company, Christopher Monckton Ltd., where he served as a director until he retired because of ill health in 2006. In 1999, he created and published the Eternity puzzle, a geometric puzzle which involved tiling a dodecagon with 209 irregularly shaped polygons called Polydrafters. A £1m prize was won after 18 months by two Cambridge mathematicians. By that time, 500,000 puzzles had been sold. Monckton claimed that he had to sell his home, Crimonmogate, to pay the prize; he later admitted he fabricated the story as a publicity stunt.

But here’s the kicker. I went to the IPCC web site and took a look at the Fourth Assessment Report including the reports from all three Working Groups. BTW, if anyone’s struggling with insomnia, I’ve found a cure with no addictive issues. But I digress. I admit, I was quite curious about Viscount Monkton’s contributions. Looks like my curiosity is my problem because I can’t find him listed anywhere.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying he’s lying – I’m just saying that he’s not listed as a contributor. And he definitely refers to himself as such in the first line of his Jakarta Post article.

In the interest of complete disclosure (and I'm all about that): It’s entirely possible that Viscount Monkton of Brenchley was a part of the “List of reviewers and Review Editors” which is described in the Report’s Appendix on page 20 of 21 but, again, he calls himself a "contributor" which is a very different thing.

Further Musings: Counter-Coulter points out in comments that Deltoid has a "Monkton Watch" at ScienceBlogs. Go check it out.