We all engage in hypocrisy from time to time. In fact, being a hypocrite is a defining characteristic of the human condition. But there are some amongst us who have the capacity to take what is usually a mundane trait and raise it to a level that has us all looking on with perverse admiration. Take, for example, the stance taken by the BBC, an organisation that 55 days after the October 7th massacres still steadfastly refuses to label the atrocities perpetrated on that day as the acts of a terrorist organisation. I know they have access to dictionaries in their newsroom, and yet for them this is not about the correct use of the English language but the small matter of remaining objectively impartial. Like everyone else, they could abide by the dictionary, but that would be taking sides. Of course, the reality is that the BBC’s professions of a high journalistic standard are nothing more than a false pretext for engaging in the insidious, left-wing inspired anti-Semitism that infects its editorial thinking. So yes, if I were to award a ‘Hypocrites of the Year Award’, it might very well go to the BBC.

But this website is supposed to be about climate scepticism, and so I feel obliged to restrict my scope to those who have spoken out on that particular subject whilst exhibiting levels of hypocrisy that even a BBC executive would struggle to emulate. And for that reason, the John Ridgway Climate Hypocrite of the Year Award for 2023 has to go to Jennie King, Head of Climate Research and Policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).

The views that have led to the gaining of this prestigious award can be found espoused on the ISD website but, for the purposes of today’s citation, I choose to illustrate just how worthy King is in receiving her award by referring to her participation in an interview with Rosie Frost of Euronews.com. Here King is introduced as an ‘an expert in the evolving trends of climate mis and disinformation’ – an introduction for which the word ‘irony’ appears to have been invented. The subject being discussed is the use of the term ‘extremist’ in the context of the climate debate. You can read the interview for yourself, but the essence of the King argument is as follows:

There are legitimate concerns out there that have been high-jacked by ‘extremists’ pushing their own ‘culture war’ agendas, and the recent street protests against extending ULEZ in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election is a manifestation of that phenomenon. This was not a case of locals letting the politicians know what they think of a policy that they believe will blight their lives; instead this was ‘weaponisation’ of the climate debate in the name of extremism, and it is very important that such extremism be recognised for what it is and the correct terminology be applied. Not doing so would be a dangerous thing.

One of the reasons why it is important to call a spade a spade here is because these extremists are hell-bent on misusing the English language by accusing the likes of Just Stop Oil of ‘eco-extremism’. And yet these JSO people a merely engaging in street protests to let the politicians know what they think of a policy that they believe will blight their lives. That’s definitely not extremism, and it is very dangerous to suggest that it is.

So, in a nutshell, street protests against ULEZ are a manifestation of extremism, yet JSO street protests are self-evidently not. Calling out JSO protestors as extremist is a dangerous misuse of terminology because it may incite violence, but calling out ULEZ protestors as instruments of extremism is a correct use of terminology that can do nothing but good.

King’s criticism of a group for doing something that she then finds meritorious in a different and ISD endorsed group is of course an hypocrisy, as indeed is the double-standard she applies regarding the wisdom of using the term ‘extremist’. In fact, it is hypocrisy of such purity and pristine perfection that I can only fall to my knees and raise my arms in praise and adulation. If I were to strive with all my powers, to the end of my days, I could not possibly hope to come anywhere near achieving a level of hypocrisy so utterly beauteous in its splendour. Oh Jennie, mightiest of experts in the evolving trends of climate mis- and disinformation, I prostrate myself in your presence, for you are truly the one who was put on this Earth to show just what it takes to enter the Kingdom of Hypocrites. We mean and base hypocrites are not worthy. So please accept my award, which I bestow with a humility and sincerity most profound.

Speech! Speech!

16 Comments

  1. This bit is hilarious, I think:

    Ultimately what is lost in this polarisation is the ability to have sober and candid conversations about the net zero transition. Essential debates between citizens and elected officials get pulled into this highly divisive space and everyone loses out.

    “[It] has nothing to do with the substance of policy and is all to do with who should or should not be involved in the conversation,” King explains.

    I love the use of the word “explains”, in this context.

    Earlier in the article we are told:

    Narratives have emerged around climate policies costing too much or being too difficult to implement.

    This is in a section headed “Exploiting the gap between public opinion and climate action”.

    You really couldn’t make this stuff up. Talking about something that is unquestionably expensive and difficult to implement is apparently exploitation, despite the fact that we must have “the ability to have sober and candid conversations about the net zero transition.”

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Mark,

    The use of language throughout the article is extraordinarily skewed. You have given two excellent examples but anyone who reads it will be rewarded with much more. That’s one reason why the award is so apt.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. The academic left have recently been complaining about the weaponisation of humour by the ‘far right’ and how effective it’s been as a strategy of opposition. Basically, that’s just a case of sour grapes because it’s a well known fact that the left are completely devoid of a sense of humour. I’m glad that you, Mark and John, can see the funny side of this. I can usually indulge in satire on most topics, but I just find people like Jennie King to be intensely irritating and I can’t see the funny side of her behaviour at all. In that respect, the left have managed, in my case at least, to disarm my cutting sense of humour. I am just sick to the back teeth of these patronising, arrogant, know-it-all, holier than thou ‘experts’ sucking up generous public and private research funds. She’s an expert on antisemitism too apparently, as well as climate mis and disinformation!

    “Jennie King is Head of Climate Research and Policy, leading efforts to translate ISD’s digital research into frontline programming and response. Through ISD, she helped found Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), a coalition of over 50 organisations working to identify, analyse and counter climate disinformation worldwide. She has spearheaded investigations on climate denialism and ‘discourses of delay’ in the contexts of Australia, Canada, Central Europe, Germany, South Africa, the US and UK, as well as co-authored a number of ISD’s flagship reports on this issue. Jennie also helped design, and currently manages, the COP Intelligence Units on behalf of CAAD, leading over 15 partners to produce real-time monitoring of mis- and disinformation around climate summits.

    Until January 2023, Jennie served as Head of Education and Civic Action at ISD, co-authoring the ‘Be Internet Citizens’ curriculum and regularly briefing government departments, regulators and multilateral bodies on approaches to media literacy.

    Her writing and commentary has been featured across broadcast and print media, including the BBC, The Guardian, The Times, Channel 4 News, The Washington Post, Yomiru Shimbun and NPR. She previously served as MENA Regional Director Arts, Assistant Country Director Egypt and Country Director Hungary for the British Council, the UK’s international body for cultural relations. She read Arabic and Spanish at Pembroke College, Cambridge, receiving a Foundation Scholarship and the Marie Shamma’a Frost Prize for Oriental Studies.”

    https://www.isdglobal.org/isd_team/jennie-king/

    It must be so comforting to be an ‘expert’ in so many diverse areas (including expertly opining on the correctness or incorrectness of scientific challenges to ‘consensus’ climate science) when all you’ve done is read two foreign languages at University and done a scholarship in ‘Oriental Studies’.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Jaime,

    You are quite right. King is basically saying, ‘People who oppose climate action are extremists, and one of the things that makes them so is their readiness to accuse people of extremism’.

    The fact that she can say this is hilarious. The fact that it is treated as a good example of her expertise is hugely depressing and infuriating. If she is a clown then it is the Steven King one that springs to mind.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. What’s also extremely annoying is how these tenured ‘experts’ so effectively insulate themselves from public criticism by tarring their opponents with the broad brush of ‘far right conspiracy theorists and extremists’ whose mis/disinformation must not be engaged with in open debate, but ruthlessly censored and replaced with alternative ‘correct’ narratives. They are the very worst kind of aggressive interventionist cowards, who will stop at nothing in order to preserve their privileged status, including crawling inside the brains of the masses and hacking our cultural narratives, as Shellengberger has demonstrated by exposing in full the insidious and outrageous behaviour of the Censorship Industrial Complex in America and the UK.

    Like

  6. “When the ISD uses terms like ‘eco-extremism’, it means something substantive and specific. A neo-Nazi movement that justifies its supremacist worldview through the environmental lens, for example.”

    “What is not eco-extremism, at least from a definitional point of view, is movements that use forms of civil disobedience to advocate for climate action on the streets of the UK,” she explains.

    Translation: ‘When we (the Experts) use the term ‘eco-extremism’, we use it correctly and substantively, e.g. to describe neo Nazis with a penchant for environmentalism. When you (the Plebs) use the term, you incorrectly apply it to our ideological bosom buddies at JSO and XR for example.’

    Which is odd, because whereas there are plenty of concrete examples of Just Sod Off and XR ‘activists’ who believe that we are hovering on the precipice of Climate Armageddon, scaling suspension bridges, vandalising buildings and oil paintings, digging up ancient college lawns and glueing themselves to roads in order to try and force political action to prevent said Climate Armageddon, I can’t think of any brown-shirted neo Nazi white supremacist racists marching down our streets giving Heil Hitler salutes ostensibly in support of the environment. Can you? Which kind of makes a complete mockery of King’s alleged ‘substantive’ labelling backed up by her claimed expertise.

    If she’s on ‘free speech’ X, I would love to put those points to her in public, on that open platform, but of course I can’t, because I am one of millions of victims of the Censorship Industrial Complex, which fully supports the censorious and partisan activities of left wing academics like King.

    Liked by 2 people

  7. “The Climate Hypocrite of the Year Awards
    And the winner is: Jennie King ….”

    There is another King eminently eligible for your Award, John.

    This one is the King who demands action on climate changing, yet who in a year racks-up more Air Miles than most of his subjects do in a lifetime.

    14 years ago he predicted we have just “96 months to save the world”

    Despite his admitted concern, 140 months later that didn’t stop him qualifying for 2021’s HOTY award.

    But now, he’s topped that by joining 97,371 others who’ve flown or used other fossil fuelled transport or comfort-amenities at the beano known as COP28.

    All are named and shamed in the UNFCCC’s document mentioned below.

    https://unfccc.int/documents/634503

    Open the spreadsheet, click the “Parties” tab, scroll to row 22,602 and note the entry. Charles Philip Arthur George, known as Charles III, is arrogantly listed simply as “H.M. The King”

    [As an aside, an entry also under “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” on row 22,621 is listed “H.M. Crenston Buffonge”. We haven’t a pair of Kings, the latter is an ex-soccer player representing the Government of Montserrat.]

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Jaime, Mark,

    When I wrote this post I was at pains to keep it short, in the hope that someone would read the Euronews article and offer further detailed, apposite commentary. You have not let me down.

    Also, the reason why I started off with the BBC example is because I see very strong parallels. In both cases, an organisation that proclaims itself an arbiter of what is and is not misinformation uses that supposedly unassailable position of authority to push its own agenda whilst proclaiming objectivity. And in both cases, a narrative is constructed in which reasonable and legitimate positions are relabeled as extreme, whilst the extreme is nodded through. Also, at the end of the day, both organisations choose to ignore or even rewrite the dictionary to suit their purposes. He who owns the language, huh?

    Liked by 2 people

  10. Joe,

    That would be a good nomination, but I’m afraid the votes are already in and the results have been announced 🙂 . Even so, I would be interested to hear if anyone else also has a better nominee.

    Liked by 1 person

  11. I’ve just realised that in a moment of madness I had referred in my article to ‘Jessie’ King. This has been corrected now.

    Like

  12. Noticed this on the Covering Climate Now website in their primer for COP28 journos on how to deal with mis/dis information:
    With disinformation ramping up before COP28, journalists need to prepare now to avoid getting spun during the summit. Covering Climate Now and Climate Action Against Disinformation, a coalition of NGOs researching mis- and disinformation in the climate space, co-hosted a press briefing to update journalists on likely disinformation narratives to watch out for, how media digests disinformation, and how it can impact negotiations. Whether you’re reporting or editing, on the ground or from afar, this press briefing is aimed at helping you publish the most factual reporting.

    Panelists

    Jessica Green, Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto
    Jennie King, Head of Climate Research and Policy, Institute for Strategic Dialogue
    Fredrick Mugira, Water and Climate Journalist and Founder, Water Journalists Africa
    Amy Westervelt, investigative climate journalist and founder of Critical Frequency, moderated.

    Liked by 3 people

  13. Pushing the misinformation/disinformation narrative, here’s the BBC at it again:

    “Climate change: The young activists changing the sceptics’ minds”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67521051

    As global leaders gather at the COP28 summit in Dubai, environmental activists around the world are still challenging climate sceptics. Young people from five countries told BBC News how they are trying to change the minds of those who wrongly claim climate change is not real.

    At least they refer to climate sceptics, not to climate deniers, but it’s still misinformation to suggest that climate sceptics are some sort of monolithic block of deluded idiots, taken in by false claims on social media, who all steadfastly refuse to believe that climate change is real. The debate is so much more complex and nuanced than that, but not in BBC-world, apparently.

    Like

  14. Speaking of misinformation:

    “COP28: Why Scotland needs to ‘up our game’ on climate”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67589634

    Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf is taking his first tentative steps in international climate negotiations with big boots to fill.

    He’s spending five days at the COP28 summit in Dubai; the same climate change conference which came to Glasgow in 2021….

    …What he actually said, repeated in Dubai, was that he wanted his nation to go from oil capital of Europe to being the net zero capital of the world.

    Speaking to me at COP28, the first minister insisted his use of such language was not a mistake.

    “We want a just transition that takes workers with us in order to accelerate towards net zero,” he said.

    “We have no choice in the matter. The planet is literally on fire.”…

    Political hyperbole, or disinformation? Having said, the burning magma beneath the surface does seem particularly active just now…

    Meanwhile, talking big, blighting Scotland’s landscape, immiserating its people, all for what?

    …Humza Yousaf inherits a government with a poor track record on meeting its own milestones for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

    While the Scottish Parliament legislated for some of the toughest targets in the world, eight out of the last 12 targets have now been missed….

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Yousaf’s feet are never going to fill the big boots he tries to put on and his grey matter is never going to fill his big head either.

    Like

  16. “If women’s football cares about the climate crisis it must cut ties with Barclays
    Katie Rood
    As a professional footballer I see the climate crisis killing my sport and believe we have a duty to act accordingly”

    https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2024/feb/02/womens-football-climate-crisis-cut-ties-barclays-katie-rood

    When I play football I feel free from the worries of day-to-day life. But as a young person living in a climate and environmental crisis, these worries have become increasingly hard to ignore. This has been made even harder by the fact that the climate crisis is killing my sport, and one of the companies most responsible is plastering its name all over football in England to distract from what it is doing.

    As a professional footballer, I’ve had the privilege of representing my country, New Zealand, 15 times. From being a champion of Italy with Juventus to playing most recently for Hearts in the Scottish Women’s Premier League, I have been lucky enough to experience football in a variety of settings. The goal was always to use football as a means to experience the world, but it turns out the world I’ve been experiencing isn’t what I thought it would be.

    For this reason I am using my career to fight for the defining issue of our generation: tackling climate change. Call me a hypocrite if you like – I would accept another call-up from New Zealand with all the travel involved – but nobody is perfect and that charge won’t stop me from using my platform to encourage positive change….

    Yes, I would call you a hypocrite.

    Like

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