Fifty young U.S. clean energy activists stormed the stage today in Copenhagen during a live webcast organized by Americans for Prosperity and featuring climate denier Lord Christopher Monckton.
When the youth group interrupted the webcast to deliver the message that real Americans want clean energy and a fair climate treaty, Monckton went ballistic, calling the students "crazed Hitler youth" and "Nazis."
The incident was not likely the intended result Americans for Prosperity hoped for as it launched the COP15 version of its "Hot Air Tour" (a.k.a. denial-a-palooza). AFP sent its team to Copenhagen "to make sure that our side of the story is told." But their live event today - complete with the student protest - was webcast to over forty climate denier rallies taking place in cities across the United States.
SustainUS reports that "a paltry audience of five conference attendees" attended the event to hear Monckton's (planned) speech, with the balance of the audience comprised of AFPers and the youth activists (who entered surreptitiously in small groups before taking the stage with their clean energy message).
The young activists, representing a number of youth action groups including SustainUS, the Sierra Student Coalition, the Cascade Climate Network, and other American youth NGOs, kicked off the protest by holding banners in front of the cameras reading "Climate Disaster Ahead" and "Clean Energy Now."
When AFP staffers ripped the banners out of their hands, the students began a five-minute chant of "Real Americans for Prosperity are Americans for Clean Energy," leaving AFP organizers scratching their heads about what to do.
Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips and his camera crew tried unsuccessfully to focus the lens more tightly on Monckton as he continued speaking, hoping to take back control of the event despite the protest in the background. With several of the youth activists clustered around the podium, AFP kept the cameras rolling, continuing to stream the footage to the broader audience back in the U.S.
That's when Monckton let loose, saying live on camera: "You are listening now to the shouts in the background of the Hitler youth."
Monckton's tirade aside, the American youths had a clear message to deliver, highlighting the fact that "clean energy creates jobs." Rachel Barge, a 24-year-old entrepreneur from San Francisco, CA who was the first young person to raise her voice at the event, said afterwards that "These climate action delayers and science deniers are stealing bold, new economic opportunities from the American public."
That sentiment was echoed by Laura Comer, a 21-year-old from Strongsville, Ohio who also participated in the action. Comer said, "We're representing the majority of Americans on this, particularly young Americans. The real America wants clean energy - not more fossil fuel-funded lies about the science."
Update: For some reason, Americans for Prosperity enjoyed the stunt so much, they posted their own video of the protest. Watch AFP's own footage of the "radical protesters" (a.k.a. students with a non-violent, coherent message) as they "attack" AFP, (or so AFP says). Note that Monckton's tirade is not included in AFP's version.
WATCH:
UPDATE: Watch the youth activists of SustainUS attempt to engage Monckton in debate today about the "Hitler Youth" comment:
UPDATE: I interviewed Monckton briefly outside the Bella Center about his "Hitler youth" comment. Here's what he had to say (along with some fascinating delusions about coal and oil, which Monckton claims are as clean as wind and solar power):
Follow Brendan DeMelle on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bdemelle
Objectivity didn’t seem to ring a bell, either. Nor the idea that, in the upper chamber of the American Congress, where the Bill of Rights was fashioned, linking to the transcript of a speech by a U.S. senator was not a crime. Another irrelevant fact: That this document was one of more than 40 such documents, and the only one that represented the views of “climate change deniers.”
So the day unfolded with one nasty email after another directed at my boss, at me, and at some of the world’s leading scholars of climate change — all of whom support the idea of taking serious steps to address it. I was shocked, naïf that I am, to learn later that day that “Joe” was Joe Romm, a former undersecretary of energy in the Clinton administration, and a guy with a Ph.D. from MIT (but apparently, no pedigree in either journalism or spelling).
Good for these students for protesting ignorance. The Queen should revoke his lordship's title for his ignorant characterization of the students. Ignorance is still ignorance no matter who's mouth it errupts from. Hitler? My how they idolize his name.
http://joannenova.com.au/global-warming/ice-core-graph/
Lord Christopher Monckton is a mouthpiece for the fossil fuel industry, and he along with his climate denier cohorts are trying to hammer the last nail in the coffin of today's youth. These protesters have every right to peacefully interrupt events like Monckton's podcast to tell the truth about what American's want their future to be.
I hope they do it again and again and again and again until people like Monckton are finally deemed irrelevant for being the destructive, selfish, immoral people they are.
It is thuggery, and a thuggish attempt at silencing dissent.
Your assertion that Monckton be harassed beyond reason, doesn't seem very liberal of you. What happened to the party of tolerance?
We ALL have to live on the globe together.
If we are to live on this globe together we have to first SAVE it, which means getting the truth out. These youth activists are justifiably passionate because they understand the science behind global warming and know that if we stand by and do nothing their futures will be filled with incomprehensible human suffering and destruction.
The protesters have science backing up their position. Monckton has unfounded opinion (and a little bit of crazy). Just watch DeMelle's follow-up conversation with him:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21SCR2yyETk
And Monckon's post-protest conversation with the youth activists:
http://www.desmogblog.com/christopher-monckton-copenhagen-i-will-not-shake-hand-hitler-youth
DEBATE Mr. Mockton while they had the chance? You know, like the group
We Are Change does when they go to Al Gore events. Shouting people
down convinces me of NOTHING!
I checked out the vid. Thank you. I am sure Mr. Monckton regrets using the
phrase "Hitler Youth", as well he should. But what I saw in the vid only convinces
me that these "clean activists" have been completely indoctrinated into believing
that human activities are the one and only source of "climate change".
When Mr. Mocnkton quotes from one of the leaked emails stating that
"there has been a decline" in Earths average temperature "and we cannot
explain it, and it is a travesty that we can't explain it", they don't respond to the
quote and it implications. They just ignore it and return to questioning
him about his "Hitler Youth" comment. Their hearts are in the right place
and I agree 1000% percent in what they are trying to accomplish, but
you have to be careful not to let your idealism get in the way of the facts.
All the best..Quinny
Climate denial is entirely political. There is little point arguing with a conservative about climate change because no amount of evidence would ever be sufficient. It matters little independent studies in every industrialized country in the world have all reached the same conclusion. Moreover, this in itself is "proof" for the conservative of a global conspiracy. Paranoia is inherent in conservative ideology, if not the driving force.
The problem we have in America is that Climate Change by its nature demands a response from the country as a whole. That means government intervention. And that is something no conservative will believe in, no matter the reality is.
Does a tool know that it is a tool? Are tools self aware?
Deniers all have their heads in the sand, and the truth about putting ones' head into the sand like they do is that they don't have a clue what is really happening in the rest of the world, and therefore no factual basis to stand on. This explains the use of arbitrary terms like Hitler youth to describe people trying to effect change from their old ways.