This is a submission for the Bright Green Dick of the Year award from Dave Hampton ‘Carbon Coach‘ – for more climate denying dicks, have a look here. You can nominate, by emailing 200 words to adamramsay ‘at’ gmail.com before the 30th.

Lord Nigel Lawson, climate denier in chief, grandfather of UK neo-liberalism

As former Chancellor under Margaret Thatcher, Nigel Lawson could be called the Grandfather of British neo-liberal economics. Lawson has been a high-profile opponent of climate change mitigation action, labeling the Kyoto Protocol “wrongheaded”, criticizing the industry-restricting greenhouse gas emissions targets it sets out, and saying that the IPCC should be “shut down”. He argues that anthropogenic climate change as described by the IPCC is merely “alarmist”.

In 2009, he founded the Global Warming Policy Foundation to oppose climate change mitigation policies. The group’s homepage is a hub of news, opinion and organisations opposing climate action and denying the effects of global warming. The organisation demanded a high-level investigation into the University of East Anglia emails linked to the “Climategate scandal”, aiming to undermine the 2009 climate talks in Copenhagen. They announced in March that they were forming an international network if climate deniers.

His book An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming has been soundly scientifically trashed, being described in the journal Nature by Sir John Houghton – Honorary Scientist at the Met and co-chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – as “neither cool nor rational”. Lawson’s climate change denial is an example of the unwelcome intrusion of politicians – even skilled politicians – into science, his rhetoric being described by climate scientists as ignorant and dangerous.