The debate thing is a red herring, since to the best of my knowledge, neither Monckton nor Cook have ever challenged the other to a debate. If you’ve ever listened to one of Monckton’s presentations, however, you’ll notice that he rattles off dozens if not hundreds of “facts,” sprinkles in Latin phrases that nearly no-one knows, and does an excellent job of sounding authoritative. It’s unfortunate for Monckton that his claims are nearly all false and the quotes he attributes to papers and scientists are nearly all misintepreted and/or taken out of context.

The Latin serves its purpose, however – people in the audience are left struggling to guess what Monckton said so long that they miss the fact that he’s moved on to some new false claim that often is completely contradictory to the false claims he was making earlier in his presentation.

Monckton is an excellent salesman. I’m certain he would have been fantastically successful selling snake oil tonics to the ignorant, scared, and naive in a bygone era.