'Peer of the Realm' Monckton now a Birther

onMay 29, 2012 @ 11:20 PDT

This is a guest post by Greenpeace USA‘s Kevin Grandia, former DeSmog Managing Editor.

Christopher Monckton, well known for his wacky behavior attempting to deny the scientific realities of climate change, has now moved on to look into the conspiracy theory around whether US president Barack Obama was actually born in the United States!

Monckton, decked out in an American flag shirt, fire arm on his hip and a cowboy hat, tells the interviewer that:

My purpose in being here [in Arizona] is to have a further look into whether the president of the United States is the president of the United States. Now you might say, what has this got to do with someone from Britain… I am here because I am curious. As a peer of the realm I am allowed to stick my long aristocratic nose into anything I want to stick it in.

Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up. Here is the video:

You can read more on the history of Monckton here on DeSmogBlog’s Disinformation Database.

Monckton recently spoke at the Heartland Institute’s climate denier conference. As part of that conference, an outrageous ad campaign ran by Heartland just prior to the conference equated anyone who believed in climate change to Osama Bin Laden, the Unabomber and the mass-murderer Charles Manson.

TAKE ACTION! Nucor, one of the largest steel producers in the US, funds the Heartland Institute and we are calling Nucor’s CEO to end funding to the Heartland Institute.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.