Prominent climate change denialist and past advisor to Margaret Thatcher, Viscount Christopher Monckton, has persisted in labeling protestors in Copenhagen ‘Hitler Youth’ despite little historical connection.
The initial exchange between Monckton and climate change activists occurred when activists with the nonprofit group SustainUS and other organizations briefly gate-crashed a meeting of the global warming skeptical group Americans for Prosperity last week.
Monckton later went after SustainUS students in the Bella Center in Copenhagen, calling them ‘Hitler Youth’ and ‘Nazis’: an incident that has been televised on YouTube. One of the activists informing Monckton that he was Jewish and that his grandparents had escaped the Holocaust did not stop Monckton from labeling him Hitler Youth. The activsits, Ben Wessel, tried to strike-up a conversation with Monckton but he refused even to shake his hand, saying: “I’m not going to shake the hand of Hitler Youth. I’m sorry.”
In a recent blog on the issue, Monckton continued calling the activists from SustainUS “eco-Fascist goons” and “Sturmabteilung” (i.e. stormtroopers or SA) and “Schutz Staffel” (the SS), although the young activists clearly didn’t carry any weapons or were apart of any state militia.
The Hitler Youth was a largely compulsory state-run paramilitary organization of the Nazi regime for boys fourteen and older; they were indoctrinated in Nazi principles of anti-Semitism and German nationalism and trained in military exercises. It was essentially an earlier training ground for later soldiering under the Third Reich.
SustainUS is a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that works towards sustainable development and empowering young people in the United States. It descries itself as “building a future in which all people recognize the inherent equality and interdependence of social, economic, and environmental sustainability”. It is volunteer run.
In his blog Monckton also calls policy based on the science of climate change “National Socialism/Fascism/Communism” not distinguishing between the fact that Fascism and Communism are on the opposing sides of the political spectrum. Communists, and those suspected of being so, were sent to death camps along with Jews.
Monckton goes on to label James Hansen, a prominent climatologist at NASA and an activist, as a Nazi and Fascist, and to call the well-respected British newspaper the Guardian “the British equivalent of Der Sturmer“, which was a propagandistic Nazi newspaper.
In a video with an activist, Monckton says that he called the activists ‘Hiter Youth’ because world governments’ trust in the science of climate change has caused more deaths than the Holocaust. Monckton blames the science of climate change for leading to the production of biofuels. Biofuels, certainly, were one of many factors that led to a rise in food prices devastating the poor worldwide. However, governments and corporations pushed biofuels not just as a clean energy, but also as a way to lessen dependence on foreign oil and simply to make a profit. Many environmentalists and NGOs backed away from first generation biofuels, i.e. those that competed with food production, years ago.
Long and extensive droughts—which many scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change—have also played a major role in food crisis around the world, from Guatemala to Kenya. Droughts are just one of the extreme weather events linked to global warming that have led poor nations to push for billions from wealthy countries for climate debt.
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