Ben Pile

Ben Pile of the Climate Resistance blog.

Ben Pile is a editor and co-founder of the 'sceptic' Climate Resistance blog. Amongst its 16 'starting position' statements are: 'The evidence for anthropogenic climate change is neither as strong nor as demanding of action as is widely claimed'.

LM network connections

Pile has a range of connections with the LM Network via speaking at the Institute of Ideas, providing articles for Culture Wars, Battle of Ideas and Spiked, and acting as a judge for Debating Matters. In December 2011, he was central to setting up the LM linked Oxford Salon. This is clear from his entries in the salon's Facebook group, such as "Just setting the site and social networking up. Please invite anybody you think may be interested.", his profile in the Independent, which says "Ben Pile is the convenor of the forthcoming Oxford Salon, which launches in January." and his byline in Spiked, which says the same thing.

Pile’s Facebook interests and friends include the LM network linked Big Potatoes, Bookshop Barnies, Ferraris for All, Institute of Ideas, WORLDwrite, WORLDbytes, Simon Belt, Daniel Ben-Ami, Sarah Boyes, Dolan Cummings, Suzy Dean, Thomas Deichmann, Ceri Dingle, Claire Fox, Liz Frayn, Tony Gilland, Timandra Harkness, Dennis Hayes, Patrick Hayes, James Heartfield, Brid Hehir, Alex Hochuli, Tiffany Jenkins, Angus Kennedy, Geoff Kidder, Rob Killick, Michele Ledda, Rob Lyons, James Panton, Jane Sandeman and James Woudhuysen.

UKIP Climate Change Researcher

In November 2012 it was reported that Ben Pile was contracted as a 'climate and environment researcher' for UKIP's Godfrey Bloom MEP. Pile began research work for UKIP in 2009 and since the summer of 2011 was paid approximately £2,000 per month for this work.

According to an email from Pile cited in the Guardian his financial relationship with UKIP was as follows:

Salary 2009 - Jul 2010: £700/month.

Salary Jul 2010 - Aug 2011: £26.4kpa.

Since Summer 2011, I have been contracted, rather than salaried to work for Godfrey Bloom/EFD. :Works out at about £2,000/month including expenses +/- other projects.

Due to conflicting statements as cited by Hickman, it is unclear whether Pile's research is paid for by Bloom or the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group of the European Parliament.

In May 2012 Pile appeared on behalf of UKIP's Godfrey Bloom MEP and Paul Nuttall MEP at a public inquiry by North Devon Council regarding the development of a wind farm at Batsworthy Cross. Documents submitted by UKIP to the inquiry state that Pile has a BA in Politics and Philosophy from the University of York. Pile also spoke at the 2011 UKIP Party Conference on behalf of the 'Fight the Turbines Campaign' and he is also the director and producer of the anti-windfarm film 'Lost Horizons' which was produced for the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group.

Education

• BA in Politics and Philosophy from the University of York.

During his time at York University Ben Pile was a member of the New Generation Society York. The NGS is 'a non-partisan group of young people and students dedicated to developing new thinking on the challenges and opportunities for our generation.' Pile contributed to the NGS Journal with an article entitled 'Environmental Catastrophism'. Other contributors to the journal include David Miliband, Godfrey Bloom, Jo Swinson and Brendan O'Neill.

Career

• Freelance Writer: 2006 - Present
• Polmedia Ltd - Director (Researcher): September 2010 - unknown

Publications

2014

• Ben Pile, 'Using NASA to scare the masses into action', Spiked Online, 25 March 2014.
• Ben Pile, 'The global warming pause: the dangers of politicising science', Spiked Online, 12 February 2014.
• Ben Pile, 'Scientific Adviser or Court Jester?', Spiked Online, 31 January 2014.

2013

• Ben pile, The ‘green crap’ hits its biggest fan, Spiked Online, 25 November 2013.
• Ben Pile, 'Greenpeace: talking out of a polar bear’s arse', Spiked Online, 23 September 2013.
• Ben Pile, 'The pathologising of climate scepticism', Spiked Online, 18 June 2013.

2012

• Ben Pile, 'Welcome to the politics of pastiche', Spiked Online, 16 October 2012.
• Ben Pile, 'Why facts cut no ice in the climate debate', Spiked Online, 13 August 2012.
• Ben Pile, 'Rio+20: a tyranny of green do-gooders', Spiked Online, 3 July 2012.
• Ben Pile, ‘The real enemy is humanity itself’, Spiked Online, 17 May 2012.
• Ben Pile, 'Greens, face it: we’re just not that into you', Spiked Online, 28 February 2012.
• Ben Pile, 'Climate-change alarmism: fuelled by fantasy', SpikedOnline, 14 February 2012.
• Ben Pile, 'Greens to sceptics: show us the money!', Spiked Online, 25 January 2012.

2011

• Ben Pile, 'The delusions of the climate technocrats', Spiked Online, 14 December 2011.
• Ben Pile, 'Not the BEST way to debate climate', Spiked Online, 21 November 2011.
• Ben Pile, 'Time to put this morality tale on ice', Spiked Online, 28 September 2011.
• Ben pile, 'Wishing Greenpeace an unhappy birthday', Spiked Online, 12 September 2011.
• Ben Pile, 'Admit it: environmentalism was an ugly experiment' Spiked Online, 29 July 2011.
• Ben Pile, Putting humanity in a kangaroo court, Spiked Online, 26 May 2011.
• Ben Pile, 'Fukushima: why greens turned on each other', Spiked Online, 4 April 2011.
• Ben Pile, 'Making mountains out of meltdowns', Spiked Online, 14 March 2011.
• Ben Pile, Scepticism is not an ‘attack on science’, Spiked Online, 1 February 2011.
• Ben Pile, 'A tedious dollop of eco‑propaganda', Spiked Online, 18 January 2011.

2010

• Ben Pile, Cancun: scavenging around for scientific fact, Spiked Online, 8 December 2010.
• Ben Pile, 'What the greens really got wrong', Spiked Online, 8 November 2010.
• Ben Pile, 'A sideways step from climate panic to Malthus', Spiked Online, 27 October 2010.
• Ben Pile, 'Political prejudices dressed up as science', Spiked Online, 8 April 2010.
• Ben Pile, 'Let’s pick apart this politics of doom', Spiked Online, 9 February 2010.
• Ben Pile, 'Why Copenhagen was bound to fail', Spiked Online, 6 January 2010.

2009

• Ben Pile, 'Greenpeace: putting trees before people', Spiked Online, 9 June 2009.
• Ben Pile, ‘We have an extremely selfish population’, Spiked Online, 25 February 2009.

2008

• Ben Pile, 'Environmental Catastrophism', New Generation Society, 23 April 2008. Retrieved from the Internet Archive of 10 December 2008 on 1 May 2014.
• Ben Pile, 'Going over the top in the ‘climate war’', Spiked Online, 24 September 2008.
• Ben Pile, 'Environmentalism or death: that's the choice?', Spiked Online, 10 September 2008.
• Ben Pile, 'In praise of unsustainability', Culture Wars, 17 July 2008.
• Ben Pile, 'Environmentalism’s fig leaf', Culture Wars, 29 May 2008.

2007

• Stuart Blackman and Ben Pile, 'Climate science: truth you can wear on your hands', Battle of Ideas, 15 October 2007.
• Ben Pile, 'The Royal Society’s ‘motto-morphosis’', Spiked Online, 15 May 2007.

Resources

• Leo Hickman, Ukip's Godfrey Bloom and the £2,000-a-month climate researcher, The Guardian, 6 November 2012.
• Hengist McStone, Ben Pile. Qualified pundit or bullshit artist?, Heretics Corner blog, 6 June 2012.

Affiliations

LM Network | Oxford Salon | Climate Resistance | Spiked | Battle of Ideas | New Generation Society | Fight the Turbines Campaign | UKIP