What Happens in Vegas: Climate Change Deniers Hold Conference

Here's something odd. On KXNT--the Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity station here in Las Vegas--I heard an ad for a conference taking place here. It sounded, at first, like a meeting of climate change scientists. But as the ad went on, it became clear that it was a gathering of climate change deniers. Makes sense, given the station I was listening to, even though it's more of a straight news channel in the early morning. Still, I thought, that's just weird. That they can gather enough scientists and "experts," to make up enough people for such an event.

I suspect that the bulk of the attendees are climate change deniers of the internet commando type, with the experts making up merely the panel of speakers. Finding out is difficult though. Because outside of the commercial I heard, I can't find much of anything on the conference except on arch-right-wing sites. What I did find is fairly thin on information. So, unless it's a rip-roaring success, don't expect to hear much about it outside of those sources, even after it's over.

Now, on a side note, I'd like to say that I don't understand climate change skeptics, and I don't understand how something rooted in science has become so overtly political. How can it be that if you're liberal, you believe the science, if you're conservative, you disbelieve it? I mean, I know that conservatives often disregard science in favor of ideology, but that doesn't mean I understand it. For one thing, I can't figure out what the motive would be, or how someone would accomplish lassoing virtually all climatologists (and related science professionals), and getting them all to agree to go along with a hoax.

One of the few bonuses of climate change is that Rush Limbaugh
lives in West Palm Beach, Florida. Image from  Big Think.

It smacks of the ridiculous notion of a "gay agenda," where 97% of gay people somehow agreed to make up a "lie" that being gay is not a choice. How? When? Who was the ringleader? How do they keep everyone in line? Maybe it helps that so many conservatives are fundamentalist Christians, who routinely go along without asking too many questions? I don't know. But beyond all that, I find it insane that people don't think that a couple hundred years of spewing pollution into the air and water couldn't possibly cause a problem. Anyone remember Lake Erie on fire? Have they seen the smog in china? Acid rain? And on and on. To dismiss that mankind could cause damage to the way the Earth operates is just short-sighted and bullheaded.

[Excerpt]

Climate change denial: skeptics gather in Las Vegas
 
As the Heartland Institute gets ready to organize a conference on climate change in Las Vegas from July 7 to 9 the focus once again has shifted to the fact whether the issue is a fact of a theory. Dubbed by many as “the biggest gathering of global warming skeptics in the world” all eyes are on the ninth International Conference on Climate Change. Moreover it has come in the background of the public opinion in America that strongly feels about the subject. . .

Read more at: Northern Voices Online