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

Science is Cool: Darwin Fish, for Real

This fish, a transitionary form between an ordinary fish and a land animal, was actually discovered several years ago, and is in the news because of new book. But I missed it, and so it's new to me! And it's cool. Ugly, but cool. A fish with a neck? And armlike fins? It also shows a minor advantage to climate change: the Arctic was melted enough for them to find the thing.

Image from source, Mother Jones

[Excerpt]

This Fish Crawled Out of the Water…and Into Creationists' Nightmares

We all know the Darwin fish, the car-bumper send-up of the Christian "ichthys" symbol, or Jesus fish. Unlike the Christian symbol, the Darwin fish has, you know, legs. Har har. But the Darwin fish isn't merely a clever joke; in effect, it contains a testable scientific prediction. If evolution is true, and if life on Earth originated in water, then there must have once been fish species possessing primitive limbs, which enabled them to spend some part of their lives on land. And these species, in turn, must be the ancestors of four-limbed, land-living vertebrates like us. . .

Read more at: Mother Jones

Limbaugh: Media Created "Polar Vortex" as Part of Global Warming "Hoax"

Noted Climatologist (and weather balloon) Rush Limbaugh,
image from source, Talking Points Memo.

As The Daily Show with Jon Stewart rightly noted on Monday night, FOX "News" has shifted gears from The "War" on Christmas to The Global Warming "Hoax." And whether FOX leads Rush Limbaugh, or he leads them (or they somehow coordinate with The Drudge Report), you knew that Limbaugh would be going there too.

I still haven't figured out why having a conservative world view means you can't believe 97% of climate scientists when they say there is a consensus on man-made global climate change. I haven't figured out how, why or when these scientists are alleged to have gotten together and conspired to pull one over on the world. But it makes sense to conservatives, because if there's one thing I've learned about 'em, it's that they don't track a theory to its logical conclusions to figure out if it makes any sense. It's Stephen Colbert's "truthiness" concept in action: they just feel it in their guts. Plus, if Limbaugh says it, it must be true.

And what Limbaugh says is, a "polar vortex"--in the news for its wrath on much of the country in recent days--was invented by climate scientists to aid them with the global warming "hoax." Even though a polar vortex was the major plot point of the craptastic movie, The Day After Tomorrow, which despite the title came out ten years ago. And that's just the recent stuff. According to Wikipedia (and yeah, I know it's publically edited, but it is also sourced.), the first mention of a polar vortex in science was at least 1853.

Keep this in mind next time you see a "Rush is right!" bumper sticker. He's wrong. A lot.

[Excerpt]

Limbaugh: Media Created Polar Vortex To Advance Global Warming 'Hoax'
 
. . ."We are having a record-breaking cold snap in many parts of the country. And right on schedule the media have to come up with a way to make it sound like it's completely unprecedented," he said on his radio show. "Because they've got to find a way to attach this to the global warming agenda, and they have. It's called the 'polar vortex.' The dreaded polar vortex. . ."

Read more at: Talking Points Memo