Australian MP George Christensen Heading To Las Vegas For Heartland Institute Climate Denial Conference

authordefault
on

AN Australian Federal MP is planning to join some of the worldโ€™s noisiest deniers of the science of climate change at a conference in Las Vegas in a few weeksย time.

George Christensen, the National Party member for Dawson in the coal-friendly state of Queensland, will be hanging around the Mandelay Bay Resort with a rag-tag bunch of mostly long-retired academics and well paid think-tank associates for the Heartland Institute conference, starting on 7ย July.

The Heartland Institute, funded over the years by fossil fuel corporations and conservative philanthropists, is itself one of Americaโ€™s loudest climate science denial organisations.ย This will be the organisationโ€™s ninth gathering of climate sceptics, denialists and fossil fuelย apologists.

Before its 2012 conference, Heartland took out a billboard advertisement with a picture of terrorist and triple murderer Ted โ€œunabomberโ€ Kaczynski next to the words: โ€œI still believe in Global Warming. Doย you?โ€

Just to push the envelope further, the institute issued a press release stating: โ€œOf course, not all global warming alarmists are murderers andย tyrants.โ€

Glad we got that one clearedย up.

Christensen has put his own โ€œscepticalโ€ views on climate change on the record in the past.ย  He is not sure that humans can cause climateย change.

In his maiden speech to Australiaโ€™s Parliament, Christensen said: โ€œDespite what the political and media elite tell us to think, the truth is the science on climate change is notย settled.โ€

In November 2013, Christensen told Parliament that his doubts about climate change came from โ€œthe well-publicised anticsโ€ of climate scientists when thousands of private emails were illegally hacked from Britainโ€™s the University of East Anglia and thenย published.ย 

Numerous investigations into the so-called โ€œclimategateโ€ affair found there had been no scientific misconduct, but this news obviously had not reachedย Christensen.

Christensen also promoted Heartland’s climate change reports which he said were from โ€œreal climate scientistsโ€ and showed โ€œthe science is nowhere near to beingย settledโ€.

In Parliament in February, he downplayed a spate of โ€œso-called record heat wavesโ€ by saying other parts of the globe had experienced โ€œrecord coldโ€.ย In fact, according to the US National Climate Data Center, January 2014 was the globeโ€™s fourth hottest since records began in 1880 and was the โ€œ347th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th centuryย averageโ€.

I wanted to know more about Christensenโ€™s trip to the Heartland conference and his views on climate change, so I emailed his press officer. Hereโ€™s what Iย asked.

1. Why are you attending theย conference?ย 

2. Right now, what are your own thoughts on the causes of climate change? Do you think humans causeย it?

3.ย  How much of the conference will you be attending (you’re down to speak on July 9) and how is the trip beingย financed?

4. How did your attendance come about?ย  Were you invited or did you ask toย attend?

5. The Heartland Institute came in for criticism at its conference in 2012 with a billboard campaign featuring a picture of unabomber Ted Kaczynski beside the words โ€œI still believe in Global Warming. Do you?โ€. An accompanying press release stated : โ€œThe people who still believe in man-made global warming are mostly on the radical fringe of society. This is why the most prominent advocates of global warming arenโ€™t scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen.โ€ What’s your view of these sentiments and did they make you pause before deciding to attend thisย conference?

When I chased up the email, Christensenโ€™s media officer told me by phone he would not be responding to my questions.ย I was told there was โ€œno point talking to a climate activist blogโ€ and they could โ€œnot find anywhere where you have not pilloried the views of someone who does not think like youย doโ€.

Ouch.ย 

So where does Christensen get his ideas about climate changeย from?ย 

One revealing document is Christensenโ€™s Parliamentary expenses report from 2012 listing 11 climate change and environmental policy books bought by hisย office.ย 

Titles include The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled The World’s Top Climate Scientists by Roy SpenceThe Real Global Warming Disaster: Is The Obsession With ‘Climate Change’ Turning Out To Be The Most Costly Scientific Blunder In History by Christopher Booker and Killing The Earth To Save It: How Environmentalists Are Ruining The Planet, Destroying The Economy And Stealing Your Jobs by Jamesย Delingpole.

Six of the books were bought two months before Christensen was appointed by the then opposition to sit on a key committee to examine carbon priceย legislation.

Christensenโ€™s office also bought 25 copies of Australian sceptic and mining entrepreneur Professor Ian Plimerโ€™s book How To Get Expelled From School: A guide to climate change for pupils, parents and punters.ย 

The previous governmentโ€™s Department of Climate Change issued a blow-by-blow rebuttal of Plimerโ€™s book, saying it was โ€œmisleadingโ€ and โ€œbased on inaccurate or selective interpretation of theย scienceโ€.

Viva Lasย Vegas

During the two-day Las Vegas conference, Christensen is scheduled to join Patrick Michaels, of the Cato Institute and the author of another of those books, to present someย awards.

Christensen is also listed to sit down with fellow Australians for a panel session on the โ€œglobal warming debate inย Australiaโ€.

Christensen will be joined by one of his own constituents, Dr Bob Carter, a โ€œscience policy advisorโ€ for the Melbourne-based climate science denialist think tank the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).

Carter advises more than a dozen climate science denialist organisations around theย world.ย 

In February 2012, internal Heartland Institute documents revealed Carter was to be paid $1667 a month for his work on its project to produce reports to directly challenge the findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climateย Change.ย 

Another panel member joining Christensen is Jennifer Marohasy, a former senior fellow with the IPA.

Marohasy is currently a research fellow at Central Queensland University โ€” a post funded by the โ€œB. Macfie Familyย Foundationโ€.ย 

Bryant Macfie is a Perth-based philanthropist and climate science sceptic. In 2009 the university accepted $195,000 from Macfie and in 2012 the CQU annual report said he had renewed his โ€œsignificantย supportโ€.

In 2008, Macfie made a $350,000 gift to another university โ€“ the University of Queensland โ€“ that was facilitated by the IPA and criticised by some UQย academics.

When making the donation, Macfie claimed science had been damaged by โ€œenvironmental activismโ€ and wrote, โ€œthe crucifix has been replaced by the wind turbineโ€.

Marohasy was working for the IPA at the time andย she defended the donationย in a story inย The Australian.

The final name to join Christensen on the conference panel is William Kininmonth, who is described as a โ€œconsulting climatologist with the Australasian Climate Researchย Instituteโ€.

The โ€œAustralasian Climate Research Instituteโ€ is actually Kininmonthโ€™s personal business trading name. It is an โ€œinstituteโ€ with no business premises, no employees and noย website.

The Heartland Institute points out that Kininmonth was the head of the National Climate Centre at Australiaโ€™s Bureau of Meteorology for 12 years from 1985 to 1998.ย While this is true, his job was largely irrelevant to the study of climateย change.

The bureau itself has previously released a statement clarifying that during Kininmonthโ€™s tenure, the centre did not do any research on climate change and was instead mainly responsible for collecting observations of Australiaโ€™s rainfall and temperature.ย  The bureauย said:

The processes and methodologies developed within the National Climate Centre have established that Australia has significantly warmed since 1910.ย  A warming trend was established and published by the National Climate Centre during the period of 1985 toย 1998.

Other notable Heartland climate conference speakersย include Patrick Moore, who Heartland bills as โ€œFounder, Greenpeaceโ€ despite Greenpeace making clear several years ago that Moore in fact wasnโ€™t a founder.

British climate science denialist and โ€œbirtherโ€ Lord Christopher Monckton will also take to the stage in Lasย Vegas.

There are lots of places where George Christensen could go to inform himself and his constituents on climate change. The Mandelay Bay Resort and Casino in the first week of July is not one ofย them.

Related Posts

on

Victoria Hewson called the 2050 ambition a โ€œhuge own goalโ€ while working for a Tufton Street think tank.

Victoria Hewson called the 2050 ambition a โ€œhuge own goalโ€ while working for a Tufton Street think tank.
on

Ahead of a city council vote, Resource Works launched an influence campaign with stock submissions for restaurant owners, hospitality workers, and residents.

Ahead of a city council vote, Resource Works launched an influence campaign with stock submissions for restaurant owners, hospitality workers, and residents.
on

Ahead of the November 29 election, dairy producers tell Irish government to step off the โ€œtreadmillโ€ of unsustainable milk production โ€“ and share a more holistic vision.

Ahead of the November 29 election, dairy producers tell Irish government to step off the โ€œtreadmillโ€ of unsustainable milk production โ€“ and share a more holistic vision.
on

The head of the CO2 Coalition tells DeSmog that Wright agrees carbon dioxide is โ€œnot the demon molecule, itโ€™s the miracle molecule.โ€

The head of the CO2 Coalition tells DeSmog that Wright agrees carbon dioxide is โ€œnot the demon molecule, itโ€™s the miracle molecule.โ€