Return of Climate Denial-a-Palooza: Heartland Institute Hitches Anti-Science Wagon to Vegas FreedomFest

Brendan DeMelle DeSmog
on

The Heartland Institute is reviving its global warming skepticsโ€™ gathering this week in scorching hot Las Vegas for the ninth โ€œInternational Conference on Climate Changeโ€ โ€” which DeSmog long ago dubbed โ€œDenial-a-Paloozaโ€.

Sin City is a fitting spot for the worldโ€™s most anti-science front group to convene its friends who deny the scientific consensus that human-caused global warming is real and a grave threat to our future.

There will surely be plenty of tobacco smoke and gambling within the halls of the Mandalay Bay casino where the Heartland conference is taking place. For instance, Heartlandโ€™s James Taylor is a big fan of the poker tables, as Showtimeโ€™s Years of Living Dangerously episode โ€˜Against the Windโ€™ revealed.

Iโ€™m a bit surprised to see Heartland revive this conference given the extremely low attendance last time around, when Heartland president Joe Bast declared โ€œno plans to do another ICCC.โ€ Bast desperately appealed for cash from anyoneโ€™s โ€œrich uncleโ€ to help fund the flailing organizationโ€™s recovery from its Unabomber billboard debacle and public airing of its internal documents

In an effort to boost the attendance figures this time around, Heartlandโ€™s climate skeptic gathering hitched its wagon to FreedomFest, a right-wing and libertarian shindig that gets rolling later this week. 

Below are links to DeSmogBlogโ€™s in-depth research on both the Sponsors and Speakers of Heartlandโ€™s ICCC9 Denial-a-Palooza climate skeptic conference. Media Matters has also put together a great run-down of the Heartland conference attendees in its post Climate Denial Goes Vegas.

Stay tuned for our coverage of both of these climate denial fests as the right wing echo chamber revs its think tank engines in preparation of the 2014 mid-term Congressional elections and ongoing policy battles in Washington over EPA carbon regulations and executive actions by the Obama administration.

HEARTLAND INSTITUTE ICCC9 SPEAKERS

HEARTLAND INSTITUTE ICCC9 SPONSORS

Brendan DeMelle DeSmog
Brendan is Executive Director of DeSmog. He is also a freelance writer and researcher specializing in media, politics, climate change and energy. His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, Grist, The Washington Times and other outlets.

Related Posts

on

The Reform leader has barely spoken about his constituency, a deprived area at high risk from the effects of climate change.

The Reform leader has barely spoken about his constituency, a deprived area at high risk from the effects of climate change.
on

Decision a blow to campaigners, who say the ads gave Saudi Aramco unearned climate credibility.

Decision a blow to campaigners, who say the ads gave Saudi Aramco unearned climate credibility.
on

UKโ€™s first parliamentary debate on the issue drew comparisons both with tobacco industry tactics and the industry's now widely accepted ad ban.

UKโ€™s first parliamentary debate on the issue drew comparisons both with tobacco industry tactics and the industry's now widely accepted ad ban.
on

Labour's Jacob Collier warns parliamentary debate of "coordinated strategy" by oil companies to delay climate action.

Labour's Jacob Collier warns parliamentary debate of "coordinated strategy" by oil companies to delay climate action.