Yep, it's a real thing!...
Scientists, activists, and bloggers assembled earlier this month in Las Vegas for the Heartland Institute’s 9 th International Conference on Climate Change , the world’s largest gathering of people who believe that the climate change crisis is overblown.
The Heartland Institute is an oil and gas industry-funded think tank, famous for its 90s-era role in taking tobacco money to deny the health risks associated with smoking. So it's no great surprise they're behind this event, though slightly ironic that Las Vegas, which is experiencing a drought of historic proportions, was chosen as the place to stage their convention.
Those who gathered stressed that despite being well outside the scientific mainstream, their beliefs will one day be the accepted ideas in climate policy.
Something else I found interesting, was that of the 60 or so speakers featured at the event, only 4 were women (including an Australian women).
The website for the climate conference reported...
"The Ninth International Conference on Climate Change, which took place on July 7-9, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, attracted some 650 scientists, economists, policy experts, and guests willing to question whether man-made global warming is a problem worth addressing."
I find these words most worrying, especially the part about questioning whether climate change is a problem worth addressing.
They're not directly denying that climate change is happening, as was stated at the event many in fact believe it is, but whether we should do anything about it.
“I don’t think anybody in this room denies climate change,” the Heartland Institute’s James M. Taylor said in his event opening remarks. “We recognize it, but we’re looking more at the causes, and more importantly, the consequences.”
Those consequences, Taylor and his colleagues are convinced, are unlikely to be catastrophic—and they might even turn out to be beneficial.
Well they're certainly an optimistic bunch! But the potential loss of entire countries, along with the countless other global problems climate change could bring about, and is already causing like more intense weather patterns, doesn't sound that beneficial to me.
Of course, the 97% of scientists who believe in human-induced climate change, and the thousands of climate models that have predicted the potential impacts of climate change, could be wrong. But, why would we risk it?
My wish would be to ask each and every one of the people who attended this event one question...
I would ask them to forget about if climate change is real or not, to forget if it's humans who are causing it, to forget about who they are and what they do, and to ask themselves one simple question - if they had a chance to make the world a better, healthier, safer, cleaner, and happier place for all natures beings, what would they do?
Because this is what the climate change debate essentially comes down to. Making the world a better place.
Now probably it's me being optimistic now, thinking my question could help change their minds, but I would hope it would even get them to think about it, even if just for a minute. Plus, the best leader of change is often action, and that's what we do at 1 Million Women, and that's what countless people around the world are already doing too. Taking action on climate change in the ways they can.
So whilst climate skeptics might believe their opinions will one day be the accepted ideas on climate change, I think it's just a matter of time until they change their opinions.