Guest essay by Eric Worrall

h/t Dr. Willie Soon; Imagine ancient druids writing concerned articles about how upstart Christian missionaries are undermining enthusiasm for their annual Wicker Man human sacrifice, and you get a sense of how UK mainstream media is responding to the forces working against their glorious COP26. Though to be fair they acknowledge the sincerity of Heartland conference participants.

Welcome to anti-Cop26: The climate-change denial expo in Vegas where attendees talk anything but science

As the world’s leading scientists and climate activists prepare to gather in Scotland for the Cop26 summit, a few hundred people have convened 5,000 miles away in Las Vegas for a whole different type of ‘climate’ discussion. Sheila Flynn joined them

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There are retired teachers, scientists, engineers, members of ultra-conservative think tanks and lobby groups. The books being handed out for free look a little fringe or inflammatory – with covers featuring war scenes and explosions – but it’s not until the speeches begin at the opening dinner that it becomes abundantly clear that science and climate are not the primary focus of this conference.

Within about an hour, booming, charismatic speakers – both at the podium and through video – rope in rants about everything from critical race theory and the media to mask mandates and Marxism.

It feels like a low-level, alt-right rally – which reaches its peak with a video appearance by Naomi Seibt, the young, blonde, German rock star of the climate-denial movement. She’s often referred to as “the anti-Greta”, as she is known for pushing views diametrically opposed to those of Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg.

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This year’s UN climate summit, Cop26, is widely seen as the moment when countries must raise their ambitions and goals to avert climate disaster by reducing global carbon emission by roughly half by 2030.

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And then there’s Vegas.

The Heartland Institute was traditionally funded by fossil fuels but says most financing now comes from private donations.

Dr John Cook, professor at the Centre for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University and founder of the Skeptical Science website, told The Independent last year that Heartland was “one of the particularly prolific producers of climate science misinformation, whereas a lot of others tend to focus on policy”.

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“Try as they might, governments couldn’t keep us locked down forever,” Heartland president James Taylor proclaims in the institute’s quarterly performance report being distributed at the conference. 

“Now that we are regaining some of our freedoms, Heartland is sticking it to the environmental left … The worst of the lockdowns are over, and freedom is rising again.

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Regardless of what some consider the fringe element of climate science, however, many of the attendees – the ones less concerned with politics and more interested in research – do seem to have their hearts in the right place. They feel they genuinely are environmental activists – but on a whole different plane from the mainstream.

“Everyone here is smart – and everyone is sincere,” the wife of one panellist tells The Independent.

What that sincerity might lead to, however – after the weekend’s near-palpable undercurrent of right-wing ideology – remains in doubt.

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Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/naomi-seibt-climate-denial-vegas-b1943394.html

If you want a laugh, the full British Independent article is well worth a read. The “anti-Greta” Naomi Seibt also gets a lot of column inches, journalist Sheila Flynn seems particularly bothered by Naomi’s growing influence.

I suspect Heartland and Naomi will get more airtime in coming days. COP26 supporters have built up so much enthusiasm, such a frenzy of “last chance” rhetoric, they will need someone to blame when it all crashes in a heap. So the spotlight will likely turn to those who work to counter Biden’s green agenda, and block the cult like COP26 climate agenda.

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