Sad! Heartland Institute's Big Chicago Climate Lie-Fest Thinly Attended By Old White Men

[hatrack]

Last week, the Heartland Institute was again trumpeting climate science denial at its 13th “International Conference on Climate Change” at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. But by a number of measures, the Chicago-based free market think tank's science denial doesn't exactly seem to be a growing — or cohesive — movement at this point.

That's even with more media coverage than five years ago, and with friends in high places. In early 2017, following the election of President Trump, attendees of the Heartland Institute conference were clearly excited to have a climate denier in the White House. Frontline reported that the mood at the conference was “jubilant.” Even last year, the organization was projecting an air of optimism. Former Congressman Tim Huelskamp was still Heartland president and confidently declaring victory for the climate denial movement. “It took a while, but we think we’ve won the battle — Al Gore was wrong,” Huelskamp said.

So, how are things going for Heartland these days? The first big news out of the 2019 conference was the announcement that Heartland’s board had elected a new president after the sudden and unexplained resignation of Huelskamp from that position in June. The new president is Frank Lasee, a former Wisconsin state legislator and member of Governor Scott Walker’s administration. Noticeably absent from the press release announcing his new position — at Heartland’s climate science denial conference — was any mention of climate denialism. Not exactly what you would expect from the group who not long ago claimed it had “won the battle” about the purported reality of climate change.

In 2008, Heartland’s climate conference was a three day affair. Over a decade later, it is down to a single day. In 2008, the event drew over 50 co-sponsors. This year’s conference pamphlet listed only 16. And as it turns out, one of those was fake. Heartland's conference pamphlet lists Fidelity Charitable as a co-sponsor for the 2019 event, but there was a slight problem with that. It wasn't true. Heartland had to pull the Fidelity Charitable logo from its conference sponsors webpage after the investigative organization Documented revealed that Fidelity was not an actual sponsor. However, the name and logo remained on the printed materials at the conference.



EDIT

https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/07/29/hard-times-climate-denial-heartland-institute

[bronxiteforever]

1. Kick and recommend. Excellent read.