By Michael Greer
I flew into Washington DC for Heartland’s 13th Annual International Climate Change Conference on July 24th. Debbie Bachigulpi’s plane landed fifteen minutes after mine. Debbie had suggested I share her room for the Conference. We Ubered to the Trump International Hotel and found the lobby filled with many of the most famous or infamous, if you will, Climate Change Skeptics. You can’t accurately call them Climate Change deniers because no one denies climate changes. They are simply skeptical that man’s contribution is catastrophic.
Jay Lehr came over to greet us. We had spent several days with him at the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness Conference in Tucson the week before. Jay was one of the founding members of the EPA. He had testified before numerous Congressional committees about the need for an environmental policy agency. When Nixon created the EPA Jay was hired as one of the members. When the EPA was eventually taken over by extreme environmentalists Jay resigned and has fought to abolish the EPA ever since. It became less about clean air and water and more about taking people’s property rights.
Debbie and I had dinner at the bar. We smelled something wonderful. It was candied bacon hanging from a line. The waiter nukes it at your table. Thick, sweet, crispy bacon. Debbie and I lost our minds over the butter….and the popovers. I don’t know why we can’t get butter like that here in California. Maybe it’s a good thing, I would eat more butter than I should.
The Trump Hotel was lovely. The staff from maids to management were mostly minorities. All seemed happy to be there. Every fixture was gold. Chrystal chandelier everywhere including the rooms. The bed was very luxurious. I’ve never seen a fluffier comforter or pillows in a hotel. Even during the Conference a waiter pulled out my chair and placed my napkin in my lap. The service was superb.
Breakfast for the conference was sponsored by Craig Rucker of CFACT (Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow). Craig introduced Jay Lehr and presented him with the “Dauntless Purveyor of Truth Award”. Jay has written 36 books, and is editor of books including, “Water Encyclopedia”, Handbook on Environmental Science, Health, and Technology”, and “Wiley’s Interscience’s Nuclear Energy Encyclopedia: Science, Technology, and Applications”. Not exactly light reading. Jay, besides being a very entertaining speaker, is also an athlete who is an avid sky diver. He has had more than 1500 jumps.
Throughout the day we had panels of speakers, “Scientific Observations” with Nir Shaviv, David Legates, and Roy Spencer. About what Alarmist claims are based on.
“Energy and Climate Economics” with Kevin Dayaratna, Roger Bezdek, and Benjamin Zycher. About the effects Climate Change policies have on our economy. The cost is clearly not worth the results.
There were two keynote speakers at lunch, Christopher Monckton who spoke about the disastrous effects the lack of cheap, abundant energy has on countries and people. He was followed by Congressman Tom McClintock.
After lunch a panel with Craig Idso, Patrick Michaels, and Anthony Watts. Craig spoke about the benefits of CO2. The effect on plants is so great growers pipe it into their greenhouses to grow bigger plants with more flowers or produce. Anthony Watts (“What’s Up With That”, most popular climate skeptic website) spoke about how inaccurate our temperature station readings are based on where they are located and maintained. Some are located in the middle of parking lots, some near machinery, some on top of buildings. There are also many areas around the world with few or no stations.
There were two panels after lunch. The first with Douglas Pollock, James Taylor and Myron Ebell. James Taylor spoke about the Heartland’s publications that counter the IPPC predictions. He also spoke about the lessons from the midterms and the rise of the Green New Deal.
The last panel was Benny Peiser, Jennifer Fielder, and Christopher Monckton. Benny Peiser spoke about China and India becoming the superpowers if America continues down the “renewables” path. Graphs showed Europe’s economic declines mirrors their switch from fossil fuels to “renewables”.
Jennifer Fielder, a Montana State Senator, spoke about why there have been such huge devastating forest fires. They are caused by man but not through Climate Change. It’s through mismanagement. Forests are over grown and not being cleaned out. She showed a map of the lands owned by states and by the Federal government. Most of Federally owned land is in the West. She showed slides of state land next to Federal land and you can see the state owned land is better managed. She also showed examples of Feds not allowing local firefighting equipment to be used on Federal land. She advocated for Federal lands to be turned back to local control. Obviously, those living near them care about the lands more than a distant bureaucratic.
Christopher Monckton asked if anyone knew what the “normal temperature” was supposed to be. He showed graphs that showed the oceans aren’t raising at any sort of an alarming rate, though CO2 has been rising, temperature hasn’t risen significantly. He spoke about the lack of access to abundant, cheap energy is what kills people. Europe has an 80 year life expectancy while Africa has a 65 year life expectancy due to lack of electricity. He also spoke about food crops being converted to energy crops resulting in famines.
At the cocktail reception there was an opportunity to speak to the the various scientists and experts. I spoke to Craig Rucker of CFACT about having a Hollywood Premiere for their sequel of “Climate Hustle”, “Climate Hustle II”. The first movie was about the hustle, the sequel is about why we’re being hustled.
During the dinner the “Courage in Defense of Science” award was presented to Tim Ball and the “Patrick Seitz Memorial Award” went to Richard Lindzen.
Joe Bastardi was the keynote speaker. Joe and his son sat at our table during the conference. Joe is an energetic and interesting man. He knows everything there is to know about climate events throughout our history. Give him a date and he can tell you what the weather was then.
Joe spoke about how there are not more frequent or severe storms. He showed examples of where hurricanes formed, how they formed and how they hit land. He gave examples of past hurricanes as severe or more severe than the recent ones. We have had fewer, not more severe storms.
Our last day in DC, Debbie and I walked around the mall and had a lovely lunch before Debbie headed to Camp Constitution where she was to teach a class and I headed back to Los Angeles to finish helping plan American Freedom Alliance’s Heroes of Conscience dinner.
Michael Greer retired from the film/television industry and is the co-organizer of the Santa Monica Tea Party and the Los Angeles Tea Party, on the board of directors of the Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights and was a member of the Republican Central Committee for the 41st Assembly District. Her website is: http://madderthanhell.wordpress.com/
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