Does “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” apply to the impact of climate change?
Not according to climate change deniers who are expected to descend upon the Caesars Palace hotel and casino in Las Vegas this month for the annual International Conference on Climate Change. The event is organized by the Illinois-based Heartland Institute, described by the Huffington Post as a “right wing think tank” that initially lobbied for tobacco companies in the 1990s.
This year’s conference is named “The Great Reset: Climate Realism Vs. Climate Socialism,” and will run from Oct. 15 through Oct. 17. It is the 14th annual conference held by the group.
Tickets for the event range from $29.99 to $250.
According to the Huffington Post, oil and coal companies “pumped money” into Heartland Institute campaigns “to harass scientists and confuse the public over what accumulated carbon does to the atmosphere,” in the early 2000s.
However, even Exxon Mobil Corp., a major oil company, had stopped providing the organization funding by the early 2010s. Hedge fund billionaires Robert and Rebekah Mercer have since began giving the nonprofit millions.
Keynote speakers at the upcoming climate change denial conference are expected to include William Happer, a retired Princeton University physics professor who served as an adviser to former President Donald Trump and Myron Ebell, director of the right-wing Competitive Enterprise Institute, leader of the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency transition and key figure in the decision to withdraw the U.S. from the historic Paris climate agreement.
Naomi Seibt, a 21-year-old climate change denier who has been linked to Neo-Nazis, is also slated to speak at the event.
Attendees will hear claims about climate change such as “the forces of collectivism and big, controlling government are using it as a means to gain more control over us,” said an event description. It also said that a “global climate agenda promoted by the United Nations” is intended to “overhaul the economy and usher in socialism.”
These claims are in opposition to the position of the current U.S. government on climate change.
“Direct observations made on and above Earth’s surface show the planet’s climate is significantly changing,” according to NASA. “Human activities are the primary driver of those changes.”
Around 97 percent of scientists believe in climate change, which is caused by burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil, NASA said.
“Understanding and addressing climate change is critical to EPA’s mission of protecting human health and the environment,” said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Outside of the U.S. government and the UN, other groups are also working to understand climate change as well as to mitigate its impact on humans and the environment that sustains us.
“Throughout the world, the economically disadvantaged and people of color—those who have contributed the very least to the root causes of climate change—are the most likely to suffer from its worst impacts,” said a U.S.-based non-profit called the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Work on climate change earned three physicists a Nobel Prize Tuesday, reported the New York Times.
While the event will be held at Caesars Palace, the Huffington Post reported that the hotel and casino’s owners typically contribute to Democratic campaigns and have pledged to use methodology prescribed by the United Nations to eliminate planet-heating emissions.
Caesars Entertainment, the parent company of Caesars Palace, did not reply to a request for comment from the Huffington Post.
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