Of the hundreds of conferences I have attended in my career, the 16^th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC16) held on April 8 and 9 in Washington DC stands out as one of the very best. The several dozen presentations were well researched, right on topic and delivered with the right combination of content, humor and showmanship. 

 

 

Yes, showmanship, an important skill at any intense conference like this. Think Marc Morano, the keynote speaker at the closing dinner on the second day. Morano, publisher of CFACT's Climate Depot and the author of the 2021 book Green Fraud, has the ability to capture an audience’s attention like no other. Just as he was starting to speak, I, and I noticed some others in the audience, were starting to show the impact of many hours of conference proceedings. But, then suddenly, it was half an hour later, Morano’s talk was over, and everyone had forgotten their tiredness. He began his speech by declaring, “We’re going to have some fun!” and indeed we did! Morano’s presentation was titled “The Great Reject: Triumphant Trump dismantles the Climate Agenda with Nary a Pushback” and is well worth watching by clicking here. 

 

 

Besides Morano’s masterpiece, and kicking off the second day was an excellent keynote presentation from the effervescent head of The Heartland Institute’s UK office, Lois Perry. She gave a cautionary tale about what happens when a country, namely her nation, follows the woke climate agenda. Perry then pivoted to the recent developments in which she has been involved, particularly Heartland’s contribution to the rise of climate realist Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as a leading contender for prime minister. 

 

 

 

Perry concluded:

 

“Heartland and I have proven that principled ideas, vigorous research and relentless communication can change policy at the highest levels, literally across governments and borders. But this work doesn’t continue on its own. It continues only with the support of people like you. We’ve changed the conversation. We’re changing politics, and we’re just getting started. We’ve changed consensus into contention, skepticism into action, and the so-called green wall of Europe is cracking.”  

 

The implications of “The Emperor has no Clothes! How the IPCC Built a 38-year Climate Empire on a Circle of Lies,” the presentation by physicist and climate analyst Jonathan Cohler, are indeed monumental. 

 

 

 

He began:

 

“For decades, the IPCC has paraded various ‘metrics’ before the world as settled science. But all of them are physical fiction. 

 

“But many in this room have been disputing interpretations while accepting these lies. Is 1.1 degrees dangerous? Is the energy imbalance large enough to justify net zero? These questions concede that the quantities are real, but they aren’t. 

 

“For 38 years, the IPCC has paraded a framework that appears real, draped in equations, satellite data, supercomputer models, academy awards and even Nobel prizes. But it’s a snake eating its own tail [see his slide below]. Each of the five lies appears to validate the next, but the circle is actually empty.”

 

 

 

Watch Cohler’s talk to understand how all the parameters in the snake, global mean surface temperature, ocean heat content, Earth’s energy balance, etc., metrics that the IPCC, governments and the press use to scare us into submission, are fictitious.

 

Particularly refreshing for those of us who have fought in support of climate realism for decades was the panel, “Bringing youth into the climate realist fold.” It featured meteorologist Chris Martz, social media influencer Lucy Biggers, University of Tennessee student Emma Arns, Heartland Research Fellow (Energy) Linnea Lueken and CO₂ Coalition member Anika Sweetland. 

 

Sweetland’s presentation, “My Climate Wakeup,” began with her describing her terror of end of the world climate change when a teenager and how, even during her Bachelor of Climate Studies at the University of West Australia, she was being groomed to be a climate alarmist campaigner. She told the audience:

 

“I was taught fear, where there should have been curiosity. And most importantly, I was taught a conclusion before I ever saw the evidence. Even when I accidentally stumbled upon the evidence, I was assured it was completely irrelevant to our current predicament. It was a narrative that everyone followed and no one questioned. NO DEBATE ALLOWED.

 

“My home, planet Earth, was dying. I felt panicked that no one was doing anything about this. It made me so anxious, then miserable and then I got angry. How dare people not care! They got me, hook, line and sinker.

 

“Children all over the globe are being told their home is unstable, dangerous and on the brink of collapse, floods, fires, storms, presented not as natural events to understand, but as proof of doom. And, if they question it, the school will write to their parents. 

 

“It is completely irresponsible for us to enable this. The psychological impact of these stories is crippling children’s mental health and is simply unacceptable. The proportion of school-aged children diagnosed with anxiety in the UK tripled between 2000 and 2023 and doubled in the USA over the same time period.”

 

 

 

 

Sweetland then went on to describe how we can encourage intellectual independence in the younger generation, such as by engineering a hashtag movement, something like #FACTCHECK, OR #MYCLIMATEWAKEUP, with millions of young people speaking out in support of climate realism. Anika Sweetland’s talk is well worth watching by clicking here.

 

As Marc Morano described so well, and much to the consternation of mainstream media across the world, climate realism is triumphing at last and ICCC16 gave us all a great opportunity to celebrate. Join with us by watching the whole conference online at https://climateconference.heartland.org/.

 

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Tom Harris is executive director of Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition-Canada.