Wed, Dec 09, 2015 page7

• Climate skeptics battle odds in Paris

  • Reuters, PARIS
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  To question the idea of human-caused global warming in Paris this week means facing heavy odds.

  Arrayed against skeptics are thousands of environmentalists, scientists and even big business leaders, who have come to the UN-sponsored climate talks to pledge their commitment to cutting emissions that a majority say are warming the planet.

  Unlike at past UN summits, where their presence was a fixture, skeptics have this time been forced to hold court at a downtown Paris hotel, dogged by climate change activists handing out “Wanted” flyers accusing them of responsibility “for destruction of our future.”

  “This is the only group essentially that has had to make their own space and their own time to get heard,” said Jim Lakey, communications director of the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, which promotes skepticism about human-caused climate change.

  The group’s “counter conference” at the Hotel California was punctuated by shouts from protesters.

  “It is exhausting to endure all this, dealing with constant attacks,” Lakey said.

  To diplomats and officials at the UN summit, the skeptics are yesterday’s people.

  “Now you don’t hear much about skeptics,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday as he opened the second week of talks to bind both rich and poor nations to cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

  There is one place the skeptics are not ignored: in conservative circles in the US, where they retain a powerful voice in a Republican party openly hostile to policies that drive a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.

  Republican lawmakers have vowed to block the billions of dollars that US President Barack Obama has pledged to help developing nations deal with the expected effects of climate change, and polls show American opinion on the need for a climate deal largely split along party lines.

  “The tenor of the debate in the US is being noticed, and to the extent that these deniers had some role in creating that dynamic within the Republican electorate, they’ve certainly had an impact,” said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, which, among other things, seeks to spread the idea that human-caused global warming is a fact.

  However, the images of skeptics being hounded by environmentalists also feeds conservative arguments that their critics are afraid of debate. Citizens’ group Avaaz posted more than a thousand “Wanted” posters across Paris featuring the images and names of skeptics opposed to a global accord.

  Emma Ruby-Sachs, acting executive director of Avaaz, said the campaign was intended to let arriving ministers of the environment know that “they shouldn’t be listening to business interests, they should be listening to the people.”

  Heartland spokesman James Taylor said such views showed a poor understanding of science as well as intolerance.

  “When you try to smother different points of view, you disrespect science, and basic human rights,” Taylor said. “The environmental movement doesn’t want to have a debate; they just want to put forward a single message that everyone must adhere to.”

  Skeptics are hard to find in the conference center.

  “They haven’t been too friendly to skeptics this year,” said Marc Morano, a former Republican party worker who runs the ClimateDepot blog for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, based in Washington.

  Morano said his group, which had the sole booth in the venue’s exhibit hall promoting that data do not support the idea that human activity is responsible for warming, had not done as much work inside the UN summit grounds as it normally does, in part because organizers had not issued enough passes.

  A UN official did not respond to a request for comment, though organizers have said they had to ration passes because of demand.

  On Monday night, Morano showed his new film, Climate Hustle, in a Paris cinema, featuring scientists who presented data aimed at showing there was reason to doubt the mainstream idea of climate change.

  A demonstrator hung a banner on a nearby gate reading “Welcome Heartland Institute scum.”
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