A Climate Denier Own Goal?

Climate sceptics are meeting together again for a pseudo-scientific conference . The event is being held at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) and organised by a group called the AmericanFreedom Alliance, which claims to be "a non-political, non-partisan movement which promotes, defends and upholds Western values and ideals".

I’m not entirely sure how you can be non-political and non-partisan and still defend and uphold Western values and ideals.

Called; "BigFootprint: Is Green the New Tyranny" the events speakers include Lord (love child of Marty Feldman) Monckton, Benny Peiser (apparently a social anthropologist and Nigel Lawson’s wingman), James (I am an interpreter of interpretations) Delingpole, Phelim McAleer (an "anti-environmentalist" film maker), Steven Milloy (a paid advocate for ExxonMobil who runs the criminally named Junk Science web site), Christopher Horner (an attorney trying to subpoena all of Michael Mann’s emails), and Richard Lindzen (the odd man out as an actual – if oft debunked - atmospheric physicist). So the usual suspects then.

Although this meeting is being held at UCLA it is actually being held at the Faculty Center, a private club on which is independent of the university and they have stated that the presence of an event on campus does not imply an endorsement of the sponsor or the viewpoints expressed.

But what is more interesting is the Organisers of the event. I wonder if some speaking or even attending realise, or even care about what little credibility or reputation they have, or aware of the company they will be keeping?

 The American Freedom Alliance whose mission statement  says;

“The Alliance's conference's programs, publications, websites and networking groups develop tools and strategies to counter ideologies which underly these threats, including radical Islam, moral and cultural relativism, appeasement and excessive emphasis on multiculturalism.

The American Freedom Alliance aims to build a national alliance of people of faith and which involves writers, academics and thinkers from around the world, who will join together through seminars, conferences, publications and activist networks, to promote and protect moral values, democracy and freedom.”

As well as just suggesting some sort of religious and anti Islamic bent in its statement it is an organisation that has promoted intelligent design and tried to screen a "teach the controversy" film called Darwin's Dilemma, at the California Science Center in 2009 and is involved in legal action over its cancellation.

Robert Spencer a American Freedom Alliance fellow also claims Barack Obama is a Muslim and runs a controversial blog called Jihad Watch. Not content with sticking to promoting this trash in the US, Spencer he used his blog to offer his support to the far-right English Defence League: "The EDL is standing up to violent thugs from both the Left and the increasingly assertive Islamic communities in Britain, and they deserve the support of all free people."

So since this type of organisation, supported by these speakers, and is where most climate deniers get their information and ‘science’ from, I’d have to ask;

‘Isn’t it clear to everyone else that climate scepticism is far more motivated by political and religious ideology rather than reasoned objections to the science?’