Heartland Institute trying to make the old new

onMar 8, 2009 @ 10:10 PDT

I’m here again at the Heartland Institute’s climate change conference in New York – or as I like to call in DenialPalooza Take 2 – and what really strikes me so far is that it’s the same people attending and talking about the same things they did last year.

I’ve been to a lot of different conferences over the years and there’s always excitement in the sharing of new studies published and hearing the lastest discoveries. After all that’s what conferences are about, a time to share and advance knowledge. You wouldn’t go to a mainstream conference one year and then go the next just to be presented the same information by the same people you heard last year.

That is, unless there’s really nothing new to share. And that appears to be the case with this year’s climate chage DenialPalooza. The schedule of speakers and the panel topics are almost a carbon copy of last year.

Take a look at the 2008 schedule and compare it to the 2009 one – same people, same topics, nothing really new.

So what’s this conference about?

This month we’re giving away FREE copies Keith Farnish’s new book Times Up: an uncivilzed solution to a global crisis.

Go here to find out more details about DeSmogBlog’s monthly book give-away.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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