Finally, something more ridicluous than wingnut tea parties

So there’s a gathering of climate change skeptics taking place in NY. Since there isn’t a plushie convention rivaling for the public’s attention, the Times finds the International Conference on Climate Change to be newsworthy. There’s almost too much to mock, but this seems to capture the essential foolery of the event:

Many participants said that . . . the global recession and a series of years with cooler temperatures [ahem] would help them in combating changes in energy policy in Washington.

“The only place where this alleged climate catastrophe is happening is in the virtual world of computer models, not in the real world,” said Marc Morano, a speaker at the meeting and a spokesman on environmental issues for Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma.

Because really — few attributes establish one’s real world bonafides than the qualifying credentials, “spokesman on environmental issues for Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma.”

Looking further at the list of conference sponsors, bemusement is the appropriate response. Aside from the a roster of lobbying groups that corporate media continue to forgivingly describe as “think tanks,” we’re reminded once more of how pathetic the Congress of Racial Equality has become since Roy Innis decided that ExxonMobil was the greatest corporate friend that people of African descent have ever known. I’ve been thinking about the history of US social movements, and I can’t find a similar example of an organization that descended as far down the well as CORE has over the past 40 years. I realize that it’s a stretch to describe CORE any longer as an organization — unless we define “organization” as “Roy Innis and the crazy people with whom he shares his skull” — but still…..