More false claims from a right-wing organization called the Heartland Institute, advertising their latest conference for global warming denialism and celebrating their ignorance of facts:yet

“The theme for ICCC-4 will be “Reconsidering the Science and Economics.”  New scientific discoveries are casting doubt on how much of the warming of the twentieth century was natural and how much was man-made, [false] and governments around the world are beginning to confront the astronomical cost of reducing emissions. Economists, meanwhile, are calculating that the cost of slowing or stopping global warming exceeds the social benefits. The purpose of ICCC-4 is the same as it was for the first three events: to build momentum and public awareness of the global warming “realism” movement, a network of scientists, economists, policymakers, and concerned citizens who believe sound science and economics, rather than exaggeration and hype, ought to determine what actions, if any, are taken to address the problem of climate change.”

The denialism movement and right-wing think tanks are not using science to determine actions on climate change at all, but they are using the second thing they mentioned, the driver of all right-wing ideology — economics, and economists.  They are also using politics, but they are certainly not using science.  By economics is how they make all their policy decisions, including decisions on scientific subjects like climate.  What good is the climate going to be to anyone once it’s been declared expendable by economists?  Calling the climate expendable and negotiable is the same as declaring the human race expendable.  We will go extinct with this type of thinking.

Most scientists believe that the evidence of global warming is unequivocal and they find themselves having to state this over and over again, mainly due to these deniers and their movement against reality.  The effects of the denialism movement are serious enough that scientists had to recently re-state the science on climate change and defend their work from this denialist group — most of them funded by big oil and big coal.

Scientists defend climate research, condemn ‘McCarthy-like threats’

Text of an open letter published in May 7 issue of Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It is signed by 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences, including 11 Nobel Prize winners.

We are deeply disturbed by the recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particular. All citizens should understand some basic scientific facts. There is always some uncertainty associated with scientific conclusions; science never absolutely proves anything. When someone says that society should wait until scientists are absolutely certain before taking any action, it is the same as saying society should never take action. For a problem as potentially catastrophic as climate change, taking no action poses a dangerous risk for our planet.

Scientific conclusions derive from an understanding of basic laws supported by laboratory [...]