Guardian: “The Climate Deniers are In Charge Now”

Essay by Eric Worrall

A Guardian journalist reports back from the Heartland Conference.

Inside a jubilant DC conference where ‘the climate deniers are in charge now’

Trump’s EPA chief Lee Zeldin’s presence shows how much influence climate deniers now have, experts say

Dharna Noor in Washington DCTue 14 Apr 2026 23.00 AEST

…

The clearest sign of the crowd’s rising power was the gathering’s keynote speaker: Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), whom Donald Trump is also reportedly considering for attorney general. “It is a day to celebrate vindication,” he said on Wednesday morning.

…

“Twenty years ago it would have been shocking … for the EPA administrator to take seriously a group of people whose positions are so patently at odds with all of the scientific evidence,” said Oreskes. “But essentially, climate deniers are in charge now.”

…

The youth-focused panel was disrupted by activists with Climate Defiance.

…

In an interview, an organizer of the protest who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation said the action was intended to ensure the panel was not “allowed to go undisrupted”, especially because the panel’s audience “was almost entirely geriatric white men who will not live to see the effects of climate change the way that my generation will”.

“The message that we wanted to bring was that climate change denial is not just a matter of a difference of opinions,” said the organizer, adding that they do not believe efforts to spread climate denial to youth will be effective. “These people think that they are untouchable and that they can spread this kind of misinformation entirely unchecked? No.”

…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/14/dc-conference-climate-deniers-trump-epa-chief

A tweet from Climate Defiance about their disruption of Heartland, claiming to speak on behalf of young people;

The Heartland Institute conservative think tank — famous for its defense of the tobacco industry and professional doubt merchants for decades — has topped itself by throwing a two-day convention for so-called "Climate Realism".

Worth remembering: this is the same institute who… pic.twitter.com/7TU9HBtzBm
— Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) April 10, 2026

“These people think they are untouchable” sounds a bit ominous. But desperation is to be expected in times like these. The collapse of the climate movement and climate funding is forcing activists to make painful decisions, like whether to apply for a job.

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conrad ziefle

April 15, 2026 6:48 pm

They are so stupid that they call people climate deniers, because they don’t think CO2 is causing MAJOR climate change. They call CO2, “carbon”. Long as they insist on using their cult terminology, they deserve everything that they get.

ballynally

April 16, 2026 1:34 am

However, this is an article on the BBC site with a more forthright criticism of in this case heatpumps and electricity:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c86ey5n9vx9o

“Sir Dieter, the Conservatives and the Tony Blair Institute all argue that slowing the pace of renewable expansion, and maintaining a larger role for gas in the short term, should be part of the answer. But while using fewer renewables could ease pressure on system costs, it risks slowing the pace of emissions cuts.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband says renewables bring other benefits too. “The lesson of yet another global energy shock is that the UK needs to get off the fossil fuel rollercoaster and onto clean homegrown power that we control,” he says.”

And here lies the descrepancy: the realists know that higher electricity costs are the main factor for people and even the country.
But Miliband wants to press on despite that. That argument cannot maintain in times of economic hardship.

So, the focus now is on cheap instead of clean energy. In other words: delaying the transition to keep costs down while still supporting the transition…in principle.
Miliband just has to be thrown out if the likes of Blair can see where the wind blows…or doesn’t..

Sparta Nova 4

Reply to ballynally

April 16, 2026 9:57 am

Thus the ban of the sea drilling. That is not homegrown power?

Joseph Zorzin

April 16, 2026 3:42 am

“Twenty years ago it would have been shocking … for the EPA administrator to take seriously a group of people whose positions are so patently at odds with all of the scientific evidence,” said Oreskes.

What a moron. Al of the evidence? That alone shows how ignorant she is. A mere propagandist.

Joseph Zorzin

April 16, 2026 3:44 am

the panel’s audience “was almost entirely geriatric white men who will not live to see the effects of climate change the way that my generation will”

Yuh, we old white guys don’t care about the future of the planet- we only care about making tons of money. 🙂

Sparta Nova 4

Reply to Joseph Zorzin

April 16, 2026 9:58 am

Have they invented a means of taking that moeny with you when your thread is cut by the Fates?

Robert

April 16, 2026 6:49 am

The article offers a very clear example of one of the rhetorical devices by which the alarmists perpetrate their narrative: “…scientific consensus that global warming is real…”

ok, uncontroversial right? Got everyone agreeing already…But then, without a pause:

“…and urgent, and caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.”

Easy to see how the casual and unwary audience is seduced into uncritical acceptance of the premise of the movement. Same technique salesmen have used forever to sell their wares.

Sparta Nova 4

April 16, 2026 9:49 am

“geriatric white men”

Racial profiling.
Obviously those youngsters self-identifying as scientists are more knowledgeable, better educated, more experienced, and thus much more qualified to be in charge.

Identity politics from the ME movement is in full swing.

Phillip Chalmers

April 18, 2026 12:53 am

This old grey bearded white man has six adult children and a large and growing number of grandchildren and seven other siblings and their offspring. I delayed marriage and children until two things, I was able to guarantee to myself that I would not be a father like my father was, and I would not have children if it was highly probable that civilisation would soon collapse.
I am certain coal, oil, gas and nuclear fission energy use is utterly necessary and indispensable and beneficial. The planet needed some mechanism to release fixed carbon as the plants (making oxygen and raw material for all the rest of life) were facing a carbon dioxide scarcity crisis and humanity needed high density power for industry, agriculture, transport and medicine.

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