LWVMC Virtual General Meeting: "What's Behind Climate Change Denial" – Our speaker, Mike Clancy, states: 

The Earth’s Greenhouse Effect has been known for over a century.  Long before there were satellites, computer models or even computers, scientists understood that the huge increase in the burning of fossil fuels that began with the Industrial Revolution would lead to a warming Earth and a changing climate.  Although the science is thoroughly settled and the effects of climate change are becoming more apparent every year, the climate-change-denial community attempts to create doubt about the science to forestall government action and protect the interests of the fossil fuel industry.  Exhibiting the characteristics of a classic conspiracy theory, climate change denial has much in common with other denial movements that hold beliefs that are far outside the mainstream (e.g., the Earth is flat; smoking is not harmful to health; COVID-19 is a hoax; etc.). 

This presentation will briefly review the science of climate change, and then explore the climate-change-denial movement in some detail, including drawing parallels with other conspiracy theories.  During the question and answer period following the talk, the speaker will address any and all climate-change-denial arguments the audience might wish to discuss.

Mike Clancy earned a B.S. in Oceanography from Florida Institute of Technology in 1973 and a M.S. in Meteorology from the University of Miami in 1975. He worked for Science Applications International Corporation in the late '70s and the Naval Research Lab in the early '80s. He joined the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) in Monterey in 1983, and was selected as Technical and Scientific Director of FNMOC in August of 2005. Mr. Clancy authored over 100 publications in meteorology, oceanography and information technology, and received over 50 professional awards, including the Navy’s highest civilian award, prior to his retirement from Federal Service in 2011. He was inducted into the FNMOC Hall of Fame in 2015. Mr. Clancy is a member of the Monterey Chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) and a frequent public speaker on Climate Change,

This free October LWVMC General Meeting, presentation, and question-and-answer period will be conducted over the Zoom Web Conferencing platform. The General Meeting will begin at 12:00 pm. Our speaker will speak at 12:15 pm.

All current LWVMC members will be sent a link to the Zoom meeting via [LWVMryCo] the Monday before the meeting. 

All LWVMC General Meetings are open to the public at no cost. Non-members can send a message to LWVmryco [at] gmail.com requesting an invitation.