My "Irony" Letter; July 12, 2014

additional commentary by Rep. Timothy Horrigan; July 12, 2014

On July 9, 2014, I wrote the following letter to the editor of my the Dover (NH) Foster's Daily Democrat, complaining about a July 8, 2014 editorial. It ran three days later on July 12, 2014.

Original URL:

Ironic

The title of your July 8, 2014 editorial "A Touch of Irony" was apter than you intended. Your editorial writer tried to have some fun with the fact that you had received a flyer for an upcoming "9th International Conference on Climate Change," which was going to be held in Las Vegas. The editorial's punch line was a snarky comment about how "Al Gore, patron saint of the climate change movement, lives in a mansion and flies in a jet, which contribute to global warming."

Ironically, this conference's title was much less apt than your editorial's headline. The socalled "9th International Conference on Climate Change" is in fact an annual gathering of climate change deniers sponsored by the ultraconservative Heartland Institute.

By the time you got around to running your editorial, the event wasn't even upcoming: it began on July 7, 2014. As a New Hampshire state rep, I get junk mail almost every week from the Heartland Institute, and I got that particular flyer a month or two ago. The Heartland Institute's sponsorship was prominently featured on that flyer.

In all fairness to your editorial writer, there is another annual event with the same name which is indeed a gathering of mainstream climate scientists. The "6th International Conference on Climate Change" was however held June 27-28, 2014 at the University of Iceland, in Reykjavik, Iceland— not in Las Vegas.


--Timothy Horrigan; Durham
ph: 603-868-3342


The original editorial was about the rightwing Heartland Institute's annual gathering of climate-change deniers— but the editorial writer evidently failed to notice that this was not a gathering of mainstream climate scientists.

Original URL:

A touch of irony


Tuesday, July 8, 2014



We recently received a flier promoting the upcoming 9th International Conference on Climate Change. 

Interestingly, the conference will be held in Las Vegas, home of opulence and overused resources.

One of those resources is water, of which conference-goers will certainly use plenty while in this desert community. 

But what really caught out attention was the cover photograph — of the Las Vegas Strip at night.

You can see hundreds of thousands of lights glowing from a downsized Eiffel Tower and hotels along the strip.

It seems incongruous that conventioneers would gather in a place so anathema to their cause.

For climate change believers this is one of the last places in which you would expect them to gather. 

But then Al Gore, patron saint of the climate change movement, lives in a mansion and flies in a jet, which contribute to global warming.

So, go figure.


BOOM!“@miscellanyblue: Foster's snarky editorial more ironic than intended, notes #NHHouse Rep @TimothyHorrigan http://t.co/4WLnLR2xNm”

— Raymond Buckley (@ChairmanBuckley) July 14, 2014

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