In July, the Heartland Institute sponsored the 9th International Conference on Climate Change in Las Vegas. The Ayn Rand Institute was a co-sponsor of the event and I was lucky enough to attend — and now you can too. Heartland has put up recorded videos of all of the keynote speeches and panel discussions on their website, so you can join the thousands of others who have already tuned in.

The conference hosted climate scientists and policy analysts committed to bringing a rational perspective into the climate change debate. I didn’t agree with everything I heard, but in general, the conference was chock full of thoughtful insights and important reports on climate science. Here are some highlights:

• A group of retired astronauts, engineers and NASA employees held a panel discussion titled “The Right Climate Stuff.” At the end of this panel, you can hear me asking the panelists why they chose to get involved in the climate debate after retiring from long and prestigious careers. Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham responded, saying that he wanted to stand up against what he sees as meritless claims being “laid out on the public.”
• Scientists and authors Dr. Fred Singer, Dr. Robert Carter and Dr. Willie Soon discussed research contained in the most recent scholarly report produced by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC). These are some of the same panelists that gave a talk at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine last year.
• Patrick J. Michaels, Director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute examined the mistaken idea that science is a “public good” and how that affects the objectivity of the climate change debate. In his remarks, look for a reference to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.
• On the side of politics, Christopher Monckton gave an entertaining keynote address where he humorously demonstrates the meaning behind the “consensus” we hear so much about in the climate debate. He also talks about his experience parachuting into a U.N. climate change conference and how he later was escorted out by U.N. guards for questioning the objectivity of participants.
• One thing that the conference highlighted is the debate that is raging in Australia over climate change. Australian parliament member George Christensen gave a keynote address where he spoke about how policies of climate change have an impact on his constituents.

You can see these videos, download every PowerPoint presentation, or grab the audio of the speeches for listening on-the-go at the climate conferences archive site.