It’s my privilege to chair something called the Cooler Heads Coalition, and the Heartland Institute is a very valuable member of it. I would like to say something special about Heartland.
The Heartland Institute doesn’t see other non-profit groups as rivals. They see them as allies, and they always work in the most cooperative fashion. They are exemplary.”
–Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, introductory remarks Monday, March 9, 2009 plenary session of the International Conference on Climate Change.
By Dan Miller
NEW YORK — Global warming skeptics scored a major victory during the second International Conference on Climate Change that confronted the issue, “Global warming: Was it every really a crisis?”
The answer, delivered over 2 ½ days to an audience of 700 attendees – the largest-ever gathering of global warming skeptics – was a resounding “No.”
More than 75 papers skeptical that human activity has raised global temperatures to crisis levels were delivered by some of the world’s leading scientists, climatologists, economists, policy makers, and opinion leaders. Before the conference ended March 10 in New York City, most presented new data and analysis of climate change affecting global temperatures, severe weather patterns, species survival, integrity — or lack of it — in temperature and climate measurements, and the economic and business impact of global warming policies.
Referring to the United Nations’ steady beat of global warming alarms magnified by a pliant media, Richard Lindzen, professor of meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, set the tone of the conference in his keynote address, “However grim things may appear, we eventually will win against anthropogenic global warming alarm, simply because we are right, and they are wrong.”
Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, which produced the conference with 60 co-sponsors, said he was told repeatedly by attendees that “this was the best conference they had ever attended. When I challenged them to admit they weren’t exaggerating, all were willing to back it up.”
Charles Opalek, an attendee and president of Opalek Engineering Associates in New Jersey, said, “This was the best-run convention I have ever attended. The scientific presentations at the working sessions were well presented, interesting, and informative.”
Muriel Newman, former member of the New Zealand Parliament and a leader of the ACT New Zealand Party, said, “Thank you so much for the wonderful leadership that The Heartland Institute is providing in the whole climate area and for the excellent conference that you ran. The contribution that you are making is outstanding!”
Added Don Easterbrook, a presenter and emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University, “I’ve been to many meetings and this was one of the very best I’ve ever seen.”
Said Bast, “It was the result of a lot of preparation, experience, and hard work. The entire Heartland staff pitched in, and created the perfect conference!”
Conference attendees received an unexpected psychological boost as the conference ended. A new Gallup poll showed that although a majority of Americans believe the seriousness of global warming is either correctly portrayed in the news or underestimated, a record-high 41 percent now say it is exaggerated. That’s the highest level of public skepticism about mainstream reporting on global warming seen in more than a decade of Gallup polling on the subject.
Videos of all keynote addresses are posted at www.heartland.org, and videos of breakout sessions will be posted as they become available. Audio versions in MP3 format will be posted over the next few weeks.
The Heartland Institute plans to sell DVD and CD versions of all keynotes, and CD versions of all breakout sessions later this spring. To reserve a set, write Dan Miller at [email protected].
