Third International Conference On Climate Change Set For June 2

Published April 28, 2009

As the Obama Administration and Congress consider global warming legislation that would cost consumers hundreds of billions of dollars a year, scientists and economists will meet in Washington D.C. to say such legislation is unnecessary.

Their reason: Global warming is not a crisis.

The theme of the one-day conference, to be held on June 2 at the Washington Court Hotel, 525 New Jersey Avenue NW, is “Climate Change: Scientific Debate and Economic Analysis.”

The June 2 conference marks the third time The Heartland Institute, a 25-year-old nonprofit research organization, has organized a meeting of global warming skeptics to call attention to widespread skepticism among scientists and economists to the asserted “consensus” on the causes and severity of global warming, and what should be done to slow or stop it.

Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, said, “The theme of conference reflects the fact that the scientific debate is not over about climate change and global warming, and that economic analysis is more important than ever, now that legislation is being seriously considered.”

The conference is expected to draw more than 200 attendees including Members of Congress, congressional staff, policy makers and opinion leaders, and journalists.

Featured speakers at the conference will include Dr. Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world’s leading experts in dynamic meteorology; Dr. Willie Soon, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Dr. Roy Spencer, University of Alabama at Huntsville and principal research scientist and team leader on NASA’s Aqua satellite; and former astronaut Dr. Harrison Schmitt, American geologist, former U.S. senator, and the last living man to have walked on the moon.

Bast said, “The real science and economics of climate change support the view that global warming is not a crisis, and that immediate action to reduce emissions is not necessary. This is, in fact, the emerging dominant view of scientists outside the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and most economists outside environmental advocacy groups.”

Dan Miller, executive vice president of The Heartland Institute, noted, “Funding for the conference will come from admission fees and from charitable contributions from individuals, foundation, and corporate donors. Funds from corporations represented less than 14 percent of Heartland’s annual budget in 2008, and no corporation gave more than 4 percent of Heartland’s budget that year.”

Further details of the Washington conference will be found on The Heartland Institute’s Web site at www.heartland.org.