Skeptics of human-caused global warming meet in New York March 12, 2008
Posted by Gary Glynn in Fossil fuels, carbon emissions, global warming.Tags: Fred Singer, global warming skeptics, Heartland institute, oil industry front groups
trackback
The Heartland Institute recently hosted the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change, subtitled “Global Warming is Not A Crisis.” The intent of the conference was clearly aimed at debunking the “myth” of global warming.
With presentations like “Oceans, Not Carbon Dioxide, Are Driving Climate” by William Gray, and “Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate” by S. Fred Singer, the conference was cleverly designed to downplay the impacts that industrial emissions are having on our climate. Singer, a George Mason University professor who has long railed against “junk science” showing tobacco smoke causes lung cancer, and sun exposure causes melanoma, is now intent on proving humans are not responsible for climate change. “Most climate change is natural,” he contends. The human contribution is not significant. Therefore, climate change is unstoppable.” In other words, Don’t Worry. Be happy.
For more information on the sponsorship of this conference by large tobacco and oil companies, see http://www.prwatch.org/node/7072. A list of the sponsors of this conference (mostly industry front groups with innocuous sounding names) can be found at: http://www.heartland.org/NewYork08/sponsorships.cfm.
Some facts seem to be missing here, like the fact that the Heartland Institute has made it clear that no corporate funds at all were used to help pay for the conference. It was entirely financed by individuals and foundations with no financial interest in the subject of global warming.
All 50 cosponsors of the conference are listed in the program for the event, none of them is a corporation, and none of them made a financial contribution toward the event, so their funding is irrelevant. Cosponsors were asked to help promote the event (on their web sites and in mailings to their members) in exchange for limited numbers of free tickets, a standard cosponsorship arrangement for conferences of this kind.
The Heartland Institute receives about 16% of its total income from corporations, the rest comes from individuals and foundations. No one corporation has EVER contributed more than 5% of Heartland’s annual budget. All energy companies COMBINED in 2007 gave less than 5% of the organization’s total budget. ExxonMobil hasn’t contributed since 2006. If funding determines a think tank’s perspective, then you might expect Heartland to be 95% in favor of global warming alarmism!
-Greg, Legislative Specialist for The Heartland Institute