So, what prompted me to write the above long-winded complaint was a page on the Heartland Institute’s web site, on how people can sponsor their upcoming climate inactivist conference. It’s the kind of jaw-dropping thing that made me think, “Oy, why am I the one writing about this?...
Yep, you read that right. First, sponsors will have a hand in deciding what the topics of the conference will be. I must say — my friends — this is totally above and beyond what actual serious scientific conferences do! (My experience is that the conference organizers will just give them some booth space to tout their stuff and recruit folks, and perhaps a time slot for them to talk about their fine work.)
Second, note that there’s no fee for sponsorship — yes, no fee — but “sponsors” are asked to spread the word about the conference and to get people to attend. That is, Heartland is looking for sponsorship not in the form of money, but in the form of noise. The more noise, the merrier.
And… one other thing: According to the registration information for the conference, there’s a 20% registration fee discount for signers of the “Oregon Petition”. I still can’t tell what Heartland’s trying to achieve with this move.
2 October 2008
Arctic Sea Ice Down to Second-Lowest Extent; Likely Record-Low Volume
Arctic sea ice extent during the 2008 melt season dropped to the second-lowest level since satellite measurements began in 1979, reaching the lowest point in its annual cycle of melt and growth on September 14, 2008. Average sea ice extent over the month of September, a standard measure in the scientific study of Arctic sea ice, was 4.67 million square kilometers (1.80 million square miles) (Figure 1). The record monthly low, set in 2007, was 4.28 million square kilometers (1.65 million square miles); the now-third-lowest monthly value, set in 2005, was 5.57 million square kilometers (2.15 million square miles).
The 2008 season strongly reinforces the thirty-year downward trend in Arctic ice extent. The 2008 September low was 34% below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000 and only 9% greater than the 2007 record (Figure 2). Because the 2008 low was so far below the September average, the negative trend in September extent has been pulled downward, from –10.7 % per decade to –11.7 % per decade (Figure 3).
NSIDC Senior Scientist Mark Serreze said, “When you look at the sharp decline that we’ve seen over the past thirty years, a ‘recovery’ from lowest to second lowest is no recovery at all. Both within and beyond the Arctic, the implications of the decline are enormous.”
program
last updated: October 13, 2008
Where and When
The 2009 International Conference on Climate Change will take place in New York City on March 8-10, 2009 (Sunday - Tuesday), at the Marriott New York Marquis Times Square Hotel, 1535 Broadway, New York, NY.
There will be four tracks of panel discussions:
1. Paleoclimatology
2. Climatology
3. Impact of Climate Change
4. Economics and Politics
Confirmed Speakers
Name Affiliation Dennis Avery Hudson Institute Joseph Bast The Heartland Institute Robert Bradley Institute for Energy Research Bob Carter James Cook University (Australia) Frank Clemente Penn State University John Coleman KUSI-TV - San Diego Joseph D'Aleo International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project David Douglass University of Rochester Myron Ebell Competitive Enterprise Institute Michelle Foss University of Texas - Center for Energy Economics Fred Goldberg Royal School of Technology (Sweden) Laurence Gould University of Hartford William Gray Colorado State University Chris Horner Competitive Enterprise Institute Craig Idso Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change David Legates University of Delaware Jay Lehr The Heartland Institute Marlo Lewis Competitive Enterprise Institute Richard Lindzen Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ross McKitrick University of Guelph Christopher Monckton Science and Public Policy Institute Jim O'Brien Florida State University Tim Patterson Carleton University Benny Peiser Liverpool John Moores University (United Kingdom) Paul Reiter Institut Pasteur (France) Arthur Robinson Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine Joel Schwartz American Enterprise Institute S. Fred Singer Science and Environmental Policy Project Fred Smith Competitive Enterprise Institute Willie Soon Science and Public Policy Project Roy Spencer University of Alabama at Huntsville James M. Taylor The Heartland Institute Anthony Watts Surfacestations.org
