National Review's Breathless (but unsurprising) International Climate Conference Booster

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The Hudson Institute’s Thomas Sowell has a piece on the National Review Online today touting the Heartland Institute’s Denial-a-palooza being held next week in New Yorkย City.

Sowell takes no time heading down the misinformation highway with his openingย sentence:

It has almost become something of a joke when some ‘global warming’ conference has to be canceled because of a snowstorm or bitterly coldย weather.โ€

Lumping weather and climate is a nice little trick-of-the-denier trade – comparing weather (i.e. a single event like a snowstorm) to climate (a long term trend over time) is simply incorrect and misleading. It would be kind of like comparing, well, Thomas Sowell to a rational, reasonable commentator on the issue of globalย warming.

On the New York conference, Sowell reports:

It is called an ‘International Conference on Climate Change’ that will examine the question ‘Global Warming: Crisis or Scam?’ Among those present will be professors of climatology, along with scientists in other fields and people from otherย professions.โ€

I am assuming that the โ€œpeople from other professionsโ€ Sowell is referring to would be the 36 โ€œscholarsโ€ and โ€œfellowsโ€ employed by industry-cozy freemarket think tanks that are scheduled to speak at theย conference.

As far as โ€œprofessors of climatology,โ€ I will assume thoseย include:

Dr. Frederick Seitz who is scheduled to present at the conference on the field of climatology. Maybe conference organizers didn’t see the memo that the 96-year old Seitz, former principal scientific advisor to tobacco-giant RJ Reynolds, was considered โ€œquite elderly and not sufficient to offer adviceโ€ by his former employers inย 1998.

Dr. Patrick Michaels, who is scheduled to do a keynote speech titled: Global Warming: Some Convenient Facts. Here’s a few DeSmog posts we have done over the years on Michaels, with a few convenient facts of theirย own:

Christopher Monckton, who is listed to present on climatology. Oh wait, Monckton isn’t a climate scientist at all – he’s aย puzzle-maker!

I could go on, but I’m sure you’re getting the point. Here’s a link to briefing notes that have been prepared on most of theย presenters.

I hope these provides a little context for those inclined to take this conferenceย seriously.

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Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a โ€œGreen Heroโ€ by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the โ€œTop 50 Tweetersโ€ on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevinโ€™s research into the โ€œclimate denial industryโ€ and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Kochโ€™s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea partyย networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a โ€œCertified Expertโ€ on theย political and community organizing platformย NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the worldโ€™s best e-Content and innovative ICTย applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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