DeSmogBlog, a Web site created to attack conservative and free-market nonprofit organizations, targeted The Heartland Institute in late April 2008, and in particular two lists posted on Heartland’s Web site [ http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=21971 ] of scientists whose published work contradicts some of the main tenets of global warming alarmism. The blog persuaded some of the scientists appearing in the lists to ask that their names be removed from the lists.

In response to the complaints, The Heartland Institute has changed the headlines that its PR department had chosen for some of the documents related to the lists, from “500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares” to “500 Scientists Whose Research Contradicts Man-Made Global Warming Scares.”

This is the first posting preliminary to the announcement of an Official Contest to find the Best Internet Conspiracy Theory .

The Contest will be officially announced in about one week.

This contest is primarily a public service for those who contribute regularly to sites like Digg.com, Reddit.com, Wikipedia.org, etc. Many of those people are forced to spend an inordinate amount of time concocting theories that neatly explain messy world events. This has led to an enormous increase in carpal tunnel and internet addition syndrome cases worldwide. Thus, we want to provide these overworked souls a handful of ready-made theories to which they can refer. The theories we have in mind are described in the contest rules below.

I will need help in publicizing this Contest, and may need help in judging entries, depending on how many I receive. Volunteers should email me: put “CONTEST” in the subject line.

A sketch of the rules is as follows:

(1) All entries must be shorter than 150 words. Shorter entries will receive more weight than longer ones.

(2) Entries—one per person—must be placed into the Comments Section of the Official Contest Post. No discussion will be allowed on that post; only Contest entries are allowed.

(3) All entries will be judged by the intrinsic awfulness, brevity, completeness of derangement, plausibility, specificity (names named), and potential appeal to the everyday, e.g., Digg reader.

(4) The Contest will last approximately two to three weeks.

(5) A prize, or prizes, to be decided later, will be announced.

(6) An example of an Internet Conspiracy Theory:

Certain scientists discovered a formula, derived from an alien artifact dug up in Area 51, for turning ordinary sea water into limitless, cheap fuel. Green Energies, a subsidiary of MoveOn.org, based in the World Trade Center was about to sell this discovery and eliminate Global Warming, when the Oil Companies learned of it. Big Oil contacted George Bush, who ordered the Twin Towers destroyed before the secret could get out. Ron Paul found out about this and was going to expose the entire matter had he won the Republican Nomination, which he would have done except the Mainstream Media ignored him.

Please do NOT post any conspiracy theories now! Save them for the Contest.  More here...

My friends, I need your help.

I have written a paper on quantifying the uncertainty of effects dueto global warming, but the subject is too big for one person.Nevertheless, I have tried to—in one location—list all of the majorareas of uncertainty, and I have attempted to quantify them as well. Iwould like your help in assessing my guesses. I am not at all certainthat I have done an adequate or even a good job with this.

At this link is the HTML version of the paper I am giving in Spain (I used latex2html to encode this; it is not beautiful, but it is mostly functional).

At this link is the PDF version of the paper,which is far superior to the HTML. This paper, complete with typos, isabout draft 0.8, so forgive the minor errors. Call me on the big ones,though.

I would like those interested to download the paper, read it, andhelp supply numbers for the uncertainty bounds found within. I wouldask that you not do this facetiously or glibly, orthat you not purposely underestimate the relevant probabilities. I wantan open, honest, intellectual intelligent discussion of the kinds andranges of uncertainties in the claims of effects due to global warming.For example, the words “Al Gore” should never appear in any comment. Ifyou have no solid information to offer in a given area, please feelfree to not comment on it. Read rest...

For more information contact Harriette Johnson, The Heartland Institute's media relations manager, at 312/515-0559 (cell), email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Click here for an interactive PDF of the declaration, which includes a form ready for completing and submitting.

Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change

"Global warming" is not a global crisis

We, the scientists and researchers in climate and related fields, economists, policymakers, and business leaders, assembled at Times Square, New York City, participating in the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change,

Resolving that scientific questions should be evaluated solely by the scientific method;

Affirming that global climate has always changed and always will, independent of the actions of humans, and that carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant but rather a necessity for all life;

Recognising that the causes and extent of recently observed climatic change are the subject of intense debates in the climate science community and that oft-repeated assertions of a supposed 'consensus' among climate experts are false;

Affirming that attempts by governments to legislate costly regulations on industry and individual citizens to encourage CO2 emission reduction will slow development while having no appreciable impact on the future trajectory of global climate change. Such policies will markedly diminish future prosperity and so reduce the ability of societies to adapt to inevitable climate change, thereby increasing, not decreasing, human suffering;

Noting that warmer weather is generally less harmful to life on Earth than colder:

Hereby declare:

That current plans to restrict anthropogenic CO2 emissions are a dangerous misallocation of intellectual capital and resources that should be dedicated to solving humanity's real and serious problems.

That there is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity has in the past, is now, or will in the future cause catastrophic climate change.

That attempts by governments to inflict taxes and costly regulations on industry and individual citizens with the aim of reducing emissions of CO2 will pointlessly curtail the prosperity of the West and progress of developing nations without affecting climate.

That adaptation as needed is massively more cost-effective than any attempted mitigation and that a focus on such mitigation will divert the attention and resources of governments away from addressing the real problems of their peoples.

That human-caused climate change is not a global crisis.

Now, therefore, we recommend --

That world leaders reject the views expressed by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as popular, but misguided works such as "An Inconvenient Truth."

That all taxes, regulations, and other interventions intended to reduce emissions of CO2 be abandoned forthwith.

Agreed at New York, 4 March 2008

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