CITIZEN JOURNALISM: 'Realists' challenge claim of consensus on warming

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By Marieke van der Vaart SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Several hundred scientists, politicians and activists participated in the third annual International Conference on Climate Change on Tuesday, marking another stage in the timeline of a scientific social movement.

The conference, sponsored by the nonprofit Heartland Institute, hosted panels of climatologists and meteorologists as well as members of Congress to address questions surrounding global warming and climate-change legislation.

In its 25 years, Heartland has drawn together about 31,000 scientists, more than 9,000 of whom hold doctorates, to provide a forum for scientific debate on the issue of man-made global warming.

Self-titled "global warming realists" who are scientific members of Heartland's community band together to fight the misconception of scientific consensus on the issue of global warming.

The third conference opened with the publication of "Climate Change Reconsidered: The 2009 Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change."

Mirroring the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the nongovernmental group, NIPCC, claims membership by several hundred scientists skeptical of IPCC's findings. Although individual members of the NIPCC have questioned the U.N. body's claims for years, the release of their own 800-page report makes their arguments difficult to ignore, said Heartland Institute President Joseph L. Bast.

"This is the first time the realists have had a comprehensive reply to the IPCC," he said. "The other side kept saying, 'Where is your report? Where is your IPCC?' This book says we're here, we have got our act together."

The report, the largest collection of independent research on the topic, doesn't claim perfection.

"This is not the last word on climate change," Mr. Bast said. "It's much more intellectually honest."