The second annual Global Warming Skeptics Conference has been announced by The Heartland Institute. The conference will be held in New York City, March 8-10, 2009, and is expected to draw up to 1,000 scientists and experts from around the world to discuss climate change and global warming. The 2009 conference will serve as a platform for scientists and policy analysts who question the theories of man-made climate change. This year's theme, "Global Warming Crisis: Cancelled!," calls attention to new research findings that contradict the conclusions of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

Hosting the conference for the second consecutive year will be The Heartland Institute, a 24-year-old national nonpartisan think tank based in Chicago. "All of the event's expenses are being covered by individual and foundation donors to Heartland," said Dan Miller, executive vice president of the Institute. "No corporate dollars earmarked for the event were solicited or accepted."

The 2008 conference featured presentations by more than 100 prominent scientists and economists from the U.S. and around the world and attracted extensive media attention in the U.S. and internationally, including news coverage by The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, National Geographic, and all the major television networks.

"Last March we proved that the skeptics in the debate over global warming constitute the center or mainstream of the scientific community, while the alarmists are on the fringe," said Heartland President Joseph Bast. "In the past six months, the science has grown even more convincing that global warming is not a crisis. Opinion polls and political events, including the defeat of 'cap-and-trade' legislation in the U.S. Senate, also suggest this 'crisis' is over. It has been cancelled by sound science and common sense."

In the coming weeks, Heartland will announce cosponsors and speakers and launch a Web feature to receive online registrations. For audio and video recordings of presentations made at the 2008 conference, please visit The Heartland Institute website at: http://www.heartland.org.

-GIR-