Heartland’s ICCC 2023 — Live from Orlando

by Kip Hansen — Reporting Live from Orlando — 23 → 25 February 2023

15th International Conference on Climate Change

Is the true crisis climate change … or climate policy?

LIVE STREAM THE CONFERENCE HERE

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tom Moser, Marty Cornell, Greg Goodnight of The Right Climate Stuff gave a group presentation on Energy.

Global Temperatures and CO₂ cycle; Most of the change depends on the Sun; Mother Nature, not Humans, are in Control. There is, of course, no climate crisis. Moser called for a co-ordinated national campaign to educate the public on the truth on Climate Change.

Marty Cornell: Net Zero: Materially Impossible. Decarbonization will raise the risk of increasing extreme poverty. The vulnerability of critical materials supply necessary for Net Zero. And highlights the need to raise public awareness of the problems that will thwart Net Zero. :

Bob Bauman introduced the topic of Nuclear, which has had little attention during this conference. He explained what Small Modular [nuclear] Reactors (SMRs). If you are interested in the use if SMRs to break the deadlock of our electrical production system, watch this presentation at Heartland.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wolfgang Müller led off the session titled: Why Net Zero Is Impossible: The Continuing Need and Value of Fossil Fuels. He spoke from the viewpoint of Germany. Germany has been lucky this winter — which has been warmer than usual.

Robert Bradley Jr. from the Institute for Energy Research. He supports Free Market Energy Framework. Private Property Rights, Rule of Law and Civil Society. Considers that we have a politically wounded energy industry. Very interesting history of electricity production and marketing. Advocates repealing several Federal laws in the USA to end spiraling government intervention.

Linnea Lueken, “Bio-fuels” Ethanol, Biodiesel, and Bio-mass [pelletized plant mass]. Surprisingly, she tells us that ethanol and bio-diesel have better octane and cetane ratings than standard gasoline and diesel. But these biofuels have lower Energy Density than gasoline and normal diesel. Ethanol does provide some “savings” of CO₂ emissions but for mile driven, emissions are higher for Ethanol. Using food crops for fuel production, prices of food rise.

Biomass, pelletized wood for burning in a power plant. Not crazy for wood waste. Wood does not have the energy density of coals. While controversial, it cannot be assumed that wood plants have less net CO₂ emissions. Burning wood produces lots of other pollutants.

But, are they worthless? No, she says. It is important to do a full cost/benefit analysis. Oddly, motorsports use a lot of ethanol. Checkout here papers on these topics:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One of Arizona’s U.S. Representatives, Lauren Boebert, gave us her viewpoints on climate change — climate change is real, it happens four times a year. She was surprised to have a photo displayed on the big screen of her smoking a cigar with Jim Lakely and others the previous evening. Lauren openly and without embarrassment declared her religious faith and her belief in this nation and the necessity of preserving freedom. Like many of you readers, she admits that she can’t stand politicians. She spoke with a mobile mic — because she isn’t tall enough to stand behind the lectern despite 4 inch heels. But she packs the punch of a 6 footer!

Congress is broken, there is extreme dysfunction in the House. She is a proponent of Single Subject Legislation. She is obviously a Republican. She is actively fighting the crazy Green/Leftist agenda. Again, catch her who speech at Heartland.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Keynote Lunch: Our first speaker is Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin. He is somewhat famous for saying in a televised interview that the Climate Crisis was Bull S–t. Only he didn’t say the last two words out loud…but CNN had a translator come in and read his lips. Scandal followed.

A very powerful speaker and knowledgeable on the subject on the “Climate Crisis” and why it doesn’t exist and the motives of the political movement behind it. He spoke of the foolishness of the government response to Covid — and the measures implemented, not to stop of pandemic, but to control the economy. Catch his talk at Heartland’s site.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Severe Weather and Climate Change with Joe Bastardi, Christopher Monckton, and Stanley Goldenberg.

Stanley Goldenberg is a real hurricane expert — a Research Meteorologist with the Hurricane Research Division/AOML/NOAA located in Miami, Florida. He has flown through the eye of many hurricanes, has been at NOAA for decades. Out simply, AGW has not caused more or more powerful hurricanes.

The measurements are temporally heterogeneous, non-homogeneity, thus cannot be compared to one another. Measurements today are far better and collect more and better measurements. We see also Spatial Non-homogeneity. If measurements are taken differently over different areas, the data set will not be fit for purpose. Why is the media inaccurate on hurricanes — Ignorance, Sloppiness, Bias, and Deliberate Lies. Models “tell us” (see William Briggs on models) that hurricanes will get stronger and more frequent – in the future. There are cycles in hurricane data, but in trends.

Joe Bastardi, formerly with AccuWeather and now with WeatherBell, asked Is the Weather Getting Worse? Joe loves heavy weather! [ When I was living living on boats and ships, I did too, as long as I was safely tied to a dock.) Joe makes a good argument that the 1930s had weather that he liked better — it was worse. There is nothing like the weather to teach humility.

Lord Christopher Monckton will speak on Why Extreme Weather Was Wrongly Expected. You have to watch or listen to this informative and amusing presentation.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Greg Wrightstone, of the CO₂ Coalition, gave us a presentation in the Killing Agriculture to Save the Planet session about the improvement in agricultural productivity in America’s breadbasket — the Midwest. Almost all critical statistics have been rising and rising improved weather and CO₂ enhancement.

Dr. Patrick Moore, one of the co-founders of Greenpeace, addressed the crowd on the campaign Allow Golden Rice Now. The use of the term “genetically modified” as a disparaging descriptor is false and wrong. Most of our fruits and vegetables we but in the grocery stores in the USA, Europe and Australia have been purpose bred to have the traits we desire. GMOs are safer than conventionally bred crops.

GMO corn, cotton, rice, potatoes– widely grown in the world today. Golden Rice provides the necessary Vitamin A precursor — beta-carotene. Today’s Greenpeace led a mob to destroy demonstration fields of Golden Rice in the Philippines. There is no “bad thing” in GMO foods.

David Legates, informed us about the un-natural fight against Nitrous Oxide [ N₂O ] now called “a super-pollutant”. N₂O is part of the nitrogen cycle and that is part of the fertilizer cycle that is increasing crop yields around the world. “Solutions” include outlawing fertilizer, composting your dead grandmother and other equally nutty ideas that are totally unnecessary.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Readers should know that there are two presentations happening in each time slot and I can only attend one of them. To get the full impact of the conference, that’s HERE.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Our breakfast speaker was new to the climate field — Marlo Oaks, the Treasurer of the State of Utah. He gave a marvelous presentation on the Dangers of ESG. (Environmental, Social, and Governance). ESG masquerades as a responsible investing.  Seeks an outcome – based on leftist-progressive values and politics. ESG masquerades as a responsible investing.  ESG seeks an outcome – based on leftist-progressive values and politics. ESG itself is a danger to society. Go over to Heartland Institute’s website and listen to the presentation in its entirety.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Good Morning, World! Another beautiful day in Central Florida. Some of the conference attendees wear layers — conference clothes (it is well air-conditioned in the meeting rooms) over poolside clothes. The pool area is just a few steps from the meeting rooms. Lots of couples with little “I love amusement parks!” kids, all cute-as-a-button, not an unfortunate child among them. And the languages spoken! I have identified French, Italian, two dialects of Chinese, Tagalog (of some other Philippine dialect), Spanish (of course), Korean and half a dozen others a total mystery to me.

Every child is adorned with a clever t-shirt with a slogan that makes one smile or is hugging a plush toy representing the cartoon characters we all know and loved when we were kids.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tonight’s Keynote Dinner featured the presentation of two major awards.

The first award, the Dauntless Purveyor of Climate Truth was presented to the magnificent Jo Nova, who has been pushing climate truths from Australia since 2008, after publishing The Skeptics Handbook I and the Skeptics Handbook II (both .pdfs). Jo Nova attended by video meeting.

Previous recipients of this prestigious award have been Jay Lehr, Marc Morano and Walter Cunningham.

The second award was the Frederick Seitz Award. Seitz participated in the development of solid state physics for over 50 years. Later in life, he became involved in the physics of the climate issue and was a pillar of the skeptic movement.

The award was given to Christopher Essex. In his acceptance speed, Essex (a Canadian physicist), referred to climate models as “cartoons” and described a cartoon world. His view is that they are not fit to be used for government policy. And because climate models are not “theories”, they can’t be used to perform experiments.

Wrapping up the dinner session was a excellent presentation by Alex Epstein, a powerful speaker with a powerful message: “We should be using more fossil fuels, not less — towards the goal of human flourishing.

The slide deck of his presentation can be obtained by emailing resources@alexepstein.com.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Steve Milloy! Breaking News: on Fox News this morning. Steve Milloy vs. ChatGPT.

Milloy points out what most readers here know, El Niños drive warming, not emissions.

NetZero is not possible. The technologies required do not yet exist.

That report is here.

Speaking in data analysis and models for SCC was Kevin Dayaratna. Can we model the economic impact of the re-entry to the Paris Agreement? The Heritage Foundation built a model to find out. As a resulkt of their models?

Ben Lieberman spoke in the benefits of air conditioning, saving 18,000 lives in the USA every year. The benefits fall not only in adults, but children learn much better in air conditioned schools. But the alarmists want to ban, restrict access to, or make air conditioners too expensive for those that need them most.

The battle is not only against the electrical use of air conditioners. But the second battle is against the refrigerants used in air conditioners — HFCs or freons. The Kagali accords call for more expensive replacements.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ronald Stein does a terrific job of making the point that renewable energy systems (solar, wind turbines) can ONLY make electricity — they cannot make the things that use the electricity. Things that use electricity — cell phones, hospital equipment, even wind turbines — are made from petroleum and its derivatives. If we quit developing fossil fuel sources, we will not be able to manufacture the millions of items made from petroleum. We must have oil and we must have oil refineries.

Modern agriculture depends on nitrogen fertilizers, which are manufactured with petroleum derivatives.

There are 1.4 Billion gas/diesel powered vehicles. And only 12 million EVs. EVs are mostly used as second vehicles — and only drive about 5000 miles per year.

Stein’s Bottom Line? We mustn’t give up fossil fuels until we have a replacement for all that it does.

Linnea Lueken, Heartland Institute, spoke on the U.S. oil industry. She has worked off-shore on oil drilling rigs. She explains that the Federal government threatens to ban drilling for oil and gas on Federal land while international banks are refusing to finance oil exploration. Thus, not all existing oil leases are actually in production.

Interfering with the processes of exploration, drilling, pumping and moving oil from well to refinery. Protests and “law-fare” (filing nuisance suits to obstruct or delay petroleum projects.

In the USA? Existing oil/gas pipelines in operation today:

From her off-shore rig experience, Linnea supports the Rigs-to-Reefs effort. (BTW, she is absolutely right. Anytime anything solid is placed into the seas and oceans, it becomes a reef – it can be a single rock, a battleship, or an active or abandoned oil rig).

Next up was Alex Epstein, author of the new book, Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas–Not Less. He is a proponent of human flourishing which requires more, not less, oil, natural gas and coal. The climate change movement, the climate catastrophists, want the goal of Net Zero, the policies of which will result in the opposite of human flourishing.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Speaking at the Keynote Lunch today, all the way from Australia, the incomparable Ian Plimer — author of Green Murder. Dr Plimer told the audience that the world’s geologists do not think that humans can change or control planetary processes — like the climate. Geologists, like himself, look to the past to inform us of the present and the possible future. Plimer advises that we mustn’t just look at the atmosphere, but at the seas, the land and the rocks. He points out that Earth has Ice Ages when CO₂ levels in the atmosphere were a great deal higher than today. The atmosphere has many cycles, the oxygen cycle, the CO₂ cycle, the warming and cooling or oceans and atmosphere. The re-configuring of the continents has contributed to the current cool period. We are in a crisis of common sense — there is not enough of it — and we are in a crisis of CO₂ — there is not enough of it in the atmosphere.

Marlo Oaks, treasurer of Utah, was to speak at the luncheon. Unfortunately his plane was delayed and he has been put on the re-schedule list.

Filling that spot, is the unstoppable Marc Morano. His topic was the Great Reset.

Make sure to catch his very enthusiastic presentation at Heartlands site where they will soon have YouTubes of conference.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In answer to a question from the audience, inquiring about the government’s insistence on regulating methane, Dr. Will Happer, who was also in attendance, stated “It (methane) is trivial. There is no reason to regulate methane.”

Dr. Richard Lindzen spoke on climate sensitivity and that there seems to be two types of climate change. One in the tropics and one at the poles. The cause? Physics (which is not a surprise coming from one of the leading physicists in the USA): The rotation of the Earth.

Dr. Lindzen stated clearly that he thinks that the climate skeptic movement is not winning the battle for the public mind. The alarmists use the principle of Goebbels: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” By appealing to the insecurity of non-scientists with simple narratives and easy to understand, even if false, analogies like “CO₂ is like a blanket.”

Dr. Judith Curry spoke in a pre-recorded presentation about the problems of the current scientific approaches to the climate change issue and how we might better take a Wicked Science appraoch.

Ross McKitrick reviewed recent papers, including his own, on the Social Cost of Carbon. Recent estimates run from $5.25 per tin down through $3.39, $0.15 to minus $0.72. The minus cost means that increasing CO₂ is a net gain for society.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anthony Watts previewed his new Global Open Atmospheric Temperature System that can be installed by any educated person who can operate a crescent wrench and connect to a WiFi network.

Stay tuned for links and more information, I hope.

[Alas, no web site yet. It is simply that new. Anthony estimates it will be at least a couple of weeks befre there is more information available. The purpose of these is to create a private climate network, out of the hands of politicians and entirely unbiased. The planned network will have no agenda. ]

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I’ve ducked out of Anthony Watts’ session on Temperatures to share with you the link to the LIVE STREAM of the Conference fro Heartland Institute:

LIVE STREAM 15th ICCC

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Heartland Institute’s 15^th International Conference on Climate Change kicked off this evening  with a “Meet the Speakers” reception.  While it was advertised as a “dessert reception”, attendees were treated to a wide variety of dinner offerings:  hamburgers, beef and veggies, shrimp, salads, southern-stye mac-n-cheese and many other dishes, all to be eaten either “reception style” standing at small high tables or at regular 8-person round dinner tables.

And who was there ?  Everyone but you!  Not really.  But in attendance were all the speakers that will be making presentations over the next 48 hours including:  Will Happer, Patrick Moore, Anthony Watts, Richard Lindzen, Dr. Willie Soon,  Ian Plimer, Cork Hayden, Ronald Stein, Alex Epstein, Marc Morano, Greg Wrightstone, James Taylor, David Legates, Christopher Monckton,  and many many more whose names you would immediately recognize.   These stellar personalities didn’t just stand at the lectern and lecture, they circulated, shook hands and chatted – face-to-face with all comers as equals.

And not just the “big names”, but a ton of people who, if you knew the handles they use when commenting on the blogs and podcasts, you would be glad to meet.

The highlight of the evening was the screening of a new climate skeptical 1-hour documentary titled “A Climate Conversation”.  A terrific movie, which was shown for the first time outside of its production studios, is not yet available for public viewing…but you will want to see it as soon as it is.

Stay tuned, more tomorrow at noon.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I am here at the fabulous Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista in Orlando, Florida where the world’s true, and best, experts on the climate have gathered to analyze the latest climate science and the wrong-headed energy and policy solutions that the world’s governments are determined to impose on us all. Check back here often over the next three days for the very latest news, which will appear at the top of this post as it is published.

# # # # #

Author’s Comment:

My thanks go out to the Heartland Institute for providing me with Media Access to the conference, and to the CO₂ Coalition for again inviting me to attend as a member….and, more so, many thanks to Anthony Watts and the ever-striving Charles the Marvelous Moderator who make WUWT not only possible, but have made it the world’s most viewed internet blog on climate.

# # # # #