The Heartland Institute [1] is rounding up the usual suspects for a conference [2] that will alert international media to "the fact" that a shocking number of "scientists" can be induced with a little cash and a free trip to New York City to question the science of global warming.

As reported by RealClimate.org [3], this is not a "scientific conference" in the normal sense:

"Normal scientific conferences have the goal of discussing ideas and data in order to advance scientific understanding. Not this one. The organisers are surprisingly open about this in their invitation letter [4] to prospective speakers, which states:

'The purpose of the conference is to generate international media attention to the fact that many scientists believe forecasts of rapid warming and catastrophic events are not supported by sound science, and that expensive campaigns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are not necessary or cost-effective.'

So this conference is not aimed at understanding, it is a PR event aimed at generating media reports."

If you doubt RealClimate's analysis, you can look to Heartland's program and participant list [5] for confirmation. It's a who's who of apologists for tobacco [6], coal [7] and oil [8]; a long list of people like Christopher Monckton, who don't mind when they lie [9], or like Bob Carter, who don't make any sense when they are telling their truth [10].

Heartland has taken over the from thoroughly discredited Competitive Enterprise Institute [11] as the leading propaganda mill sowing confusion about climate science, although CEI is one of the sponsors [12] of this event. We at the DeSmogBlog will try to keep track over the coming weeks to see if any new faces show up among the scientists for hire. Our dream gift for 2008, however, would be a list of the politicians and "journalists" who accept Heartland's offer of an all-expenses paid trip for the New York gabfest.