During his closing remarks at the Heartland Institute’s Seventh “International Conference on Climate Change,” Heartland President Joseph Bast revealed that the group has no plans to hold another conference and is struggling to pay its staff following the defections of corporate sponsors in the wake of the disastrous Unabomber billboard campaign and Deniergate document dump.

“I’m not a good fundraiser,” Bast admitted to the crowd today in Chicago as the gathering wound down.

Bast appealed directly to the crowd for donations, saying that “if you’ve got a rich uncle” [ask him to donate to Heartland]. 

“At this point we have no plans to do another ICCC,” Bast said, referring to the somewhat-annual gatherings which DeSmogBlog dubbed Denial-a-Palooza years ago. 

Watch Bast’s closing remarks here (fast forward to 01:31:20). 

See below the fold for excerpted quotes from Bast’s final remarks.

Bast announces at 1:38:05:

“I hope to see you at a future conference, but at this point we have no plans to do another ICCC.”

“Please consider supporting the Heartland Institute. These conferences are expensive, and I’m not a good fundraiser so as a result I don’t raise enough money to cover them, we really scramble to make payroll as a result to cover these expenses. If you can afford to make a contribution, please do. If you know someone, if you’ve got a rich uncle or somebody in the family or somebody that you work with, please give them a call and ask them if they would consider making a tax-deductable contribution to the Heartland Institute.”

Bast specifically thanked sponsors the Heritage Foundation and the Illinois Coal Association.

At 01:34:40, Bast notes the low attendance compared to past conferences:

“The fact that attendance was a grand total under 300 doesn’t mean this was a waste of time if tens of thousands end up seeing the videos on our websites.”

Stay tuned for updates.

See DeSmogBlog’s profiles of the Heartland Institute ICCC7 Speakers and Sponsors.