Look Who’s Talking

Published May 28, 2009

Here’s a rundown on the speakers at the third International Conference on Climate Change set for June 2 at the Washington Court Hotel, 525 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington DC:

Dr. Richard Lindzen, MIT professor of meteorology, and a rock star among climatologists. Not all skeptics are skeptical the same way. While Dr. Lindzen agrees global warming doesn’t pose a threat to Earth, he disagrees with other skeptics who argue solar activity is the primary driver of climate change.

Anthony Watts, a 25-year veteran of broadcast meteorology. His new report, “Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable?” dramatizes in words and photos the laughably incompetent siting of climate-monitoring stations overseen by the National Weather Service. How do we know if global warming is a problem if we can’t trust the temperature record?

Dr. S. Fred Singer, a giant in the science of climate change. He is the leading proponent of the assertion that nature, not human activity, is the main cause of climate change, and therefore, efforts to control emissions of greenhouse gases are not only hugely expensive and ineffective, but completely pointless.

Dr. Willie Soon, geoscientist. A leading scholar in the science of climate change that has taken place over the past 1,000 years.

Dr. Harrison Schmitt, an astronaut and the last living man to have walked on the Moon. He argues that the real peril to the planet comes from the widespread rejection of sound science on the global warming question, and that scientists who take a skeptical view of global warming are being intimidated.

Dr. David Tuerck, chairman of the economics department at Suffolk University, Boston and president, Beacon Hill Institute. He contends cost-benefit analysis of efforts to cap carbon emissions makes the case for rejecting this huge tax increase.

Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, author and editor of countless books and articles on climate change. Global warming simply is not the crisis so many politicians and activists claim it is, he says … and it never was.

Dr. Gabriel Calzada, economics professor, King Juan Carlos University, Madrid. His scholarship shows that for every “green job” created in Spain, more than two jobs were lost or pre-empted in the traditional job market.

Dr. Roy Spencer, principal research scientist at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. His work with NASA’s Aqua satellite demonstrated that April continued to reflect a lack of significant warming of global temperatures. The globe hasn’t significantly warmed for the past 30 years, he says.

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), one of Congress’s most feisty opponents of legislation to cap greenhouse gas emission and issue pollution permits.

Dr. Craig Idso, chairman of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change. A fierce and authoritative critic of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which forms the basis for alarmist warnings of doom and destruction.

Dr. Patrick Michaels, senior fellow, Cato Institute. A skeptic among the skeptics, he believes human activity has contributed significantly to a rise in global temperatures but argues new technologies will soon replace those that emit greenhouse gases.

Bob Carter, Hon. FRSNZ, research professor in environmental sciences, James Cook University, New Zealand. He contends global warming stopped in 1998.

James Taylor, JD, senior fellow for environment issues at The Heartland Institute. Extraordinarily well informed on the details of the science of climate change, he has won debates against scores of alarmists on dozens of global warming issues.

Dr. John Theon, former NASA project manger. He accused his former underling, James Hansen, of “embarrassing NASA” with his increasingly strident alarms of imminent death and destruction from the effects of global warming.

Dr. Jeff Kueter, president, George C. Marshall Institute. A superb communicator, he works with scientists to help improve the understanding and awareness of complex scientific topics by the public, the media, and policy makers.

Ben Lieberman, JD, senior policy analyst for economic policy at The Heritage Foundation. He is a perceptive student of the interplay between politics and the science of climate change.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma). He once held a press conference in a Washington snow storm to ridicule alarmist predictions of global warming.

Lord Christopher Monckton, chief policy advisor to the Science and Public Policy Institute. Erudite, witty, and well-schooled in climate change science, he brought down the house at the conclusion of the second International Conference on Climate Change in New York in March.

For more information about the third International Conference on Climate Change, contact Dan Miller at [email protected] or Tammy Nash at [email protected], or call (312) 377-4000.