Rohrabacher To Keynote Climate Conference

Published May 7, 2009

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, among Congress’s most outspoken and knowledgeable opponents of global warming alarmism, will keynote the third International Conference on Climate Change June 2 in Washington, DC.

Rohrabacher, a Republican who has represented southern California for more than 20 years, has been unrelenting in his rebuttal of global warming assumptions and in identifying the huge economic and personal costs stemming from legislative proposals aimed at halting global warming.

The theme of the one-day conference, to be held at the Washington Court Hotel, 525 New Jersey Avenue NW, is “Climate Change: Scientific Debate and Economic Analysis.”

In a recent House speech, Rohrabacher cited fallout from such schemes as cap-and-trade to reduce carbon emissions and restrictions on personal travel and leisure activities.

He told Congress, “It takes a lot to frighten people into accepting such economically destructive and personally restrictive mandates that would result from implementing a global warming-based agenda. That’s why debate has been stifled with ‘Case is Closed,’ and phony claims of consensus.”

Former Vice President Al Gore has come in for scathing criticism from Rohrabacher, who has referred to “Mr. Gore’s mumbo jumbo.” The congressman–a senior member of the House Science Committee–noted Gore’s “predictions have been wrong. And the CO2 premise is wrong. The methodology that has been used has been wrong. The observations have been wrong. And the attempt to shut up those people who disagree has been wrong.”

Rohrabacher will be joined by more than 20 of the world’s leading scientists and economists who will challenge the supposed “consensus” that global warming has reached crisis proportions and has been caused primarily by human activity.

Featured speakers at the conference will include Dr. Richard Lindzen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the world’s leading experts in dynamic meteorology; Dr. Willie Soon, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Dr. Roy Spencer, University of Alabama at Huntsville and principal research scientist and team leader on NASA’s Aqua satellite; Ben Lieberman, senior economic policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation; and Dr. Harrison Schmitt, Harvard-trained geologist, former U.S. senator and former astronaut, the last living man to have walked on the moon.

“We’re holding this conference in Washington because that’s where global warming alarmism is the most dangerous today,” said Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, a 25-year-old think tank and producer of each of the previous two conferences. “Global warming is not a crisis, and immediate action to reduce emissions is not necessary.”

Dan Miller, executive vice president of The Heartland Institute, noted, “Funding for the conference will come from admission fees and from charitable contributions from individuals, foundation, and corporate donors. Funds from corporations represented less than 14 percent of Heartland’s annual budget in 2008, and no corporation gave more than 4 percent of Heartland’s budget that year.”

Further details of the Washington conference will be found on The Heartland Institute’s Web site at www.heartland.org, or contact Dan Miller at (312) 377-4000 or [email protected]. Members of accredited media, online and print, are invited to cover the conference by registering in advance.