Prominent Global Warming Skeptic Honored with Frederick Seitz Memorial Award
(PRWEB) June 24, 2014 -- Dr. Sherwood B. Idso – the world’s leading authority on the effects of carbon dioxide on plants – will receive special recognition at an international conference on global warming taking place July 7–9 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Dr. Idso is the first recipient of the Frederick Seitz Memorial Award, an annual award established by former colleagues of one of the world’s best known and most highly respected scientists. Seitz was deeply skeptical of claims that “global warming” is either man-made or dangerous. The award will be presented by atmospheric scientist Dr. S. Fred Singer of the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP).
Global Warming Debate
The debate over the causes and consequences of global warming (or “climate change”) is one of the great controversies of the modern era. While environmental activists and some politicians claim “the debate is over” and call for immediate action to reduce man-made greenhouse gas emissions, others say the science points to only a very small human impact – too small to warrant concern – and the costs of trying to prevent global warming far exceed the benefits.
Ninth International Conference on Climate Change
The Ninth International Conference on Climate Change is expected to attract nearly 1,000 speakers, scientists, and guests willing to question whether man-made global warming is a problem worth addressing. The event has 31 cosponsors and features 60 prominent scientists and economists as keynoters or panelists.
Click here to register for media credentials for the Ninth International Conference on Climate Change at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, July 7–9.
Dr. Sherwood Idso
The award recipient, Dr. Sherwood Idso, is president of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, a nonprofit research and education organization based in Tempe, Arizona. Prior to 2001 he was a research physicist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service at the U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona, where he worked since 1967.
Dr. Idso is the author or co-author of more than 500 scientific publications and three influential books on carbon dioxide and global change, the most recent being Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts (2014). He served long tenures on the editorial board of the international journals Agricultural and Forest Meteorology and Environmental and Experimental Botany. Over the course of his career, he has been an invited reviewer of manuscripts for 56 scientific journals and 17 funding agencies, representing an unusually large array of disciplines.
For more about Dr. Idso, click here.
“Sherwood Idso is a true pioneer,” said Singer. “It is only fitting that he should be the first recipient of the Frederick Seitz Memorial Award. Sherwood was among the very first to point out that carbon dioxide is not an atmospheric pollutant, but a natural minor constituent of Earth’s atmosphere that is essential for maintaining all advanced forms of life: plants, animals, and humans.”
“Dr. Sherwood Idso richly deserves the honor of receiving the first Frederick Seitz Memorial Award. Fred Seitz, a good friend of mine, would have been very pleased with this selection,” said William Happer, a professor of physics at Princeton University and a former director of the office of energy research at the U.S. Department of Energy.
“For pointing out that more carbon dioxide is more likely to benefit the planet than harm it, Dr. Idso was viciously attacked by defenders of the global warming religion and by financial and political beneficiaries of the sacrifices supposedly needed for salvation,” Happer said. “I hope that Dr. Idso will take much pleasure from the Seitz Award, and from the vindication of two of his predictions: satellite measurements have shown a clear greening of the Earth over the past thirty years, and the observed warming has been much less than predicted by establishment climate models.”
Frederick Seitz Memorial Award
“The Frederick Seitz Memorial Award is being created to recognize the unsung heroes of the climate wars,” said Singer. “It rewards scholars for having the courage to swim against the stream of conventional thinking despite the financial and professional disincentives. It seeks to make up, in some small way, for the denial of recognition, promotions, and honors by a politicized and increasingly bureaucratized academy.”
“Dr. Seitz epitomized the courage, independence of thought, and commitment to truth and integrity in science that all scientists should aspire to,” said Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, host of the climate conference. “He made major scientific contributions in his field of specialty, solid state physics, but also devoted much of his life to serving as an ambassador and advocate for science. He founded the George C. Marshall Institute and was chairman of the Science and Environmental Policy Project – both organizations prominent in the debate over global warming – until his death in 2008.”
For more information about Dr. Seitz, click here.
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Ten awards will be given during plenary sessions at the Ninth International Conference on Climate Change. Additional award winners will be announced prior to the start of the conference and at the conference itself. For more information about the conference and a current list of award winners announced to date, visit http://climateconference.heartland.org.
For more information about The Heartland Institute, contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at jlakely(at)heartland(dot)org or 312/377-4000.
The Heartland Institute is a 30-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.
Jim Lakely, Heartland Institute, +1 (312) 377-4000, [email protected]
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