Prominent Skeptics to Receive Climate Change Awards
WASHINGTON (PRWEB) June 09, 2015 -- Five prominent skeptics of man-caused global warming will receive recognition at the Tenth International Conference on Climate Change, taking place June 11–12 at the Washington Court Hotel.
The winners of the 2015 Climate Change Awards are:
- Sen. Jim Inhofe, who will receive the Political Leadership on Climate Change Award, sponsored by The Heritage Foundation, at the breakfast keynote at 8 a.m. Thursday, June 11.
- William Happer, Ph.D., winner of the 2015 Frederick Seitz Memorial Award, sponsored by the Science & Environmental Policy Project
- David Legates, Ph.D., winner of the Courage in Defense of Science Award, sponsored by the Texas Public Policy Foundation
- Anthony Watts, winner of the Excellence in Climate Science Communication Award, sponsored by the International Climate Science Coalition
- Robert M. Carter, Ph.D., winner of the Lifetime Achievement in Climate Science Award, sponsored by The Heartland Institute.
For more information about the award winners, see this page at the website for the Tenth International Conference on Climate Change. For a full schedule of the June 11–12 conference, click here.
The conference is sold out, but the public and press can view every keynote and panel discussion on the free live-stream at the conference website. For more information about the conference, contact Heartland Institute Director of Communications Jim Lakely at jlakely(at)heartland(dot)org or (cell) 312/731-9364.
The Climate Change Awards were launched in 2014 as a way to recognize individuals of extraordinary ability and unflagging commitment to restoring sound science and common sense to the debate over global warming. These awards deliver long-overdue recognition and encouragement to their recipients. See a list of past recipients here.
“The awards send a signal to the academy and other elite institutions: If they won’t recognize these genuine heroes, then the sponsors of these awards will,” said Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, host of ICCC-10. “We hope these awards, now in their second year, encourage other scientists, philanthropists, and civic and business leaders to speak up on behalf of sound science and common sense.”
Bios of Award Winners:
William Happer, Ph.D. is a physicist who has specialized in the interaction of atoms and nuclei with radiation. He is the Cyrus Fogg Brackett professor of physics (emeritus) at Princeton University and a long-term member of the JASON advisory group, where he pioneered the development of adaptive optics and invented the sodium guide star to eliminate astronomical imaging blurring due to atmospheric turbulence. He was director of the Office of Energy Research at the U.S. Department of Energy from 1991 to 1993.
Happer has been an active and influential writer and speaker on the global warming issue. He is a fellow at the American Physical Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he’s a member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Philosophical Society. He received an Alfred P. Sloan fellowship in 1966, an Alexander von Humboldt award in 1976, the Herbert P. Broida Prize in 1997, the Davisson-Germer Prize, and the Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award in 2000.
U.S. Sen. James Inhofe is well known in his home state of Oklahoma and in Washington, DC as one of the most conservative members of the United States Senate. Human Events recently ranked Inhofe #1 on its list of the “Top 10 Most Outstanding Conservative Senators.” In 2013, National Journal ranked Inhofe among the top five most conservative members of the Senate.
Inhofe considers one of his unique qualifications for office to be the 30 years he’s spent in the business community, where he grew tired of being over-regulated by the federal bureaucracy. He is a lifelong Oklahoman who grew up in Tulsa and graduated from the University of Tulsa with a degree in economics. A veteran of the U.S. Army, Inhofe was first elected to the Senate in 1994 and serves as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
David Legates, Ph.D. is professor of climatology in the Department of Geography at the University of Delaware and an adjunct professor at the university’s Physical Ocean Science and Engineering Program and in the Department of Applied Economics.
Legates has argued for the necessity of technological progress in precipitation measurement used for validating climate change scenarios and for validation of existing data used for that purpose. He co-developed methods to correct bias in gauge-measured precipitation data for wind and temperature effects, with direct applicability in climate change, hydrology, and environmental impact studies. Legates also developed a calibration method that validates NEXRAD radar precipitation data with gauge measurements to improve the accuracy of precipitation estimates.
Anthony Watts is a 25-year broadcast meteorology veteran and currently chief meteorologist for KPAY-AM radio. He got his start as an on-air meteorologist for WLFI-TV in Lafayette, Indiana and at KHSL-TV in Chico, California.
In 1987, he founded ItWorks, which supplies broadcast graphics systems to hundreds of television and radio stations nationwide. Watts established the blog Watts Up With That? (WUWT) in 2006. In 2007, Watts founded SurfaceStations.org, a website devoted to photographing and documenting the quality of weather stations across the United States.
In 2008, WUWT won an Internet voting-based Wizbang Weblog Award for the “Best Science Blog.” In 2011, 2012, and 2013, WUWT took first place in the Bloggies “Best Science Weblog” category, and in 2013, it won overall best blog. WUWT is by far the most viewed website on climate in the world, now approaching a quarter billion views.
Robert M. Carter, Ph.D. is a palaeontologist, stratigrapher, and marine geologist with a 50-year record of university teaching and publishing international research on ancient environmental and climatic change topics.
Carter has acted as an expert witness on climate change before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee; parliamentary select committees on emissions trading in Australia and New Zealand; and in a meeting in Parliament House, Stockholm, Sweden.
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.
Tenth International Conference on Climate Change
The Tenth International Conference on Climate Change is sold out, attracting some 400 speakers, scientists, and guests willing to question whether man-made global warming is a problem worth addressing. The event has 20 cosponsors and features five keynote speeches and 14 panel discussions.
The Heartland Institute is a 31-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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