Carolina Journal Exclusives
Enviro Group Rejects Debate Offer

Environment North Carolina declines JLF offer of climate debate

By CJ Staff

October 08, 2007

RALEIGH – Environment North Carolina, an advocacy group that foresees troubling consequences for the Earth from the threat of human-caused global warming, has declined an invitation from the John Locke Foundation to sponsor a debate on the issue.

Roy Cordato, vice president for research for the Locke Foundation, extended the invitation to Environment NC director Elizabeth Ouzts on Sept. 18. He offered to co-sponsor or host a debate “on the issues of global warming and carbon dioxide reduction policies for North Carolina,” to be held at a “very public setting” such as a museum or college campus, with no charge to the public.

Ouzts rejected the invitation on the premise that the “overwhelming majority” of the world’s scientists believe that “unchecked” human activity contributes to dangerous global warming.

“As you know,” Ouzts responded, “the International Panel on Climate Change, made up of leading scientists from across the globe, has published a series or reports detailing the prevailing view of the scientific community.

“Certainly, there are scientists who do not ascribe to this prevailing view. But our two organizations are unlikely to shed new light on the larger disagreement between the vast majority of the world’s scientists and a small number of dissenters on the science of climate change.”

The IPCC is a United Nations-sponsored body of scientists that has studied the implications of global warming since 1988.

Cordato proposed that both the Locke Foundation and Environment NC choose the most appropriate representative of their respective positions for the debate. Last month the Locke Foundation sponsored a debate in Charlotte over a ballot initiative that could repeal the city’s half-cent sales tax for local transit. Opponents of the repeal brought in Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute to make their case while supporters of the initiative brought in the Reason Foundation’s Sam Staley.

The contention that a public debate over global warming is not worthwhile, because the presumably prevailing scientific view supports the human-caused threat to the planet, is popular among left-of-center advocates and environmental groups. Former Vice President Al Gore, who won an Academy Award for his global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” refuses to debate experts from the Heartland Institute, who downplay the climate threat and its threat to humankind.

"The debate has shifted to how to solve the climate crisis, not if there is one," Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Gore, told the Chicago Sun-Times. "It does not make sense for him to engage in a dialogue with them at this time."

Heartland in April published a booklet titled “Scientific Consensus on Global Warming,” which distilled the results of two surveys of climate scientists on global warming. Their findings showed divided opinion among scientists on many aspects of the controversy.

The John Locke Foundation publishes Carolina Journal.

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