I don't know if it's related to the conference, but yesterday my father (a biochemist at the University of Chicag0) sent on to me some information (and a request to sign a pledge) that he received in the mail at his university address from Frederick Seitz, listed as Past President, National Academy f Sciences and President Emeritus of Rockefeller University.
In the mailing was a Wall Street Journal ope ed by Arthur and Noah Robinson entitled "Global Warming is 300-year-old News" (from 2000) and a reprint of a lengthy article from the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons from 2007 entitled "Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide" arguing that there have been no negative effects from increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and that there has been increased plant growth. The pledge reads as follows: We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind. There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide may produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the earth. [Needless to say, my father isn't signing.] Beth Elizabeth R. DeSombre Wellesley College
