Before forum, a hostile climate
Critics bristling at invitation of energy speaker
John Casey
Forum organizers, however, said the invitation to speak is not an endorsement, but an opportunity to spark discussion.
“What are they afraid of?” said Bonnie Petersen, who put together the agenda, not Club 20 or the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado, both listed as hosts of the forum.
Petersen until recently was executive director of Club 20 and now heads AGNC.
She and Kathy Hall, however, own the Energy Forum and Expo and it was Petersen who invited Casey, she said.
“I was interested in his book,” Petersen said, noting that solar cycles are frequently part of discussions about climate.
Casey’s book, “Dark Winter: How the Sun is Causing a 30-Year Cold Spell,” lays out his theory of relational cycles of solar activity.
He is the owner of Space and Science Research Corp. in Florida and publishes a quarterly Global Climate Status Report.
His background includes serving as a White House space program adviser, consultant to NASA headquarters and space shuttle engineer, according to his resume.
He also is the chairman of a separate company, the International Earthquake and Volcano Prediction Center, which his website says accurately predicted three earthquakes.
Casey is not a climate scientist. His resume indicates he holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics and a master’s degree in management.
Criticism of Casey began this week when Richard Alward, who has a doctorate in ecology, questioned Casey’s credentials in an editorial column in The Daily Sentinel.
“In his tedious book of self-discovery, Mr. Casey describes a ‘moment of revelation’ (his words) in 2007 following exhaustive study in which he first recognized the role of solar cycles in driving changes in climate,” Alward wrote.
The energy forum should have offered a balancing viewpoint, said Eric Rechel, who holds a doctorate in botany and is the president of the Mesa County chapter of Western Colorado Congress.
“I’m sure there are scientists out there who have an opinion about how this energy from fossil fuels is causing some of this climate change,” Rechel said, noting that there will be a protest rally outside Two Rivers Convention Center after Casey’s speech.
The forum itself seems to be a “fossil-fuel rally,” Rechel said. “It could have more alternative-energy options presented.”
He plans to attend the forum, Rechel said, because “it’s important to get both sides.”
Teresa Coons, executive director of the John McConnell Math and Science Center, which is listed as a host of the expo, said she doesn’t endorse Casey’s views and is “puzzled” about why he was invited. She said she agrees with Petersen’s belief that alternative viewpoints should be entertained at the expo.
“However, I think they need to be viewpoints that are backed by credentials,” Coons said. “I’m failing to find his background and expertise. I’m not sure he’s a valid speaker for an alternative viewpoint.”
Coons said the Math and Science Center has been a supporter of the expo for the last four years or so, and that she sits on a planning committee that in years past has discussed potential expo topics and speakers and reached a consensus about them. This year, though, she said she learned a few days before the committee met for the first time that Casey had been invited. The committee was presented an agenda of topics and speakers at its first meeting.
Coons said she expressed reservation about Casey and suggested a panel of speakers be put together that included someone with a more “prevalent viewpoint” about climate change. She said she was told a panel discussion didn’t fit the format of the expo.
She said her concern about the Math and Science Center being associated with Casey led her to not purchase advertising in a publication about the expo, something she said she traditionally does.
Casey said in an email that he is a frequent target of the those who believe the Earth is heating up and that man is at fault.
“As you might expect, as one of Al Gore’s and President Obama’s most vocal critics of (their) climate policies, I have been the target of those in the man-made global warming community and their supporters since I announced the end of global warming and the start of the next cold climate in 2007,” Casey wrote. “Thus, it is normal for those who don’t want others to hear my message to launch personal attacks.”
The forum, said Kathy Hall, has no agenda other than public education. It’s financed by booth sales in the expo, which is why the forum and expo are open free to the public, Hall said.
Speakers in the previous nine editions of the forum and expo have been controversial, but none has drawn the kind of criticism that Casey has.
“I just find it really disturbing that we can’t have open dialog about these things,” Hall said.
While Casey is the luncheon speaker, he is not the keynote speaker, as all speakers are considered to be on equal footing, Hall said.
Colorado Mesa University, also listed as a host of the event, wasn’t consulted about the speakers lineup, said Derek Wagner, vice president for intergovernmental and community affairs at CMU.
Hosts were asked only to publicize the event in their networks, Petersen said.
Coons said she’s worried the controversy over Casey will take away from the value of the expo.
“We really believe in the concept of the Energy Expo,” she said, referring to herself and the Math and Science Center board of directors. “It’s a valuable source of info for energy and energy issues. My concern is this year there’s been an element of polarization and politicization that’s been introduced that I don’t think was necessary. I don’t have any problem with having controversial or competing ideas presented. I think there were potentially better speakers with more valid credentials to present those views.”
The Friday forum runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and the expo from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the convention center.
Open discussion in closed!
Or so say those that have determined that the only approach is to hold a sign that says
“THE WORLD IS ENDING!”
Al Gore has declared the conversation is over and that my friends is that.
Never mind that the hockey stick theory has been debunked, Never mind that the pertinent information such as recorded temperatures has been fiddled with, never mind that the earth is now entering a cooling period.
THIS DISCUSSION IS CLOSED!
The earth will be now entering into it’s final decent into the sun and it is caused by the dreaded FOSSIL FUEL!
End of story. Case and Class CLOSED! (not to mention minds)
GO on now! Get to the next story and stop reading and believing that there could be ANY discussion on global warming (or as it has been changed to the new term, climate change).
You still here? This discussion is closed.
Or so say those that have determined that the only approach is to hold a sign that says
“THE WORLD IS ENDING!”
Al Gore has declared the conversation is over and that my friends is that.
Never mind that the hockey stick theory has been debunked, Never mind that the pertinent information such as recorded temperatures has been fiddled with, never mind that the earth is now entering a cooling period.
THIS DISCUSSION IS CLOSED!
The earth will be now entering into it’s final decent into the sun and it is caused by the dreaded FOSSIL FUEL!
End of story. Case and Class CLOSED! (not to mention minds)
GO on now! Get to the next story and stop reading and believing that there could be ANY discussion on global warming (or as it has been changed to the new term, climate change).
You still here? This discussion is closed.
Kathy Hall owns this event? That explains everything!
Gary Harmon and Tim Fenwick have missed the point of having this
speaker actually speak…It is NOT his opinion that everyone is up in arms
about. He can think anyway he wants.
The issue is his claims of “years of study” and “publication(s)” and overall “professional” status. He is simply a charlatan, a fake, a showy shyster. He denigrates and belittles factual science by his presence and taints all the dedicated scientists our country has produced with his paid for rhetoric. The tobacco industry played the same game to the point that even Physicians and Nurses smoked and believed smoking was not bad for an individuals health. We know better now.
Refuting FACTUAL science on Climate Change is a death sentence for ALL life, not just the few that “deny.” The change will take decades, but life as we know it is well on the way to extinction. The Earth will continue to exist…
This is not an “Energy Forum” that Bonnie Peterson has put together…it is a “Fossil Fuel” refuge and asylum.
The issue is his claims of “years of study” and “publication(s)” and overall “professional” status. He is simply a charlatan, a fake, a showy shyster. He denigrates and belittles factual science by his presence and taints all the dedicated scientists our country has produced with his paid for rhetoric. The tobacco industry played the same game to the point that even Physicians and Nurses smoked and believed smoking was not bad for an individuals health. We know better now.
Refuting FACTUAL science on Climate Change is a death sentence for ALL life, not just the few that “deny.” The change will take decades, but life as we know it is well on the way to extinction. The Earth will continue to exist…
This is not an “Energy Forum” that Bonnie Peterson has put together…it is a “Fossil Fuel” refuge and asylum.
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