September 21, 2009

Mr. Roger E. Ailes  
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Fox News Network
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY  10036

Dear Roger, 
Congratulations on your continuing outstanding job at Fox and service to the “fourth estate.”  Some of the co-signers to this letter and I have had the opportunity to be “talking heads” on your network’s programs relative to climate change issues, and we appreciate those opportunities very much.  But now, we have a broader proposal for you to consider: a true debate on climate science and public policy.
As you are aware, over 700 international experts on climate change and its impacts have challenged manmade global warming fears, according to a U.S. Senate Minority Report of the Committee on Environment and Public Works (updated March 17, 2009). An additional 31,000 scientists with degrees in natural sciences have signed an Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine statement, saying they see “no evidence” that either humans or carbon dioxide will cause a climate disaster.

More importantly, science is not about consensus, popularity or votes. Science seeks truth, objectively testing multiple hypotheses against actual data and observations. This methodology must be applied particularly rigorously in matters related to public policy, to ensure that popularly accepted, but incorrect, beliefs do not translate into injurious laws and policies.

Unfortunately, many who support the human-caused climate crisis hypothesis refuse to debate scientists who disagree with them.  Moreover, Fox’s mainstream media competitors have largely failed to acknowledge the complexity of energy and climate change issues, or even that broad scientific disagreement exists.

Critical differences do in fact exist between scientists who observe weather and climate, and those who attempt to model nature’s complexities. Those who observe the natural, economic and sociological aspects of climate change are “realists,” not “skeptics.” The modelers, on the other hand, believe complex mathematics, broad assumptions and computer models can lead to accurate forecasts of the future of climate, Earth’s most complex system.

Fox News would perform an immense public service, by bringing the observers and modelers of climate together for a series of prime time debates. The observers generally question the scientific and economic validity of the manmade climate crisis view, and its attack on the energy sources that underpin America’s economy and national security. The modelers believe they can predict the future, though they have not done so and cannot duplicate the past. Yet, inexplicably, they foresee a bleak future unless drastic measures are taken.

Mr. Roger E. Ailes  
September 21, 2009

A series of debates would not only present the public and Congress with a better basis to judge arguments on both sides; it would also give the observers an objective forum to argue their case – a forum largely denied to them by your competitors, including the leading science journals.
In addition to the presentation of findings and analyses about the roles of carbon dioxide emissions and natural forces, follow-on forums could present experts who can discuss all critical climate change policy issues that have likewise received inadequate attention, including:

• Adapting to warmer (or colder) climates versus trying to prevent climate change and risking significant damage to our employment base, economy, competitiveness, families, civil rights and national security from policies that increase the cost and reduce the supply and reliability of energy;
• Raw material, land use, economic and eminent domain aspects of wind and solar power, and the need for coal, gas and nuclear plants to provide power when the wind and sun are not available;
• How public perceptions have been affected by $79 billion in U.S. government spending directed almost entirely to human-caused climate change research;
• Why long term public policies should not be based on unsuccessful computer models, flawed surface temperature data, and speculative links between modest global warming and natural ice calving, arctic ice changes, glacier and ocean current oscillations, and shifting weather patterns;
• How limiting access to affordable energy will impair efforts to reduce poverty, disease and death in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where two billion people still do not have electricity;
• Whether carbon dioxide, an essential component of life processes, should be declared a “pollutant”;
• Why painfully slashing America’s carbon dioxide emissions to zero would have no effect on global temperatures, as nearly all future CO2 increases will come from developing countries; and
• What can be done to adapt to actual adverse effects of natural climate change, whether warming or cooling, and how economic and technological vitality will make adaptation possible.

Open, robust debate is the cornerstone of a free, democratic society. My colleagues listed below and I would be happy to help Fox News develop a hard-hitting, but fair and balanced, series of discussions – and suggest experts who can discuss these issues in colorful, factual layman’s language.
If Fox News initiates this debate, to present both the “climate change is primarily natural” and “climate change is caused by humans” perspectives, the “manmade global warming disaster” side may have no choice but to respond.
As you know, the House rushed a vote on its energy and climate legislation, with no time for members even to read the 1200-page bill, much less evaluate its implications. Now the Senate is moving forward rapidly with an equally complex bill.
Many informed Americans express legitimate concerns that the cap-and-trade approach will add further taxes on consumers and restrict their access to critically needed energy. 
Energy growth drives the American economy. If we subject energy use, jobs and personal choices to the whims and dictates of unelected and largely unaccountable bureaucrats, activists and judges, the economy will suffer further damage. Indeed, among many current attacks on liberty, cap and trade must certainly rank near the top of the list.

America needs to debate matters of climate change – openly, fully and fairly. It needs to do so now, before the Senate and Congress move any closer to passage of final legislation.

It may be that those who support the human-caused climate change hypothesis will refuse your invitation, as they have other invitations in the past. However, we would be able to objectively present their arguments, so that balance would be maintained.
Thank you for considering this suggestion. If you have any questions, please contact any of the undersigned at your convenience.
Sincerely yours,

Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, PhD
Geologist, Astronaut and Former US Senator
hhschmitt@earthlink.net
Telephone 505-293-3575

Mark V. Trostel
Chairman
Good Neighbor Law

Vladimir Agranovich
Professor of Condensed Matter Physics
University of Texas at Dallas

Professor Syun-Ichi Akasofu, Founder 

International Arctic Research Center 

University of Alaska-Fairbanks

George F. Allen, President
American Energy Freedom Center 
Former US Senator and Governor of Virginia

J. Scott Armstrong, PhD
Professor, The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania,

William L. Armstrong, President
Colorado Christian University
Former United States Senator

E. Calvin Beisner, PhD
National Spokesman
Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation

Pat Boone
Entertainer, and National Spokesman for
60 Plus Association

William M. Briggs, PhD
Statistical Meteorology & Climatology
American Meteorological Society Probability & Statistics Committee

Yaron Brook, PhD
President and Executive Director
Ayn Rand Institute

David H. Douglass
Professor of Physics
University of Rochester

Mary Charmaine Dowling (Age 13)
"A concerned American youth"       
Author of PowerPoint challenging manmade climate crisis

Michael E. Dubrasich, Executive Director
Western Institute for Study of the Environment

Robert Ferguson,President
Science and Public Policy Institute

Patrick K. Goggins
National Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame

Laurence I. Gould, PhD 
Professor of Physics
University of Hartford

William M. Gray
Professor Emeritus
Department of Atmospheric Science
Colorado State University

William Happer, PhD
Professor of Physics
Princeton University
Director, Office of Energy Research, DOE (1991-1993)

Craig D. Idso, PhD – Chairman
Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and
Global Change

Mr. Roger E. Ailes  
September 21, 2009

Roy Innis
National Chairman
Congress of Racial Equality

Richard A. Keen, PhD
Climatologist, Meteorology Instructor and Author
University of Colorado

Pastor David D. King,
Community Organizer and Civil Rights Activist
Inner-city Milwaukee

Deepak Lal, PhD
James S. Coleman Professor of International Development Studies
University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

David Legates, PhD
Professor of Climatology  
University of Delaware

Richard D. Lindzen, PhD
Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Keith Lockitch, Ph.D.
Fellow
Ayn Rand Institute

Dr. John Maulsby, DVM
Former Colorado State Veterinarian

Donald W. Miller, MD
Professor of Surgery
University of Washington School of Medicine

Kary Mullis, PhD
Biochemist
1993 Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry

Tommy Newberry
President, The 1% Club, Inc
New York Times Bestselling Author

Jane M. Orient, MD
Executive Director
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

Mr. Roger E. Ailes  
September 21, 2009

Boyd Polhamus
Host of Television, Radio, and Internet Rodeo programs
"PRCA Rodeo Announcer of the Year"

James C. Roberts, President
The American Veterans Center, and
Radio America

Arthur B. Robinson, PhD
Research Professor of Chemistry 
Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine

Bernard E. Rollin, PhD
University Distinguished Professor and Bioethicist
Department of Philosophy, Colorado State University

Al Sonja Schmidt
Image Award-winning TV Producer/Writer – Children’s television
Author: Deb and Seby’s Real Deal on Global Warming
                          
Willie Soon, PhD
Astrophysicist and Climatologist

Dr. Roy W. Spencer
Principal Research Scientist
University of Alabama in Huntsville

Adele Weeks, MS
High School Chemistry Teacher
The Potter’s School

Adam Wildavsky
Software engineer
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1986)

Jay L. Wile, PhD
Nuclear Chemist
Author of textbooks on chemistry and physics

John Wobensmith
Retired Senior Executive