COP 17 Experts

CFACT’s Delegation to the UN Conference on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa,  includes the following dignitaries:  Lord Christopher Monckton, Marc Morano, Craig Rucker, Leon Louw, and Dr. Kelvin Kemm.

Lord Christopher Monckton

The eldest son of the 2nd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, Monckton was educated at Harrow School, Churchill College, Cambridge and University College, Cardiff. He joined the Yorkshire Post in 1974 and then worked as a press officer at the Conservative Central Office from 1977-79.

In 1979, he became the editor of the Catholic newspaper, The Universe, and then a managing editor of The Sunday, Telegraph’s Magazine  in 1981. In 1982 he returned to the Conservative offices again, this time as UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s policy advisor, where he served from 1982 to 1986.

While at 10 Downing Street, Lord Monckton gave policy advice on technical issues such as warship hydrodynamics (his work led to his appointment as the youngest Trustee of the Hales Trophy for the Blue Riband of the Atlantic), psephological modeling (predicting the result of the 1983 General Election to within one seat), embryological research, hydrogeology (leading to the award of major financial assistance to a Commonwealth country for the

construction of a very successful hydroelectric scheme), public-service investment analysis(leading to savings of tens of billions of pounds), public welfare modeling (his model of the UK tax and benefit system was, at the time, more detailed than the Treasury’s economic model, and led to a major simplification of the housing benefit system) and epidemiological analysis.

On leaving 10 Downing Street, Lord Monckton became assistant editor of the newly-formed (and now defunct) newspaper, Today. His final job in journalism was as a consulting editor of the Evening Standard from 1987 -1992.

Monckton has since been a director of his own specialist consultancy company, giving technical advice to corporations and governments. In 1999, he created the eternity puzzle, a geometric puzzle which involved tiling a dodecagon with 209 irregularly shaped polygons called polydrafters. A £1m prize was won after 18 months. By that time, 500,000 puzzles had been sold. A second puzzle, Eternity II, is to be launched in July 2007, with a prize of $2 million.

Monckton has been in the news in recent months due to his scepticism of global warming. In November 2006, he published in The Daily Telegraph a widely publicized article critical of the prevailing climate change opinions. After U.S. Senators Rockefeller and Snowe wrote a letter to the Chief Executive Officer of ExxonMobil asking him to stop funding scientists who reject global warming, Lord Monckton wrote a letter to the senators reminding them of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and calling on them to reverse their position or resign. In February 2007, he published an analysis and summary of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on climate change.

Marc Morano

is the executive editor and chief correspondent for Climate Depot, a global warming and eco-news center founded in 2009.  Morano served for three years as a senior advisor, speechwriter, and climate researcher for U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as he also managed the award-winning communication operations of the GOP side. Morano, who has spent years researching climate change, environmental, and energy issues, traveled to Greenland in 2007 to investigate global warming claims. As Senate staff, Morano also attended the United Nation’s climate eco-conferences held in Kenya, Indonesia, and Poland in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Morano authored and compiled the 2007 groundbreaking report of 400-plus dissenting scientists and the follow-up 2009 report of 700-plus scientists dissenting from man-made global warming fears. Morano has held both White House and Capitol Hill Press credentials and a former member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has attended and reported on numerous international eco-conferences as well as the 2002 UN-sponsored Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. Prior to joining the Senate, Morano worked for well over a decade as an investigative journalist, documentary maker, radio talk show host and national television correspondent. In 2000, his investigative television documentary “Amazon Rainforest: Clear-Cutting the Myths” created an international firestorm. His reporting has made international news, including appearances and coverage on CNN, Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes, BBC TV, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, US Weekly Magazine, web links from the Drudge Report, the entertainment show Extra TV, and Politically Incorrect w/ Bill Maher.

Craig Rucker

A native of Buffalo, New York, who received his Masters of Public Administration from the State University of New York at Albany, Craig Rucker is a co-founder of CFACT and currently serves as its executive director. For over 20 years, Craig has provided expertise to a wide range of government, academic, media, and industry forums. He serves as co-host of CFACT’s daily national radio commentary called “Just the Facts” that has been airing on some 125 radio stations from coast to coast since 1993. Rucker has written extensively on numerous environmental policy issues, and his work has been featured in such media outlets as CNN, the BBC, USA Today, the Des Moines Register, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, The Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. Rucker has had primary responsibility for helping build CFACT’s Collegians program on more than 20 campuses in nine states, and has attended or brought student delegations to major United Nations conferences in Istanbul, Kyoto, Bonn, Marrakesh, Cancun, and Montreal. Rucker has a wife and four sons, and currently resides in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Leon Louw

Leon Louw is a well known South African personality who, for over a generation, has been active in diverse aspects of public life. He is credited with having had a significant impact on the course of events in South Africa, especially regarding the extensive economic reforms that have taken place during the past two decades. He has received numerous international awards, and, with his wife, Frances Kendall, has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Presently he is the Executive Director of the Free Market Foundation (FMF) and of the Law Review Project.

Mr Louw co-authored South Africa: The Solution and Let the People Govern – both of which had a significant impact on the constitutional process. SA: The Solution has been republished in various countries, including the USA and Canada, as After Apartheid, the Solution for the South Africa. Many of the authors specific proposals for the post-apartheid constitution have been incorporated in South Africa’s new constitution, despite having been almost uniformly dismissed at the time of publication.

Dr. Kelvin Kemm

Dr. Kelvin Kemm is a nuclear physicist who runs his own business strategy consultancy, Stratek, based in Pretoria, South Africa.  For many years he has also been involved in improving public understanding of technology issues.  He regularly writes articles, gives public presentations and appears on radio and television, presenting science topics to lay audiences in an inspirational manner.  He is active in energy policy matters and believes Africa must chart its own future, independent of developed country perceptions and pressures. Dr. Kemm has been awarded a Lifetime Achievers Award by the South African National Science and Technology Forum.