Rio+20 Experts

CFACT’s delegation to Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil includes the following experts: Lord Christopher Monckton, Marc Morano, David Rothbard, and Craig Rucker.

To schedule an interview appointment with a member of our delegation, please contact:

Russell Cook
rcookmedia@cox.net
+1 (602) 753-9141

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.

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.

David Rothbard

David Rothbard co-founded the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) in 1985, and has served as chairman and president of the organization since its inception. He has provided vision, guidance, and oversight to help build CFACT into a global presence, with activities on three continents and the support of more than 40 internationally-recognized scientists and experts. Rothbard has testified before Congress and various state legislatures; is a regular speaker on college campuses and at policy gatherings in the U.S. and around the world; and has led delegations to numerous U.N. environmental summits including those in Cairo, Kyoto, Buenos Aires, the Hague, Johannesburg, and Nairobi. He is a frequent guest on radio and television talk shows, and his work has been printed or critiqued in such publications as Newsweek, the Houston Chronicle, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Washington Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Rothbard is also now spearheading the creation of model demonstration projects in impoverished villages in Latin America and Africa. He is a graduate of Fairfield University in Connecticut, with a degree in political science. He and his wife, Kelly, are the proud parents of three daughters in suburban Maryland.

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.

Paul Driessen

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, Congress of Racial Equality and other nonprofit public policy think tanks. He writes and speaks frequently on energy, the environment, economic development, malaria eradication, human rights, global warming and corporate social responsibility. His articles have appeared in news-papers and magazines and on news and opinion websites in the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Peru, Venezuela, South Africa, Uganda, Bangladesh and other countries.

Driessen’s studies and analyses have also appeared in Conserving the Environment (Doug Dupler, editor), 2006, part of the Thomson-Gale “Opposing Viewpoints” Series; Redefining Sovereignty: Will liberal democracies continue to determine their own laws and public policies, or yield these rights to transnational entities in search of universal order and justice? (Orin Judd, editor), 2005, Smith and Kraus Global Publishers; and other publications. He is also the author of the book Eco-Imperialism: Green Power – Black Death, and the report Responsible Progress in the Andes.

Paul received his BA in geology and field ecology from Lawrence University and a law degree from the University of Denver College of Law, before embarking on a career that also included tenures with the United States Senate, U.S. Department of the Interior and an energy trade association. He is active in the Public Relations Society of America’s Social Responsibility Section; and is a frequent guest on radio talk shows and college campuses, and at business and public policy forums.