Conference: Washington Summit on
Climate Stabilization

Unsung Heroes of the Climate Wars

John Hoffman, led early US greenhouse effect studies, driving force behind Can We Delay a Greenhouse Warming? Study. Spearheaded the EPA risk assessment of CFCs, a crucial factor in negotiation of the Montreal Protocol. Then led much of EPA effort to speed phase out of CFCs. Inventor of Green Lights and Energy Star Programs.

Jim Titus, AKA Captain Sea Level, for two decades spearheaded US EPA sea level rise program traveling to sites as far apart as the Maldives and his beloved Jersey shore. Did his heroic feats while maintaining a sense of humor and displaying a rapier wit. With Mike Barth wrote first major book for popular audience on sea level rise. Since then has written numerous articles and Montecarlo runs, only a few in a casino.

Steve Seidel, a principal author of Can We Delay a Greenhouse Warming?, also played a key role in phase out of CFCs. A little known accomplishment, clandestinely drafting the justification that enabled Senator Leahy to provide EPA 6.5 million in the FY 1987 budget year. Without this EPA wouldn’t have been able to carry out its risk assessment of CFCs or it Climate Effects and Stabilization reports.

Mike Barth, led ICF’s early efforts in climate and stratospheric ozone protection, with Jim Titus was driving force behind March 1983 EPA conference on Climate Change and Sea Level Rise, and was co-author with him of resulting book on the topic.

Joe Cannon, as EPA policy chief in 1982 used half of his discretionary budget for greenhouse studies before this was even fashionable among environmental groups; funded Can We Delay a Greenhouse Warming? Report; walked lonely television and media circuit when this attracted great attention in October 1983; as EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation initiated EPA risk assessment of CFCs. While Geneva Steel President was founding member of Climate Institute Board and first Vice Chairman and provided resources for First and Second North American Conferences on Preparing for Climate Change in October 1987 and December 1988.

Dick Morgenstern, as Director of EPA’s Office of Policy Analysis oversaw early work on climate change including preparation of reports on effects on potential effects on the United States and of global potential for stabilization of greenhouse concentrations; spearheaded EPA climate efforts for over a decade in international arena including the 1992 Rio Climate Conference; both while at EPA and in subsequent work at State Department and Resources for the Future was at the cutting edge of work on innovative use of economics to achieve climate protection, including use of a safety valve mechanism to achieve consensus for climate protection.

Noel Brown, as North American Regional Director of UNEP spearheaded early attention at the United Nations on Climate Change; hosted and addressed Climate Institute’s June 1988 Symposium for UN missions, first ever on the topic there; conceived idea of the Alliance of Small Island States (OASIS) and used his office to nurture it; inspired ICLEI to create a Cities for Climate Protection program; funded Climate Institute’s US Cities Briefing efforts in early 1990s; on 20th Anniversary of Earth Day in 1992 organized meeting at the United Nations bringing together over forty astronauts and cosmonauts to focus attention on the state of our planet’s atmosphere; inspired the Climate Institute to create its Head Of State and Ministerial Briefing Program and participated in the first such briefing in March 1991 in Los Pinos in Mexico City; organized Cities Earth Summit on Climate Change at the UN in January 2003; has subsequently been at the cutting edge of efforts to protect the oceans.

Alan Hecht, as Director of US National Climate Program Office fostered early US Government interest in climate change; spearheaded US Government support for October 1987 First North American Conference on Preparing for Climate Change and as US lead of US- Soviet bilateral on climate arranged for Soviet scientists to participate in this meeting; played key role on behalf of the US in preparation of the impacts portion of the first IPCC assessment, and for two decades, most recently at EPA, has been at cutting edge of US government work in climate protection and sustainable development.

Steve Andersen for over two decades has been a driving force in climate and stratospheric protection efforts both in the US and internationally; more than anyone else on this planet spearheaded cooperative efforts among governments and industry to phase out use of stratospheric depleting substances; engaged military around the world in efforts to save the stratospheric ozone layer and protect the global climate; developed the EPA Climate Protection Awards to recognize achievements in that field and foster innovation; and has documented successes in the stratospheric ozone protection field.

Rafe Pomerance: More than anyone else in the US environmental movement Rafe Pomerance was the earliest champion of the need to take climate change seriously. He was a founding Board Member of the Climate Institute. Subsequent to his Institute Board service he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State with responsibility for climate change and related activities. In this post he highlighted the growing threat to coral posed by rapid climate change. As the spearhead behind the Climate Policy Center he has bridged to industry to get concrete action to protect the climate.

Tom Grumbly, as an aide to then Congressman Al Gore, was instrumental in organizing some of the earliest Congressional hearings on climate change. A Founding Board member of the Climate Institute, Tom in his role as Executive Director of the Health Effects Institute was pivotal in the early launch of the Climate Institute, for its first ten months known as the Climate Research Institute. As a senior official of the US Department of Energy following his Climate Institute Board service, Tom continued to champion low carbon energy strategies.

Tom Casten for the past few decades has combined business acumen and advocacy skills to be the most articulate exponent of greater US use of Combined Heat and Power. He has led Trigen and Primary Energy and all the while has been a thorn in the side of established interests by showing how oppressive anti-competitive rules have prevented businesses from taking advantage of great economic savings that would produce at the same time large greenhouse reductions. Under his leadership Trigen produced energy at 57 plants in 19 US states, Canada and Mexico and were market leaders in developing district energy and on –site combined heat and power. He now is Chair and CEO of Primary Energy Ventures LLC that develops, owns and operates 14 projects in five states that recycle waste energy.

Bert Kerstetter, the Founder of Calico Corners and President of Everfast, Inc., has shown as much passion in his environmental activities as in his business success. A Philosophy major at Princeton where he graduated in the Class of 1966, he has sought to have his alma mater pioneer in environmental sustainability. He funded a major conference at Princeton on the ethical issues involved in climate change and provided the seed funding for the Washington Summit on Climate Stabilization. He has also endowed the Human Values Forum, a series of dinner seminars that address emerging ethical issues.

Stan Ovshinsky, over the past several decades, has emerged as the Thomas Edison of the clean energy field. The driving force behind Energy Conversion Devices, he has received about 200 patents for a wide variety of applications- amorphous semiconductors, solar roofing shingles and nickel metal hydride batteries among them. Much of this was accomplished with his beloved wife Iris, who died in August 2006, beside him.

Scott Sklar has been the spearhead of renewable
energy efforts in the US over the past quarter
century. For the past six years he has headed The
Stella Group, Ltd., a Washington, D.C.-based strategic marketing and policy firm leveraging projects utilizing advanced batteries and controls, energy efficiency, fuelcells, heat engines, microgeneration (natural gas), micro hydropower, modular biomass, photovoltaics, small wind, and solar thermal (water heating and process heat, building air-conditioning, and electric generation). Prior to this, Scott served for 15 years concurrently heading the national trade associations of the solar and biomass-electric industries; before that Scott for nine years served as an aide to Senator Jacob Javits (NY). During his service in the NGO sector Scott was a driving force behind the formation of both the House and Senate Renewable Energy Caucuses. He and his daughter Stella live in a solar home in Arlington, VA.

Roger Ballentine, who led the White House Climate Change Task Force for President Clinton, has emerged as a skillful advocate for clean energy development, especially in the bio-energy area. His firm, Green Strategies, has become a catalyst in several pioneering initiatives involving major American firms

David Hawkins now leads Climate Programs of Natural Resources Defense Council but has for over a quarter century been at the cutting edge of efforts to save the stratospheric ozone layer and protect the climate; as Assistant Administrator of US EPA for Air, Noise and Radiation helped lay the groundwork for early focus on stratospheric protection; and more recently has worked with US states to promote much more vigorous climate protection policies.

Alden Meyer, in his work at the Union of Concerned Scientists and for many years as
spearhead of the Climate Action Network (US), has played a key role in galvanizing environmental sector input into international climate deliberations; has been at forefront of efforts to get a broad sweep of the world’s top scientists and especially US scientists, to speak out on the importance of Climate Protection.

Steve Leatherman, AKA Dr. Beach, has been lead force in research and response strategies for sea level rise for the past quarter century; his work on vulnerability of US beaches to sea level rise has led to his becoming the foremost authority on state of US beaches and to mention on David Letterman for having one of the ten best jobs and an appearance on Oprah Winfrey Show; with EPA support he led international studies of potential sea level rise impacts resulting in special issue of Journal of Coastal Research; he has spoken extensively on sea level rise at US and international conferences; his film, Vanishing Lands, has documented inundation already underway in the Chesapeake Bay region. And most recently he has headed the International Hurricane Research Center making it a leader in developing effective strategies for mitigating impacts of severe storms.

Ata Qureshi, as Director of Global Environmental Programs of the Climate Institute, led briefing teams in 1991 and 1992 that informed Heads of State and Cabinet Ministers of potential implications of Climate Change. These briefings were held in 22 nations. From 1992 to 1994 he led a 60-member team from a dozen nations in studies of climate change implications in eight Asian nations that together have a fourth of Earth’s population. Impressed by this study, President Fidel Ramos of the Philippines convened the 1995 Manila Asia Pacific Leaders Climate Summit that Ata was instrumental in organizing. As a Climate Institute delegation and other climate folk sat down at a state dinner in Malacanang Palace, we could only long for the same in the United States. We could thank Ata for that moment.

Tom Gale, as much as anyone in the philanthropic community, has managed to get climate change on the international policy agenda. In the spring of 1988 as President of the William Bingham Foundation he provided a small grant that enabled the Climate Institute on a short turnaround to take advantage of a UNEP offer to host the first climate change symposium for United Nations missions. He arranged the next year for the Bingham Foundation to provide pivotal funding for the 1989 Cairo Conference. Tom also was a driving force behind the funding of climate change exhibits in science museums. Together with his wife Barbara, Tom runs the Thomas H. and Barbara W. Gale Foundation that has taken a special interest in the environmental health of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. A Member of the Board of Trustees of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, he was instrumental in Washington College’s hosting a conference organized by the Climate Institute on Implications of Climate Change for the Chesapeake Bay region. Tom has also used his gentle persuasion to move Washington College to have a strong environmental program that draws on the College’s proximity to the Bay.

Jason Elliott, Managing Director of Ranger Capital Fund, has worked for the past five years to strengthen the financial base of the Climate Institute. He has also been actively involved in several clean energy ventures and sustainable building efforts and has sought to build environmental sustainability into investment funds. He spoke to the Gordon MacDonald dinner series, presenting an innovative proposal to enable young families to accumulate funds for down payments on first home purchases.

Carl Cole, as the first Director of Administration of the Climate Institute was instrumental in organizing a 1989 conference on climate change implications for Africa and in the launching of the Climate Institute’s intern program. After his service at the Climate Institute he became a leader in environmental education in the Anacostia Community. He had led hundreds of young people on canoe trips, instilling in them a concern for preservation of the environment. Carl is now spearheading efforts to achieve an environmentally sustainable revitalization of the DC Waterfront.

John C. Topping III, as a high school student, filmed the first UN Symposium on climate change impacts in April 1992 and edited this to a film for use by Asian experts participating in an ADB-eight-country climate change study. In 1997 he created the web site, www.climate.org , that has become one of the most respected sites on implications of climate change.

Bill Futrell, as President of the Environmental Law Institute, spearheaded efforts in post-Soviet era countries to establish rules of environmental governance. In doing this he creatively developed tools to enhance energy efficiency and limit greenhouse emissions.

Gary Braasch, the creator of WorldViewofGlobalWarming.org, is a very talented photographer with a passion for climate protection. His site has stunning visuals and is a great help to the effort to build public awareness of climate change.

Jerry Carter has used art to convey the fragility of the atmosphere to a broad audience. Our poster, Failed Atmosphere, at the December 1988 Second North American Conference on Preparing for Climate Change was designed by Jerry using one of his art works at its heart; in 2004 he had a show of Climate Art in Florence at the Galileo Observatory.

David Doniger, now Policy Director of NRDC’s Climate Center, was first the bane of EPA as the outside enforcer from NRDC who stood ready to sue EPA over hazardous air pollutant or stratospheric ozone issues, then spent years as an EPA insider during the Clinton Administration. Throughout all his incarnations David has worked tirelessly to protect the ozone layer and the climate.

Dan Lashof, having done his Ph.D. on climate feedbacks, had the delicious opportunity in his first major assignment at EPA to be the driving force behind the Stabilization Report. This report together with the Effects Report helped to lay the intellectual groundwork for the IPCC. Dan now is a leading climate expert at NRDC .

Scott Stefanski, spearhead of the Climate Institute’s briefings in Eastern and Central Europe in 1991 and 1992; he organized teams that carried out briefings in Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Latvia. He subsequently provided crucial backup to Norman Myers in research for Environmental Exodus.

Doug Gatlin played a crucial role in the Climate Institute’s middle years serving as coordinator of our clean energy effort in a number of cities. He went on to USEPA where he was quite effective in linking Energy Star with efforts at the State level. He is now working for the U.S. Green Building Council.

John Noel as Chairman of the Southern Alliance For Clean Energy has been the leading advocate in the entire region for greenhouse clean energy. His group has affected decisions by both the Tennessee Valley Authority and private utilities. John has also been a tireless speaker on the Climate Talk circuit; he and his lovely wife, Melinda, have traveled extensively into the Arctic meeting with the Arctic people who are finding their way of life badly disrupted.

Nick Sundt has been the heart and soul of the USGCRP web site through thick and thin and change of Administrations. He has provided an accurate and comprehensive online summary of important information on global change and links to on line articles.

Rick Piltz, a veteran both of Capitol Hill where he served on the House Science Committee, and of the USGCRP where he gained increase visibility when he spoke out against a growing tendency within the US Government to censor climate science and even have untrained non-scientists editing science documents. He now tracks these issues in his role as Editor of Climate Science Watch.

Richard Moss, a long-time IPCC presence in Washington, is now serving as a senior program official with the UN Foundation. During his service with IPCC Richard blended a strong knowledge of the science with the people skills needed to deal with a multiplicity of interests.

Barrie Pittock has played a key role in climate protection for the past two decades. He developed analyses in the late 1980s of potential impacts of climate change on the State of Victoria. Barrie played a key role in Ministerial briefing programs organized by the Climate Institute in Asia during 1991. Barrie also provided the principal oversight and guidance for climate impact studies in eight Asian Nations with a quarter of Earth’s population. He has been a leader in IPCC impacts work since the inception of the IPCC and is now author of an insightful book, Climate Change: Turning up the Heat.

Dr. Andrew Derocher, Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences of the University of Alberta, has emerged as the world’s leading expert on likely implications of climate change for the polar bear. His lab focuses on large carnivore ecology, and conservation management.

Bill Nitze, great grandson of a one-time member of the Standard Oil Trust, is an environmental leader who has an unmatched grasp for the geopolitics that has shaped international energy maneuverings. Bill has the unusual distinction of leading US climate negotiations during the last stages of the Reagan Administration and the first year of the first Bush Administration and serving as Assistant Administrator for International Activities of US EPA for nearly seven years of the Clinton Administration. In between he had the distinction of being fired from State Department at the behest of White House Chief of Staff, John Sununu, for the high crime of trying to get the US to be a leader in addressing climate change. During this time out of government he assumed the leadership of the Alliance to Save Energy, building it into the world-class organization it is today. Besides serving as Chairman of the Climate Institute Bill is a leader in the clean energy field and involved in several ventures in this area.

Chris Flavin, well before he was president of Worldwatch, was a visionary foretelling a global energy evolution less grounded in regulatory diktat than in imaginative entrepreneurial investment. A book he co-authored over a decade ago with Nicholas Lenssen cited the information revolution as a possible model for a global clean energy revolution. When the Climate Institute was invited in 1994 by an Asian green parliamentarians group to prepare a background paper Chris served on a Committee of North American and Asian experts that prepared the paper. The Manila Declaration that emerged from the Summit endorsed the idea of an international public private partnership to accelerate greenhouse benign energy. Chris played a key role in the Seattle Summit organized in 2000 by the Climate Institute to identify strategies successfully applied in the information revolution that might spur a similar revolution in energy. As President of Worldwatch he has made it a priority to encourage decentralized and greenhouse- benign energy applications.

Bob Engelman, first as a Scripps-Howard reporter and later as an environmental analyst he has been one of the most incisive writers on climate change. His work on the interplay of population growth, increased water consumption and climatic fluctuations remains the best to date on the topic. Bob was also a valuable advisor on the seminal work, Environmental Exodus, prepared for the Climate Institute in 1995 by Norman Myers projecting the potential growth of an environmental refugee crisis

Mark Lambrides, in his post leading sustainable energy activities at OAS has been a driving force behind Clean energy transformation work in the Caribbean and in Latin America. He has been central to GSEII’s success in the Caribbean.

Nasir Khattak. This descendant of brave Pashtun warriors has proven to be a visionary and environmental peacemaker. He has brought island nation stakeholders into the development of Sustainable Energy Plans and is using these same political skills to thread together an International Leadership Alliance for Climate Stabilization.

Jack Werner for the past decade and a half has been a driving force behind the establishment of clean energy programs at the state and local level in the US. During his service at PTI Jack set up many state and local clean energy programs and helped launch such groups as NASEO and IREC. During his time at the Climate Institute he has played a key role in the establishment of standards for firms installing solar energy.

Carlos Jose Diaz Leal, a Board Member of Sistema Integral Informacion Ambiental-SIMA, has worked to secure support from senior level Mexican authorities both for a High Altitude Climate Observatory and for state level Climate Protection programs. He has converted family-held land in the State of Tabasco into a nature park, Jubalcan, of about 1500 acres, with monkeys, numerous bird species, and other wildlife including crocodiles.