“THE GREAT CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATE:

WHAT DOES THE SCIENCE REALLY SAY? TM”

“The Great Climate Change Debate: What Does The Science Really Say? TM” is an objective, nonpartisan, fact-based and educational examination of Climate Change theories, evidence, impacts, and possibilities for action.  It is being conducted at a time when the political debate related to Climate Change is at an all-time high in the United States.  

 

Its purpose is to directly impact policymaking by informing thought- and opinion leaders about issues related to Climate Change and how they relate to both short- and long-term public policy on a national and international basis.  The programs also are designed to inform the General Public and will be produced for broad consumption by various constituencies and the General Public. 

 

The Debate will provide the opportunity for competing viewpoints and arguments which will be checked, post-debate for factual accuracy.  The debate and the television programs produced from it are meant to resolve major political controversies surrounding Climate Change.

 

Scott Pruitt, while serving as the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, agreed to introduce the event.  James Cameron, Director of “Avatar, “Titanic,” “Aliens,” and “The Terminator,” and others, and a member of the NASA Advisory Council, has agreed to introduce the first program. 

 

The event will be held in Washington, D.C. to maximize its impact.  The Debate already has attracted national and international interest, with an initial Advisory Panel consisting of the following members (with more members pending confirmation).

  • James Balog, Founder and President, Earth Vision Institute & Extreme Ice Survey. 
  • Professor Jason Bordoff, Director, Center on Global Energy Policy and Professor, Columbia University; former Special Assistant to the President, and Senior Director for Energy & Climate Change, National Security Council.
  • James Cameron, famed filmmaker, philanthropist, and ocean advocate best known as the Director of “Avatar," “Titanic,” “Aliens,” “The Terminator,” and others, who also serves as a member of the NASA Advisory Council.
  • Professor Scott Denning, Ph.D., Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science, at Colorado State University; Director of Education at the Earth System Modeling & Education Institute (ESMEI); speaker for “Climate Voices.”
  • Professor Harold Feiveson, Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs, Princeton University; Editor, “Science and Global Security.”
  • Professor William Happer, Director of Emerging Technologies, White House, National Security Council, and Professor Emeritus of Physics, Princeton University.
  • Dr. Steven Koonin, Center for Urban Science and Progress, New York University; former Under Secretary for Science, U.S. Department of Energy; former Chief Scientific Officer, U.S. Department of Energy.
  • Dr. Michael MacCracken, Chief Scientist for Climate Change Programs with the Climate Institute; former president of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences; served on the Executive Committees of International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) and the Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research (SCOR).
  • Dr. Andrea Neal, President, Blue Ocean Sciences, Santa Barbara, CA.
  • Professor Michael Oppenheimer, Professor of Geosciences & International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and the Department of Geosciences at Princeton University’ former Chief Scientist at EDF; coordinating lead author of both the IPCC’s special report on extreme climate events and disasters (SREX) and the Fifth Assessment Report.
  • Governor Bill Ritter, Executive Director, the Center for the New Energy Economy, Colorado State University.
  • Professor Robert Socolow, Co-Director, The Carbon Mitigation Initiative, Princeton Environmental Institute; Senior Research Scholar, Princeton University.
  • Chris Wright, CEO, Liberty Oilfield Services, known for his energy-related addresses from groups ranging from U.S. Federal Judges to England’s House of Lords.

The program format will utilize the innovative concept of “Definitive Programming” developed by USA Talk Network (“USA-TN”).  Definitive Programming combines a debate by top experts in a field with simultaneous independent verification or refutation of each participant’s key claims.  In this manner, due to advance notice, debate participants are much more careful and specific regarding any assertions they make because they know their most important statements will be fact-checked. 

By stopping debate footage in the broadcast version of the debate and presenting the results of claim investigations, the program helps the viewing audience determine which claims are valid and which are not— creating the opportunity for those viewers to come to definitive conclusions about the subjects.  While Definitive Programming is a complex and costly approach, it offers political leaders, policy makers, and citizens the best opportunity to draw accurate conclusions. 

Definitive Programming also provides a fast-paced and entertaining format because it goes back-and-forth from the debate to the fact-checking, with post-debate interviews also incorporated into the program so panel participants can respond, if they wish, to fact-checking which concludes they made an erroneous statement.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative (“MITEI”) along with Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and the Energy Center at Colorado State University, along with other academic and scientific institutions will serve as the foundation for the fact-checking process in both real-time and in post-production.  The  other organizations involved in the fact-checking process are expected to include some or all of the following:

  • The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), Washington, DC.
  • The Colorado School of Mines.
  • IHS Markit, London & Englewood, CO.
  • The Brookings Institution Energy Security & Climate Initiative, Washington, DC.
  • The Center for Industrial Progress, Laguna Hills, CA.
  • Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, New York, NY.
  • The National Petroleum Council, Washington, DC.
  • The University of Colorado. 
  • Stanford University’s Stanford Natural Gas Initiative, Palo Alto, CA.

In the case of “The Great Climate Change Debate,” graphics, video, tables, and charts also will play a major role in conveying information to viewers.

Some of the issues to be addressed in the Debate will include:

  • Exactly what well-documented Climate changes have occurred to date (and at what points in time)?
  • What future Climate changes are likely to occur (i.e., short-, intermediate-, and long-term) and why?
  • What are the known and/or most likely causes of past, current and future Climate changes?
  • What are the known versus conjectured short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term effects of Climate changes?
  • What are the economic, social, health, and other impacts of Climate Change?
  • What reasonable actions can be taken to affect Climate changes and what are their true costs to and benefits for society and the world?
  • What is the likely distribution of the burden of those costs and benefits across various socio-economic cohorts?
  • What public and private sector policies do or don’t make sense to address Climate Change challenges and why do they make sense or not make sense today?

“The Great Climate Change Debate” will feature top experts with conflicting views of Climate Change.  The debate will be held in Washington, DC.  The entire U.S. Congress (all Senators and Representatives), their staffs, the President, Cabinet members, and Administration members will be invited along with academic and business representatives as well as international representatives and members of the Media.

See HarberTV.com/Info for a short introductory video to the current weekly public affairs series.  

Go to HarberTV.com/Pruitt to see Aaron’s program with U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and HarberTV.com/Trump to see his pre-election interview in 2016 with President Trump, as well as HarberTV.com/LJackson to see his three programs with Lisa Jackson, when she was Administrator of the EPA.

The Debate will be modeled on “The Great Economics Debate: What Is America’s Financial Future? TM”— focused on the Simpson-Bowles Commission’s work and produced in Washington, D.C. (at the George Washington University’s Morton Auditorium, which was created for the original CNN “CROSSFIRE” series), with former U.S. Senator Al Simpson, former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, former Federal Reserve Bank Vice-Chair and CBO & OMB Director Alice Rivlin, U.N. Foundation President & former U.S. Senator Tim Wirth, former International Trade Office Chief Economist Peter Morici, U.S. Chamber Executive Vice President & Chief Economist Marty Regalia, CATO Institute Tax Policy Director Chris Edwards, and AFL-CIO Chief Economist Bill Spriggs.  Those programs are available at HarberTV.com/SB (“SB” stands for the Simpson-Bowles Commission).

“The Great Climate Change Debate” will be moderated by Aaron Harber, the host of “The Aaron Harber Show TM” (HarberTV.com/Award) who will serve to ensure the questions to be asked will include those most asked by citizens across the country as well as those questions whose answers are most valuable to policymakers.  

Aaron also was the recipient of the prestigious “Geosciences in the Media Award” in 2019 from the almost 35,000-member American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

This year the show completed a 26-program series on AEG and Mark Cuban’s AXS TV which, along with its other platforms, made the show available to over 61 million households and 127 million Americans.

“The Aaron Harber Show” is broadcast weekly by KCDO-TV (K3 Colorado — Channel 3) on Channel 3 via antenna (i.e., over-the-air) as well as on Channel 3 on DirecTV, DISH Network, and COMCAST, with viewership in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. 

COMCAST also broadcasts the program on all its systems in multiple states including Colorado, Indiana (six broadcasts weekly,) and Michigan (five broadcasts weekly.)  Other regional and national platforms are expected to participate in the broadcast and distribution of “The Great Climate Change Debate” series.

With viewers from coast to coast, “The Aaron Harber Show” not only is broadcast via over-the-air signals (i.e., antenna), cable, and satellite but also is available 24/7 worldwide at HarberTV.com.  

The most popular programs of “The Aaron Harber Show” are the interviews Aaron did with former FBI Director Robert Mueller, including the special series produced and released in 2018 from past footage: HarberTV.com/Mueller. 

To maximize viewership and depending on broadcast and distribution arrangements currently under consideration, “The Great Climate Change Debate” may be provided at no charge to some combination of all 384 Public Televisions stations, C-SPAN (nationally), the DISCOVERY Channel, ION Media Networks (nationally), COMCAST (nationally), and other local, regional and national networks, channels, and stations. It also may be licensed to one or more other platforms. 

A sampling of Aaron’s guests includes Presidents (Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Donald Trump), heads of state (Iceland President Ólafur Grímsson, Rwanda President Paul Kagame, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, Ireland President Mary Robinson) U.S. Supreme Court Justices (Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sandra Day O’Connor), Secretaries of State (Madeleine Albright, James Baker, John Kerry, Colin Powell), Senators (Bill Armstrong, Michael Bennet, Hank Brown, Ben Campbell, Bill Frist, Cory Gardner, Ed Markey, George Mitchell, Jeff Merkley, Lisa Murkowski, Dan Russell, Al Simpson, Arlen Specter, Tim Wirth), Governors (Steve Beshear, Mitch Daniels, John Hickenlooper, Asa Hutchinson, Dick Lamm, Jared Polis), FBI Director Robert Mueller, Generals (John Allen, Wesley Clark, Michael Hayden, David Petraeus, Colin Powell), CBS Anchor Bob Schieffer, economist Paul Krugman, Media mogul, Ted Turner, PBS Anchor Jim Lehrer, Forbes Inc. Chairman Steve Forbes, Directors James Cameron, U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, NBC Nightly News Anchor Brian Williams, wellness guru Deepak Chopra, Oilman T. Boone Pickens, Jordan’s Queen Noor, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Actor and activist Kevin Costner, Tax Reform Advocate Grover Norquist, Director Oliver Stone, and Sportscaster Bob Costas.

With his understanding of scientific principles and his proficiency as a moderator who makes complex topics intelligible for the General Public by asking the right questions, Aaron is uniquely qualified to host “The Great Climate Change Debate.”  As the recipient of “The Broadcaster of the Year Award” (the top individual honor ever bestowed by the CBA), he is seen by his peers as the consummate journalist in terms of knowledgeability, on-air skills, accuracy, and fairness.

Aaron was graduated from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs (concentrating in Economics) and received his Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (in Ethics).  At Princeton, he did thesis-level research on coal as a long-term energy resource.  His Geology professor was famed academician Kenneth Deffeyes.  

Aaron has performed efficiency and other studies for the U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Energy Information Administration, Xcel Energy (the Public Service Company of Colorado), and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. 

He was a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission-certified Investment Advisor and is an energy royalty owner who has firsthand experience with production operations because they occur on his personal residential property. He was elected as a member of the Princeton University governing Board of Trustees and also served as a member of the University Department of Civil & Geological Engineering’s Advisory Council. 

Since 2007, Aaron also has hosted “The Energy Roundtable TM” series as a special initiative of “The Aaron Harber Show.”  He has participated in the broadcast of more energy-related programs (over 300 shows with more than 400 guests) than any other over-the-air broadcast entity in the history of television.  

Near the beginning of his broadcast career, Aaron gained national acclaim when he was sued frivolously for $20 million by Rush Limbaugh, et al, for using the word “Rush” in the title of his national radio program (“After the Rush”).  Limbaugh’s action ultimately was unsuccessful as it was legally rebuffed in Federal Court by Aaron. 

The talk industry’s leading publication — “TALKERS MAGAZINE” — selected Aaron out of more than 5,000 hosts as one of America’s “100 Most Important Talk Show Hosts” along with icons such as Don Imus, G. Gordon Liddy, Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura Schlesinger, Howard Stern, and Bruce Williams.  

Aaron moved from the Talk America Radio Network (where he was heard on 51 radio stations across the country) exclusively into television, beginning with a multi-year stint on Public Television in Colorado.  For more information, please go to HarberTV.com or e-mail [email protected].  Thank you!

“USA Talk Network,” “The Great Climate Change Debate,” and “The Aaron Harber Show,” are the registered trademarks and/or the proprietary products, tradenames, and/or properties of USA Talk Network, Inc. and/or Aaron Harber.                  [08-15-19]