News Release

December 3, 2004

Media Contact: (202) 789-5200

Cato climatologist available for comment on U.N. conference on climate change

WASHINGTON -- Cato Institute senior fellow Patrick Michaels is available to comment on Monday's 10th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 10) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Michaels is a research professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and author of the recently published Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media (Cato, 2004).

In "The Consequences of Kyoto," Michaels writes: "The Kyoto agreement--if fully complied with--would likely reduce the gross domestic product of the United States by 2.3 percent per year. However, according to a climate model of the National Center for Atmospheric Research recently featured in Science, the Kyoto emission-control commitments would reduce mean planetary warming by a mere 0.19 degree Celsius over the next 50 years.

"... The Kyoto Protocol will have no discernible effect on global climate--in fact, it is doubtful that the current network of surface thermometers could distinguish a change on the order of .19 degree from normal year-to-year variations. The Kyoto Protocol will result in no demonstrable climate change but easily demonstrable economic damage."

Please contact the Cato media relations department at 202-789-5200 or media@cato.org for additional comment or to arrange an interview.