The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) is a conservative Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization whose stated mission is to promote free market solutions to environmental problems. Its director, Craig Rucker, stated that mankind faces a threat "not from man-made global warming, but from man-made hysteria."[1] CFACT produces online articles and radio segments on environmental and consumer subjects. In 2004, CFACT Europe[2] was founded and provides public policy research, analysis, publications and conferences. CFACT also coordinates the work of affiliate chapters, called Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow, on U.S. college campuses.
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CFACT's board of advisors includes the astrophysicist Sallie Baliunas, Bernard Cohen, Professor of Physics at the University of Pittsburgh, Professor Robert Balling of Arizona State University, David Maillie, Professor of Biophysics, University of Rochester, Harry Priem, Professor of Planetary Geology, Utrecht University (retired), and several others.[3]
Personnel listed at the CFACT website include President David Rothbard, Executive Director Craig Rucker, Policy Analyst Paul Driessen, and Father Robert A. Sirico.
According to CFACT, it is mainly funded by private citizens. Funding also comes from corporations in the energy and automobile industries, as well as foundations. Donors have included ExxonMobil Corporation (which no longer funds CFACT),[4] Chevron Corporation,[5] DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund,[5] the U.S. Council on Energy Awareness,[6] the Carthage Foundation, and the Sarah Scaife Foundation.[7] CFACT does not currently receive grants from Exxon.
CFACT is a member organization of the Cooler Heads Coalition, which aims at "dispelling the myths of global warming through sound science and analysis."[8] CFACT chapters have protested in defense of environmentally sustainable oil exploration[9] and in opposition to the Kyoto Protocol.[10] CFACT supports sustainable drilling in ANWR that meets high standards of respect for wildlife.[11]
CFACT director Rucker said that it is "abundantly clear that the proponents of global warming have been cooking the science to produce the results they wanted",[1] and that any agreement crafted to lower carbon dioxide emissions would be "all pain, no gain". CFACT started an online petition to this end at AllPainNoGain.org.[1]
During the COP15 conference in Copenhagen, CFACT hosted an outside side event in Copenhagen called the Copenhagen Climate Challenge.[12] COP15 attracted 33,200 delegates, the side event was attended by 60 people (15 journalists, 18 speakers, 27 audience).[13] According to Lenore Taylor of The Australian, Professor Ian Plimer was "a star attraction of the two-day event" which also featured Dr. Fred Singer, sea level expert Dr. Nils Axel Morner and others.[14]