[eDebate] NDT public debate featuring Robert Balling

[gordonm+ at pitt.edu]

Dear folks:

A dramatic part of the National Debate Tournament (NDT) is the opening ceremony, which traditionally features greetings, presentation of the Copeland Award, recognition of qualifying teams and remarks by a prominent guest speaker. You may have read that this year's NDT host, Glen Frappier of Gonzaga University, had the hot idea to stage a public debate on global warming during this time slot (Thursday, March 24, starting at 6:30 p.m.)

For the past several months, Glen and I have been working on organizing this public debate, and we are now pleased to announce the participants, topics, and format for what we feel has promise to be an exciting and informative event.

Joining us in Spokane will be Robert Balling, Director of the Office of Climatology at Arizona State University. Some of you may remember Professor Balling from his visit to the Arizona Debate Institute last summer, while others have no doubt grown familiar with his prolific writing during the course of energy policy research. Professor Balling is one of the world's most prolific contributors to the refereed scientific literature on global warming, and he has lectured around the planet on the issue of climate change. He is author of The Heated Debate: Greenhouse Predictions versus Climate Reality and co-author (with Patrick J. Michaels) of The Satanic Gases. Read more about our guest debater here:

http://geography.asu.edu/balling/

During the process of organizing this public debate, the format took some intriguing twists and turns ? you will hear more about them during my moderator's opening remarks. We finally settled on a format that features Balling pitted against five intercollegiate policy debate students in three separate mini-debates:

* Brad Hall (Wake Forest University)
* Michael Klinger (Harvard University)
* Paul Meinshausen (University of Louisville)
* Stephanie Mitchell (University of Louisville)
* Damien Pfister (University of Pittsburgh)

A complete rundown of the slate of debates, including topics, formats, and sides is available here:

http://www.pitt.edu/~gordonm/Pubdeb/NDT2005pubdebformat1.pdf

Note that there are 10 minutes allocated for audience questions during each mini-debate, so come prepared with informed and incisive queries - there is no opening banquet, so we'll be relying on your food for thought!

We'll be sharing more information on this event here as it takes shape. 

Best wishes and safe travels on your way to Spokane,

Gordon

* * *

Gordon R. Mitchell
Associate Professor of Communication / Director of Debate
University of Pittsburgh
CL 1117, 4200 Fifth Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Phone: (412) 624-8531
Fax: (412) 624-1878
http://www.pitt.edu/~gordonm/