RFF Looks to Future, Celebrates 50 Years of Accomplisment

10/7/2002

From: Melinda Wittstock of Resources for the Future, 202-328-5019

News Advisory:

What: Resources for the Future celebrates 50th anniversary with symposium, gala

When: Oct. 15 -- Symposium, 9am-4:30pm; -- Reception/Gala Dinner 6:30-10pm

Where: Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington DC 20004

Contact: Melinda Wittstock, RFF, 202-328-5019 / wittstock@rff.org

Details: Resources for the Future (RFF), the independent environmental and natural resources research center, celebrates its 50th anniversary on October 15, 2002, with a major symposium and black-tie gala dinner at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman will be the keynote speaker.

"Our goal is to spark the imaginations of key policymakers, executives, academics, advocates, and media on the key obstacles and opportunities the world faces over the next half-century," says RFF President Paul Portney. "Hundreds of creative minds will discuss the challenges in and relationships between economic development, environmental protection, technological advance, and global governance - now and in the future."

Panelists include: Lawrence H. Summers, president of Harvard University; William Emmott, editor of The Economist; Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature; Sergey Brin, co-founder and president of Google, Inc.; Victor Lichtinger, secretary of the environment, Mexico; William Cronon, professor of history, University of Wisconsin (Madison); John W. Rowe, chairman and CEO of Exelon Corporation; Robert Solow, 1987 Nobel Laureate in Economics; and Rita Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation. The symposium is moderated by Thomas Friedman, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist and author.

Details of the symposium agenda and program can be found on the RFF website, or by clicking directly on http://www.rff.org/50thanniv/agenda_oct_15.htm

All journalists with working credentials are welcome, but space is limited, so please RSVP, particularly for the black tie gala dinner, which is complementary for journalists.

The Resources for the Future 50th Anniversary Symposium and Gala are sponsored in part by generous donations from the Ford Motor Company and Exelon Corporation.

Fifty years ago, anxiety about possible shortages of crude oil and non-fuel minerals led President Truman to form a presidential commission on resource scarcity. Concluding that the United States needed a nonpartisan, nonprofit research institute dedicated to natural resource, energy, and environmental issues, RFF was created in 1952. In 2002, RFF's independent scholarship extends far beyond potential resource scarcity, though our dependence on foreign oil is once more in the headlines, in light of potential war in Iraq, continuing turmoil in the Middle East, and the war on terrorism.

Today, 40 senior RFF researchers examine critical environmental and natural resource issues facing our country and our world, including air pollution, biodiversity, land use and conservation, antibiotic resistance, international development, climate change, electric utility restructuring, space technologies, food safety, and sustainable forestry. RFF is committed not only to conducting independent and balanced research of the highest caliber, but also to putting forth realistic policy options for the consideration of key leaders and decisionmakers.

"All of us at RFF are proud of the research our organization has fostered and proud also of the way it has influenced environmental and resource policy around the world," says Portney. "However, we know we can and must do better in the next 50 years."

Hundreds of prominent policymakers, academics, corporate executives, journalists, and environmental advocates will be attending the RFF symposium and gala. Panel discussions and keynote speeches will mark the significant strides this country has made economically and environmentally over the past 50 years and identify solutions to the problems and challenges of the 21st century.

For more information, please go to www.rff.org or call Melinda Wittstock, Public Affairs Manager, at 202 328 5019. Streaming video of the symposium and gala will be posted on the RFF Web site on October 16th.