Above: (left) Senator Ray Vandeveer speaking after receiving his award, (center) Keynote Speaker Alfred Pekarek explains climate change and energy issues, (right) Representative Mike Beard and others with Dr. Pekarek after his presentation. Below: 2008 Gordon Anderson presents Senator Jungbauer his award, Sue Jeffers presents Sondra Erickson her award, Ben Hedberg presents Mark Buesgens his award, and Viola Maehren presents Joyce Peppin her award.

The 2008 LEA Awards Banquet was held on February 19, 2009 at the Kelly Inn. Following the social hour, the invocation by Rev. James Bard, and the dinner, awards were presented. The recipients are:

Senators: Chris Gerlach, David W. Hann (100%), Debbie J. Johnson, Michael J. Jungbauer, Amy T. Koch, Warren Limmer (100%), Julianne E. Ortmann, Ray Vandeveer

Representatives: Bruce Anderson, Michael Beard, Laura Brod, Mark Buesgens (100%), Matt Dean, Chris DeLaForest, Steve Drazkowski, Rob Eastlund, Tom Emmer, Sondra Erickson, Brad Finstad, Pat Garofalo, Tom Hackbarth (100%), Mary Liz Holberg, Joe Hoppe, Paul Kohls, Mark Olson (100%), Joyce Peppin, Marty Seifert, Ron Shimanski, Kurt Zellers

Following the election of new board members the Keynote Adress was given by Dr. Alfred Pekarek, Associate Professor of Geology at St. Cloud State University.

Dr. Alfred Pekarek, Keynote Presentation on "Climate Change & Energy"

Climate Change and Energy
INTRODUCTION
About 20 years ago, a small, but vocal group of scientists raised the issue of supposed anthropogenic global warming. A willing media picked up the cry and popularized it into a media event. About 15 years ago, the rest of the scientific community started to react, exclaiming, “wait a minute”, “you don’t have all the data”, “there are other explanations”.

In the last 5-10 years, we have heard ad nauseam that there is a scientific consensus – that anthropogenic global warming is real, that man is causing the earth to warm at an alarming rate by the burning of fossils fuels, that we are nearing a tipping point after which we are doomed. That consensus arose out of the UN’s IPPC group of 2500. However, in that group there are only about 300 qualified scientists. At the same time, dissenting groups of scientists numbering 100’s to 1000’s, and in one case, lOs of 1000s have disagreed.

Let’s be very clear on this – there is no scientific consensus on global warming.
So what is the real story?

Click link below for PowerPoint Presentation:

Climate Change and Energy

Selected Bibliography on climate change

Great Websites for Information on Climate Change
www.co2science.org
Covers the literature on climate change, gives access to temperature records throughout the world Weekly online newsletter reviewing recent scientific articles. Good summaries in their archives
www.sepp.org (Fred Singer) Based in Washington, DC
Good science, but also covers the political aspects
Weekly online newsletter reviewing recent scientific and political developments
www.solarcycle24.com
Daily update on solar activity

A Great Reference on Energy

• Hayden, H. C., 2001, The Solar Fraud — Why Solar Energy Won’t Run the World: Vales Lake Pub., 22 p. Author is a retired physicist, University of Connecticut.A solid discussion for the general public of the physics involved in all current energy sources with an in-depth discussion of the inherent limitations of wind and solar power. These limitations are severe and will prevent wind and solar from ever providing a significant amount of our energy.