Daniel M. Rothschild is the executive director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a university-based research center that focuses primarily on economics. Officially, they now accept the science of climate change. However, in a since deleted article published in 2001, the Mercatus Center wrote that “the evidence regarding global warming and human contribution to it is mixed…if a slight warming does occur, historical evidence suggests it is likely to be beneficial. Its current research fellows do not believe that suggested solutions are necessary or will be effective.
Before working at the Mercatus Center, Rothschild was a director and senior fellow with the R Street Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based non profit. He has also worked with the American Enterprise Institute, an organization that doesn’t believe climate change will have the predicted disastrous effects.
Rothschild’s policy focus is on tax and fiscal policy, government reform, and disaster recovery policy. While he himself has not explicitly stated his views on climate change, he has worked for multiple organizations with views that range from believing that climate change is not a negative event to believing that suggested climate change policy is not economically feasible or responsible.
Rothschild’s articles appear in The Wall Street Journal, Reason magazine from the Reason Foundation, Weekly Standard, and Economic Affairs.
The Mercatus Center is 100% privately funded, largely by individual donations. The Mercatus Center has also received $9,285,500 from Koch Foundations from 1997 to 2012. Charles Koch is a board member emeritus of the Mercatus Center. David Koch was a board member before his death. In 2014 alone, the Mercatus Center received $25,000 in donations from ExxonMobil, and received $260,000 from 2007 to 2014.
See also:
Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Koch Foundations
Climate of Denial