The issue focused on whether the United States should be willing to give up on the idea that climate change poses a major risk to global warming, and whether the United States might be prepared to make such concessions. The panel, led by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and climate scientists Richard Tol, William Happer III and Michael Mann, included prominent scientists and policy experts, as well as climate experts, including the former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Michael Mann.

The question of