heartland_billboard.jpg During his closing remarks at the Heartland Institute's Seventh "International Conference on Climate Change," Heartland President Joseph Bast revealed that the group has no plans to hold another conference and is struggling to pay its staff following the defections of corporate sponsors in the wake of the disastrous Unabomber
Continue readingTag: DenierGate
DeSmogBlog: A Closer Look at Heartland’s ICCC7 Denial-a-Palooza Speakers and Sponsors
sponsors.png This afternoon, Joseph Bast delivered the closing remarks to the Heartland Institute's Seventh and final "International Conference on Climate Change." The final Denial-a-Palooza was co-sponsored by dozens of organizations that have received over $67 Million from ExxonMobil, Koch, and Scaife family foundations. There was tension in the air at
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Peter Sinclair’s New Video Skewers Heartland’s Offensive "Murderers, Tyrants and Madmen" Billboard Campaign
Peter Sinclair, the creator of the "Climate Crock of the Week" series, has a new video posted at the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media documenting just how out of touch with reality the Heartland Institute's recent offensive Unabomber billboard campaign is. Featuring the calm and insightful comments
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Will Heartland Institute’s Corporate Funders Tacitly Endorse Comparing Climate Realists to bin Laden and the Unabomber?
heartland logo.jpg UPDATE: The Washington Post reports that Joe Bast and the Heartland Institute will discontinue the outrageous billboard campaign in a matter of hours. Bast issued the following statement to the Washington Post: We will stop running [the billboard] at 4:00 p.m. CST today. (It’s a digital billboard, so a
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland Institute Attacks Forecast the Facts, Denies Its Climate Change Denial
heartland logo.jpg This is a guest post by Daniel Souweine, Campaign Director, Forecast The Facts On April 24, Heartland Institute President Joe Bast issued an angry missive attacking Forecast the Facts, a new campaign that successfully petitioned automobile giant General Motors to end their financial support of Heartland earlier this month.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland Payments to University of Victoria Professor Susan Crockford Probed
heartland logo.jpg University of Victory adjunct professor Susan Crockford doesn't seem interested in discussing the monthly payments she appears to receive from the climate denying Heartland Spinstitute. "Crockford would not respond to emails, and refused to speak with the Martlet," reports a UVic student newspaper attempting to probe the payments. The
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: SPINalysis: Heartland’s Echo Chamber Shifts the Target
heartland logo.jpg President Joe Bast Dodges Responsibility – for Now It’s been a month since the Heartland Institute was caught in a St. Valentine’s Day Striptease – inadvertently exposing its entire budget and fundraising plan. Yet an objective analysis of the resulting internet and mainstream media coverage has to credit Heartland’s
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland Double Standard: Institute Tried to Scam Greenpeace for Internal Documents
heartland logo.jpg A Heartland Institute front man* phoned a Greenpeace activist and lied about his identity in an effort to get her to turn over UN climate conference documents to which he had no legitimate access. Heartland senior fellow James Taylor then boasted about the scam in a press release
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland has Long History of Blowing Smoke
Joe Camel ad.jpg One of the most bizarre reactions to the St. Valetines Day Striptease, in which the Heartland Institute was tempted by a mild-mnannered scientist to completely expose itself – its strategies, funders and plans for the new year – is the complaint by "neutral" observers like Judith Curry
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland Institute: A Manifestation of the Kochtopus Empire
Kochtopus-3.png It is nearly impossible to discuss the vast climate change denial echo chamber and not mention the Koch Brothers, Koch Industries, and what some have called the Koch Empire. Perhaps unsurpisingly then, the origins of the Heartland Institute — whose internal documents were recently leaked to DeSmogBlog — have a direct historical link to the rise
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: How Heartland-style Climate Sceptic Campaigns Play "Hide the Deniers" Using Secretive Fund
donorscapital.jpg A LOW–PROFILE funding organisation acting as a middleman for wealthy conservative businesspeople has been quietly backing climate denial campaigns across the US. The Virginia-based Donors Capital Fund and its partner organisation Donors Trust has been giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups blocking attempts to limit greenhouse gas pollution
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fake Heartland "Scientist" Infiltrates Canadian University
CASS logo.jpg Bogus climate course “a source of embarrassment to the institution” An energy industry public relations man and lobbyist with no background in climate science has infiltrated Carleton University in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, teaching a course on climate change denial that other Carleton professors describe as “a source
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland Funding Disinformation Echo Chamber
echochamber123.jpg The Heartland Institute has been using its corporate funding to create an echo chamber of experts-for-hire, subsidiary think tanks and websites which all work together to rebroadcast information in Heartland's manufactured controversy about climate change. In the last week, Heartland has been able to rely on this network – and
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Republic Report Slams Media Obsession With Shiny Penny In Heartland DenialGate Coverage
Republic Report.png Lee Fang at the Republic Report has a great post noting the media's obsession with the shiny penny of the who/how story surrounding the leaked documents chronicling the Heartland Institute's planned attacks on science and democracy. While groups like Greenpeace, The Climate Reality Project and Forecast the Facts
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Congressman Calls For Hearing Into Heartland Institute Payments to Federal Employee Indur Goklany
indur_goklany.jpg Representative Raúl M. Grijalva today called for a full Natural Resources Committee hearing to probe whether Indur Goklany, a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Interior Department, improperly received payments from the Heartland Institute while collecting a paycheck from U.S. taxpayers. Rep. Grijalva, the ranking member of the House
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Whistleblower Authenticates Heartland Documents
Gleick.jpg Climate scientist Peter Gleick has acknowledged that he was the person who convinced the Heartland Institute to hand over the contents of its January Board package, authenticating the documents beyond a doubt and further exposing the disinformation campaign Heartland has pursued in the last week, trying to discredit the information. In
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