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By bigcitylib, on December 22, 2012, at 12:25 pm From one of the very few media outlets that has bothered to pick up the story, an early Xmas gift:
A major pharmaceutical company has opted to sever ties with a libertarian think tank that provides arguments critical of global warming and the effects of tobacco smoking.
Pfizer Inc., a New York City-based business that boasts of being the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company, decided to cut financial support from the Heartland Institute.
Pfizer’s decision came about after lot of hard-work that started this Spring after the leak of HI’s financial statements and their short-lived and yet now infamous
. . . → Read More: BigCityLib Strikes Back: Pfizer Abandons Heartland Institute
By Steve Horn, on August 9, 2012, at 6:37 pm 800px-ScottWalker.jpeg
Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker will keynote the Heartland Institute's 28th Anniversary Benefit Dinner this evening at Navy Pier in Chicago, IL.
Walker recently won the Kochtopus-funded Americans for Prosperity George Washington Award. Now, two months after his recall election steamrolling of Democrat Tom Barrett, the climate change denying group famous for its Unabomber billboard will embrace Walker with much fanfare.
Heartland, whose internal documents were published this past spring by DeSmogBlog, sings praises for Walker's union-busting agenda and his recent recall victory in promoting the event:
This year’s keynote speaker, Wisconsin Gov. Scott
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: Was Scott Walker Chosen to Headline Heartland Institute Gala Due to His Bradley Foundation Ties?
By Graham Readfearn, on August 7, 2012, at 6:35 pm galileo.jpg
ANDREW Bolt is Australia's loudest and most popular climate science doubt-spreader who just loves to stoke the fires of environmental conspiracy theorists with his daily splurge of blog posts and his weekly radio and TV shows.
The blogger and columnist in the Murdoch-owned News Ltd press describes climate change as a "religious movement" and says climate scientists are part of a global conspiracy.
Bolt allows his commenters to refer to the United Nations as the "United Nazis" and regularly joins the "one world government" conspiracy theorists while pulling quotes out of context to insinuate
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: Andrew Bolt Cuts Ties With Climate Science Denying Galileo Movement Over Alleged Anti-Jewish Conspiracy Theory
By Emma Pullman, on July 27, 2012, at 5:21 pm kerpin.jpeg
This morning, the latest in pro-tar sands spin went live. KeystoneXLNow.com takes aim at President Obama for failing to approve the Keystone XL project (even though the White House just announced approval of the southern leg today), calling it "an affront to millions of Americans out of work and an outrage to millions more who are paying higher energy costs as a result of this administration's policies."
KeystoneXLNow.com invites users to send a message directly to the State Department to counterbalance "the crazy lefties [who] are already pouring in comments to give Obama an
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: Latest Pro-Keystone XL Website Backed by GOP Special Interest Group
By Laurel Whitney, on June 15, 2012, at 2:50 pm Pfizer.png
The Heartland Institute has had a rough time the last couple of months. The climate denial shop has endured the release of embarrassing leaked documents. Then it launched a devastatingly ill-conceived billboard campaign associating climate science adherents with serial killers. That didn't work out so well. So Heartland's donors started pulling out. Its annual Denial-a-palooza festival was put out to pasture.
Despite the exodus of support for Heartland's extremist views, one major health care company remains a financial supporter of the Heartland Institute.
Pfizer, a major pharmaceutical company, continues to support Heartland, although its competitors, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, and Eli
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: Why Is Pfizer Still Aligning Itself With Heartland Institute On "Public Health" Record?
By bigcitylib, on June 12, 2012, at 5:45 am As regular readers may know, I spent a good part of May 2012 trying to convince that subset of the Heartland Institute expert list who were also legitimate scientists to distances themselves from HI for their disastrous billboard campaign, with some modest success. Well, one of the people I emailed was Richard Epstein, a Professor of Law at NYU School of Law. I can’t claim causality, but it is worth noting that he is no longer on the HI list about a month after I made contact with him. So 1/2 a BOOYAH! for me. Here’s the googlecache of his
. . . → Read More: BigCityLib Strikes Back: Richard Epstein Off The Heartland Expert List
By bigcitylib, on June 2, 2012, at 11:15 am This morning I recieved an email from Jan Veizer, a geologist at the University of Ottawa. He too is on the Heartland Institute expert list:From: REDACTEDTo: bigcitylib@hotmail.comSubject: RE: Jan Veizer And The Heartland InstituteDate: Sat, 2 Jun 2012 14:48:04 +0000I was not aware of this and and do not appreciate of being listed without asking my permission. However, I equally deplore your snooping and imposition by your “friendliy advice”.I would challenge the notion that I was snooping, however. Mr. Veizer got the same email as everyone else (see here), and I
. . . → Read More: BigCityLib Strikes Back: Jan Veizer Didn’t Even Know He Was On Heartland List–Also, He Deplores My Actions
By Taki Oldham, on June 1, 2012, at 1:57 pm head-in-the-sand.jpeg
Much has been made lately of the Heartland’s Institute’s implosion over it extreme position on climate change. In February there was the revelation of internal strategy documents that included a plan to promote climate change scepticism in schools. In early May they unveiled a billboard equating those who believe in global warming with the Unabomber.
In the resulting uproar, nearly 50% of the Heartland Institute’s projected corporate donors for 2012 have pulled out. The funding drop has been so dire that at Heartland’s latest climate change sceptics conference in Chicago last month, Heartland president Joe Bast was reduced to
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: How To Divide And Conquer The Free Market Climate Change Denial Movement
By bigcitylib, on June 1, 2012, at 6:30 am If you’ve been following along lately, you’ll know that my project for May was to–in wake of the Heartland Institute’s disastrous billboard campaign–contact scientists on the their expert list and ask them politely whether they wished to remain on that list. A copy of the form letter I used can be found here, and the results here. But the short version is: 84 experts (about 30% of the list) were contacted, and 12 responded. Of the 12, seven had their names removed from the Heartland list, prompting this open letter from HI CEO Joe Bast.
I’ve posted an
By Kevin Grandia, on May 29, 2012, at 2:20 pm monckton.jpg
This is a guest post by Greenpeace USA's Kevin Grandia, former DeSmog Managing Editor.
Christopher Monckton, well known for his wacky behavior attempting to deny the scientific realities of climate change, has now moved on to look into the conspiracy theory around whether US president Barack Obama was actually born in the United States!
Monckton, decked out in an American flag shirt, fire arm on his hip and a cowboy hat, tells the interviewer that:
My purpose in being here [in Arizona] is to have a further look into whether the president of the United States is the president
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: ‘Peer of the Realm’ Monckton now a Birther
By bigcitylib, on May 29, 2012, at 6:34 am Bjørn Lomborg’s assistant emailed me this morning to confirm that Mr. Lomborg no longer wished to have an entry on the Heartland Institute expert list:
Dear M.J.Murphy, Thank you for your email pointing out to the affiliation problem. As Lomborg is not affiliated with the Heartland Institute, we asked them to take Lomborg off from their list.
On behalf of Bjorn Lomborg Best wishes,
Zsuzsa Horvath
Personal Assistantwww.lomborg.comTwitter: @bjornlomborgFacebook: www.facebook.com/bjornlomborg
Some background here, if you haven’t been following.
By bigcitylib, on May 28, 2012, at 5:59 am Although neither the folks at the Heartland Institute nor Mr. Lomborg have confirmed Mr. Lomborg’s withdrawal from the institute’s Expert List, sometime over the course of the last three or four days his entry was indeed deleted from that list . This may or may not have been due to my efforts, outlined here and here. Naturally, given Mr. Lomborg’s centrality to the AGW debate, I made several attempts to contact him. Though none of these messages were replied to, he was was certainly made aware of the institute’s billboard campaign.
I would note that Mr. Lomborg previously quit the board
By Guest, on May 24, 2012, at 5:27 pm This is a guest post by Jesse Coleman that originally appeared at PolluterWatch.
Pharmaceutical giants Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline, along with Verizon, Wisconsin Insurance Alliance, and Credit Union National Association, have announced that they will not fund the climate change denying Heartland Institute in 2012. According to the Heartland Institute’s own fundraising document, it hoped to receive $130,000 from these potential funders this year. Today’s announcement brings the total number of corporate sponsors to drop Heartland to 15, representing $955,000 of Heartland’s projected $7.7 million budget this year.
This announcement comes in response to a petition signed by
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Verizon, and CUNA Drop Heartland Institute, Continuing Corporate Defections
By Brendan DeMelle, on May 23, 2012, at 4:09 pm 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 billboard campaign and Deniergate document dump.
"I'm not a good fundraiser," Bast admitted to the crowd today in Chicago as the gathering wound down.
Bast appealed directly to the crowd for donations, saying that "if you've got a rich uncle" [ask him to donate to Heartland].
"At this point we have
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: Joe Bast Announces the Death of Denial-a-Palooza at Final Heartland ICCC Conference
By Michael Fisher, on May 23, 2012, at 3:40 pm 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 this year's gathering in Chicago. In the past several weeks, Heartland's "Experts" have been jumping ship in the wake of Heartland's disastrous Unabomber billboard campaign, and some of Heartland's conference speakers even threatened not to show up.
More worrying to Heartland has been the sudden exodus
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: A Closer Look at Heartland’s ICCC7 Denial-a-Palooza Speakers and Sponsors
By Brendan DeMelle, on May 22, 2012, at 4:00 am heartland_billboard.jpg
The Heartland Institute's Seventh "International Conference on Climate Change" – the somewhat-annual gathering of climate deniers that we call Denial-a-Palooza – is underway in Chicago. Heartland's contrarian gathering this year is clouded by the group's incredibly offensive billboard campaign that flamed out within hours but is causing lasting damage to the group's fading financial support from corporations, defections by staff and board directors and other headaches.
Below is DeSmog's analysis of the "co-sponsors" of this year's ICCC7 conference showing that these organizations have received more than $67 million over the past three decades from ExxonMobil,
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: Heartland Denial-a-Palooza Sponsors Have Received $67 Million From ExxonMobil, Koch and Scaife Foundations
By Chris Mooney, on May 21, 2012, at 2:12 pm The_Heartland_Institute_logo.png
This week, as the Heartland Institute commences its annual conference, the organization is clearly back on its heels. Funders, experts, and even some staff are bailing, reports The Guardian. Apparently pushed into defensive mode by Peter Gleick and his attempt to expose its funding, the Institute struck back with its ill-advised “you guys are kinda like madmen and murderers” billboard campaign—and, as they say, the rest is history.
Or is it?
If Heartland didn’t exist, wouldn’t some other organization simply take its place? And won't Heartland itself weather this storm? After all, new
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: Will Climate Denial, Like, Ever End?
By bigcitylib, on May 21, 2012, at 7:39 am Yesterday, I noticed this in the UK Gaurdian re. The Heartland Institute’s ongoing travails:
A number of other experts meanwhile began cutting their ties with Heartland, according to a tally kept by a Canadian blogger BigCityLiberal.
But I noted that they just linked to my blog front page. So I thought I would work up a proper tally of those Heartland “experts” who have responded to my email re the now infamous billboard:
On May 11, Heartland Institute fellow Dennis Avery became the first to bite, penning this passionate if somewhat cracked defense of the institute. You can see the form letter
. . . → Read More: BigCityLib Strikes Back: Just Who Has Bailed On The Heartland Institute?
By bigcitylib, on May 19, 2012, at 3:32 pm Economist Peter Cramton ( a specialist on auction theory and practice) sent me the following email today:
Dear Mr. Murphy, I do believe that climate change is one of the key challenges of the day. As such, I have done considerable research in support of effective climate policy (see http://www.cramton.umd.edu/papers/climate/). I was shocked by the billboard and then the failure of Heartland to make an immediate and clear apology for what was to me an outrageous blunder. I have asked Heartland to remove me from there list of experts. It is fine to include my response
By Brendan DeMelle, on May 17, 2012, at 4:56 pm 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 of Margaret Thatcher, Sinclair shows the stupidity of Heartland's claim that all of us who acknowledge climate change science are "murderers, tyrants, and madmen."
Watch Sinclair's piece, part of Yale Forum's "This Is Not Cool" series:
read more
By Guest, on May 17, 2012, at 2:30 pm school-bus.jpg
This is a guest post by Juanita Constible, Science and Solutions Director of The Climate Reality Project, cross-posted with permission.
As a scientist, I know how important it is for our kids to get a top-notch science education. So it’s extremely significant that a new set of national science standards – the first to be released in over a decade – explicitly ask our schools to address climate change.
The Next Generation Science Standards lay out core ideas K-12 students should understand about the basics of science – from biology, to physics and chemistry, to earth science. The last
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: New National Standards Ask Schools to Teach Climate Change
By Ezra Winton, on May 17, 2012, at 10:31 am
The Heartland Institute, that whacky rightwing think tank in the US that has corporations abandoning it faster than you can say Titanic, has added another bonehead move to its long list of ridiculous and offensive propaganda tactics. Last week Heartland, which is already facing isolation in a charged US pre-election atmosphere where many formerly uncaring corporations have disassociated themselves from the ultraconservative climate change denying institute, placed ads on Chicago expressway billboards likening climate change believers to serial killers and the unibomber (top image). But they got it all wrong – below the billboard advert they were shamefully forced to
. . . → Read More: Art Threat: Aggressive misinformation from millionaires – Koch brothers-funded institute takes down offensive billboards
By Richard Littlemore, on May 16, 2012, at 7:51 pm Josph Bast.jpg
The somewhat hysterical Heartland Institute President Joe Bast has lashed out at the lengthening list of "friends" who are trying to distance themselves from the institute's increasingly embarrassing anti-science antics.
In a letter to one of the "scholars" who have asked to be removed from the list of "Heartland experts" (BigCityLiberal is keeping a good headcount here), Bast complains that his institute has always tried to stay "above the fray," and it's now being victimized "by ideological extremists as part of the ongoing attack on us and our donors."
In that light, Bast scolds his
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: Heartland’s Joe Bast lashes out at Institute’s own "friends"
By bigcitylib, on May 16, 2012, at 3:44 pm …in which he says goodbye to all those scholars who “are feeling trepidation” at being seen on the HI website. Joe still loves you. Its all a big misunderstanding. Please come home again.
By John Mashey, on May 14, 2012, at 10:12 pm shutterstock_71070031.jpg
Following the May 4 shocking Unabomber billboard campaign and subsequent departures of more of Heartland's corporate donors, Heartland was likely heartened to add the Illinois Coal Association as a new Gold Sponsor for its forthcoming ICCC-7 "climate" conference. Although ICA was not on the 05/09/12 sponsor list, it joined the usual collection of thinktank sponsors no later than 05/14/12, Maybe the billboard finally convinced them to come out publicly?
In the 2012 Fundraising plan p.24, Murray Energy gave $100,000 in 2010 and was expected to give $40,000 in 2012. Its subsidiary
. . . → Read More: DeSmogBlog: Illinois Coal Association Emerges As Heartland Denial-a-Palooza Sponsor
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