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
Continue readingTag: Heartland Institute
DeSmogBlog: Will Climate Denial, Like, Ever End?
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
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Just Who Has Bailed On The Heartland Institute?
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
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Heartland Loses Another!
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/).
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: New National Standards Ask Schools to Teach Climate Change
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
Continue readingArt Threat: Aggressive misinformation from millionaires – Koch brothers-funded institute takes down offensive billboards
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
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Heartland’s Joe Bast lashes out at Institute’s own "friends"
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
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: A Dear John Letter From The Heartland Institute’s Joe Bast
…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.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Illinois Coal Association Emerges As Heartland Denial-a-Palooza Sponsor
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
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Washington Post Picks Up Chris Landsea Story
Gives me a nice cite and link. But my favorite bit is the opening line: More than a week after it was abandoned, the Heartland Institute’s controversial billboard campaign – linking global warming belief with mass murder – continues drawing strong reactions Because keeping the story alive was one of the reasons behind
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Miklos Zagoni Wants Off Heartland Institute Expert List
Mr. Zagoni, a physicist and science historian at Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, sent me the following email this morning: Dear Mr Muprhy, I got no connection to the HI since four years, and do not want to have.I am happy if being removed from their list. Yours sincerely:Miklos ZagoniI have
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Chris Landsea Dumps Heartland
As readers might know, I have been contacting scientists/academics on the Heartland Institute Expert list and asking if, in light of the Institute’s billboard fiasco, they intend to remain on said list. This afternoon I received the following response from research meteorologist Chris Landsea: Dear M.J. Murphy, I recall that several years
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Heartland/Hudson Senior Fellow Dennis Avery Doubles Down On Billboard Campaign
So, for the past couple of days I have been sending out emails to those scientist/intellectual types on the Heartland Institute’s Expert pages, letting them know that 1) they are in fact listed as HI experts (which some of them may not realize), and 2) that HI recently launched a
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: No Charges Filed Against Gleick
As readers may remember, Peter Gleick is the hydroclimatologist who suckered the Heartland Institute out of some of their budget documents, which act has, directly or indirectly, resulted in HI’s losing $100,000s in funding from its corporate sponsors. After Mr. Gleick’s identity was revealed, rumors swirled re lawsuits and possible charges laid against
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Us and Them: The Psychology Behind the Heartland Institute Billboards
Leo-blog–The-Heartland-I-007.jpg The Heartland Institute’s jaw-droppingly ill-advised, and now withdrawn billboard campaign—pictured here—has drawn a huge volume of denunciations in the last week. There’s not much more to say substantively about the campaign, or the fallout from it, which has included a number of Heartland funders heading for the hills. But it is
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Corporate Exodus From Heartland Institute Continues As USAA and Insurers Bail
heartland_billboard.jpg In the wake of the outrageous Heartland Institute billboard campaign equating everyone who acknowledges the science of global warming with "murderers, tyrants, and madmen," many of the group's corporate donors are fleeing away, lest their public reputations get sullied by Heartland's recklessness. Today, Forecast The Facts announced that USAA,
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: The Guardian Exposes Fossil Funded Groups Coordinating Renewable Energy Attacks
shutterstock_90778001.jpg Ever wonder why a blooming green energy industry has faced such harsh opposition? Now, as the old adage goes, "the cat's out of the bag." The Guardian today revealed the network of fossil-funded groups coordinating the ongoing onslaught of attacks on renewable energy, particularly wind power. A memorandum passed to The Guardian from
Continue reading350 or bust: Anti-Science Heartland Institute Takes Ridiculous To New Heights
The far-right “think” tank the Heartland Institute recently launched a bizarre billboard campaign that linked global warming with serial killers. The first billboard went up with a picture of Ted “The Unabomber” Kaczynski with the words “I still believe in global warming. Do you?”. This campaign was too over-the-top even for
Continue readingBigCityLib Strikes Back: Heartland Institute Loses Another Sponsor After PR Fiasco
So, late last week The Heartland Institute puts up this bill-board outside of Chicago: …with the promise of more ads to come, featuring other notables such as Osama Bin Laden. The billboard, lets just say, gets noticed. Leo Hickman is first out of the gate: It really is hard to
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