The Heartland Institute's current President, Joe Bast, has launched a billboard campaign denouncing science, scientists, conscientious political activists - and by association EVERYONE else who speaks with concern about climate change - as murderous, tyranical or insane.
Settling on that third descriptor, it's difficult to imagine what kind of crazy person thought this was an appropriate attack on the public dialogue about the most pressing environmental issue in the history of humankind.
This is a link to the 2012 Heartland Fundraising strategy, a document the institute was careless enough to email to a stranger, regardless that it includes the full list of Heartland funders. General Motors has already announced that it wants off this list - that it is embarrassed by any association with a disinformation organization of this nature.
But if you are concerned about climate change, if you are NOT a murderer, a tyrant or a crazy person, and you are a shareholder or customer of any of the organizations on this list (maybe we could start with Microsoft), please send an email, write a letter, make a phone call or sell your stock. Let's make it clear that Joe Bast needs a vacation, permanently.
Democracy is utterly dependent upon an electorate that is accurately informed. In promoting climate change denial (and often denying their responsibility for doing so) industry has done more than endanger the environment. It has undermined democracy.
There is a vast difference between putting forth a point of view, honestly held, and intentionally sowing the seeds of confusion. Free speech does not include the right to deceive. Deception is not a point of view. And the right to disagree does not include a right to intentionally subvert the public awareness.
So just in case anyone wasn’t sure, a major study of almost 12,000 scientific papers on global warming between 1991 and 2011 finds less than one per cent disagree that humans are the main cause.
Published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the study led by John Cook, the Australia-based founder of Skeptical Science, confirms the debate about the causes of global warming had all but vanished in the scientific literature by the early 1990s. ...
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the Heartland billboards are
the Heartland billboards are stupid, plain and simple. but the message is not unique I'm afraid:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/07/25/277564/norway-terrorist-is-a-global-warming-denier/
"the Heartland billboards are
"the Heartland billboards are stupid, plain and simple. but the message is not unique I'm afraid:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/07/25/277564/norway-terrorist-is-a-global-warming-denier/"
Broken link.
Reminder: Heartland is (for now) a tax-exempt public charity
Heartland is (for now) a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) public charity in USA
As a reminder on 501(c)(3), see Fake science...v PDF p.8:
(quoting http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/rp_1986-43.pdf , Rev. Proc. 86-43, 1986-2 C.B. 729 )
“Educational Purpose” section:
‘SEC. 3. CRITERIA USED TO DETERMINE WHETHER ADVOCACY BY AN ORGANIZATION IS EDUCATIONAL …
.03 The presence of any of the following factors in the presentations made by an organization is indicative that the method used by the organization to advocate its viewpoints or positions is not educational.
1 The presentation of viewpoints or positions unsupported by facts is a significant portion of the organization's communications.
2 The facts that purport to support the viewpoints or positions are distorted.
3 The organization's presentations make substantial use of inflammatory and disparaging terms and express conclusions more on the basis of strong emotional feelings than of objective evaluations.
4 The approach used in the organization's presentations is not aimed at developing an understanding on the part of the intended audience or readership because it does not consider their background or training in the subject matter.'
Of course, given Heartland's ~20-year tobacco connection, I suppose nothing is surprising.
Jim Tantillo, I don't notice
Jim Tantillo, I don't notice Romm saying that the most prominent deniers are mass murderers, but the Heartland Institute statement says:
"The people who still believe in man-made global warming are mostly on the radical fringe of society. This is why the most prominent advocates of global warming aren't scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen."
http://www.desmogblog.com/will-heartland-institute-s-corporate-funders-tacitly-endorse-comparing-climate-realists-bin-laden-and-unabomber
Deniers are....
deniers are Murderers Tyrants and Madmen.
Murderer's? We know millions if not billions will die as a result of climate change.
"Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide (such as manslaughter)."
Tyrants? What would you call the Koch's? They won't let the country run if they don't get what they want.
"A tyrant (Greek τύραννος, tyrannos) was originally one who illegally seized and controlled a governmental power in a polis."
Madmen?
"Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person becoming a danger to themselves or others, though not all such acts are considered insanity."
Pulled their posters?
I see Heartland have pulled their posters.
Their marketing team seems to be about as contemporary as the 1950's.
Fringe?
I notice in the Heartland link they have the statement:
"The people who still believe in man-made global warming are mostly on the radical fringe of society."
Oh yes, 0% of major scientific scientific institutes worldwide agree with Heartlands position and we are on the fringe?
People who believe that sort of shite Heartland comment must also fall for Nigerian lottery scams.
0% deniers, 0%................hello?!