Source: [1]
Tom Harris is the Executive Director of the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC), a group of climate change skeptics that has received funding from the Heartland Institute. Before starting work with ICSC, Harris was the Executive Director of the now-defunct Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP).
Prior to working with the NRSP, Harris was a Director of Operations of the Ottawa office of a Canadian PR and lobbying firm called the High Park Group (HPG). Harris has also worked with APCO worldwide, a group known for creating The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC) which worked to advance tobacco industry interests.
Tom Harris's International Climate Science Coalition asserts that "global warming has generally been highly beneficial," and that "Global climate is always changing in accordance with natural causes and recent changes are not unusual." [2]
"We want to use the tools of the pros when it comes to lobbying. That's not something our group is focused especially on, but other groups like Heartland are indeed good in that area. We want to, of course, continue to conduct good science and to promote its use through climate policy. Now there are various groups doing this already and I'm sure you've heard of them all, I won't list them, but there are several components missing, and these are things that we hope to incorporate into the new International Climate Science Coalition.
"We need regular high-impact media coverage of the findings of leading scientists -- not just one or two publications but we need to have hundreds all over the world. We need to have a high degree of information sharing and cooperation between groups so that when Vincent Gray, for example, has an article published in New Zealand, we can take the same piece, and we can (say) submit it to newspapers all over North America and Europe. Then we have a nicely well-coordinated response where letters to the editor and phone calls are made, 'Congratulations on publishing that article!'
"You know, it's interesting because I've had many of my articles opposed so strongly by environmentalists through phone calls and letters to the editor that they just simply dry up; they just won't publish us again. So this does have feedback, I mean, these are people that run these newspapers and they're scared, and impressed, and encouraged, depending on the feedback they get.
"We have to have grassroots organizations doing exactly that kind of thing -- coordinated local activism. And finally, as I said, we need unbiased polling and good press coverage." [3]
May 21 - 23, 2012
Tom Harris was a speaker at the Heartland Institute's 7th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC7).
DeSmogBlog researched the co-sponsors behind Heartland's ICCC7 and found that they had collectively received over $67 million from ExxonMobil, the Koch Brothers and the conservative Scaife family foundations.
July, 2011
Harris was a speaker at the Heartland Institute's Sixth International Conference on Climate Change. [4]
See a video of his speech below:
March 4, 2008
Harris's ICSC promotes the Manhattan Declaration which states that "global warming is not a global crisis" and that "there is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity has in the past, is now, or will in the future cause catastrophic climate change." [5]
The declaration was agreed at the Heartland Institute's 2008 International Conference on Climate Change.
Harris was also a speaker at 2008 International Conference on Climate Change. In his speech, Harris discussed "information sharing" and "coordinated local activism" for climate change skeptics. See video of his presentation below:
November 7, 2006
Some suggest that Tom Harris has edited the Wikipedia page for the Natural Resources Stewardship Project to remove his connection to the High Park Group. [6]
Harris also made numerous attempts to modify the information on his SourceWatch page as well as the SourceWatch pages for the Natural Resources Stewardship Project and Friends of Science.
November, 2006
Harris posted comments on numerous blogs and websites criticizing the CBC's documentary, The Denial Machine.
The International Climate Science Coalition
Harris is the executive director of the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC). The Coalition is an organization of scientists, economists and policy experts who have united to promote a better public understanding of climate science. In particular, the International Climate Science Coalition offers an alternative to science projections and policy recommendation of the United Nations' International Panel on Climate Change.
The ICSC regularly publishes information denying the theory of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming. Its science and policy advisory boards are filled with climate change skeptics, including Tim Ball, David Bellamy, Scott Armstrong, Vincent Gray, Kesten Green, Chris de Freitas and Nils-Axel Morner.
High Park Group
Harris was the Director of Operations of the Ottawa office of the High Park Group until October, 2006. The High Park Group is a lobbying organization for the energy industry.
Harris has attempted to remove this fact from the NRSP entry on Wikipedia and Sourcewatch. He also denied his employment with the High Park Group in a comment on Deltoid.
His by-line in some Canada Free Press articles was misleading, calling him "a mechanical engineer and Executive Director of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project." But in articles published in the Windsor Star, Vancouver Sun, the Hawaii Reporter and even another in Canada Free Press, Harris is listed as "a mechanical engineer and Ottawa director of High Park Group, a public affairs and public policy company."
Harris's connection has been removed from the High Park Group website, and archived records have also been deleted according to SourceWatch.
APCO Worldwide
In 2005, Harris was listed as an "associate" for the public relations firm APCO Worldwide, with his areas of expertise being communications; science; technology; energy and environment. [7]
APCO was hired by Philip Morris in 1993 to create a front group titled The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC). TASSC manufactured a public relations campaign with the purpose of discrediting any science that suggested tobacco increased cancer and heart problems. It also advocated industry-friendly positions on global warming and pesticides. TASSC labeled environmentalists as promoting "junk science" whale the Coalition advocated what they describe as "sound science."
Apart from Philip Morris, APCO also received funding from Chevron, ExxonMobil (at least $30,000), Dow Chemical, the National Pest Control Association, 3M, and numerous tobacco and oil companies.
The Natural Resource Stewardship Project (NRSP)
Harris was formerly the Executive Director for the now-defunct Canadian lobby group called the "Natural Resource Stewardship Project" (NRSP). [8]
Two of the three directors on the board of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project were also senior executives of the High Park Advocacy Group, a Toronto-based lobby firm that specializes in "energy, environment and ethics." [9]
The NRSP was also home to the prolific climate change skeptic Dr. Tim Ball.
According to a search of Google Scholar, Tom Harris has not published any articles in peer-reviewed journals.
"'Climate change is REAL' - well, so what else is new?" NRSP (blog), November 6, 2006."
"Core Principles," International Climate Science Coalition. Accessed December, 2011.
Youtube Video. "Global warming 'skepticism' -- 'coordinated local activism'," uploaded by user frankbi on September 29, 2008. This is an excerpt of Harris's speech at the Heartland Institute's 2008 International Conference on Climate Change.
"Speakers," Sixth International Conference on Climate Change. Accessed December, 2011.
"Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change," The International Climate Science Coalition.
Tim Lambert. "Now Really Secret Payments," Deltoid, November 7, 2006.
Ottowa Key Staff, APCO Worldwide. Archived June 5, 2004.
"NRSP People," Natural Resources Stewardship Project. Archived February 13, 2007.
"Our Team," High Park Group. Archived July 1, 2006.
"Tom Harris," SourceWatch Profile.
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.
THERE’S a section on the Heartland Institute’s website pointing readers to “Stuff We Wish We Wrote”.
After events over the last year or so, the chaps at the fossil fuel-funded “think tank” might want to add a new section with the title “Stuff We Wish We Hadn’t Wrote”.
The Heartland Institute, for those who don’t know, is a Chicago-based group promoting any view or position that argues we shouldn’t do anything about human-caused climate change. They run campaigns, hold conferences...
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