HEARTLAND

this is primary node, see ICCC and heartlnd tag

horner listed as expert

margins messed up, see hrtlndbkup

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CSM

By Stephanie Pappas LiveScience Senior Writer

Feb. 15, 2012

Leaked documents from the free-market conservative organization The Heartland Institute reveal a plan to create school educational materials that contradict the established science on climate change.

The documents, leaked by an anonymous donor and released on DeSmogBlog, include the organization's 2012 fundraising plan. It lists Heartland Institute donors, from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation (established by Koch Industries billionaire Charles G. Koch), to Philip Morris parent company Altria, to software giant Microsoft and pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.

The climate change education project is funded so far by an anonymous donor who has given $13 million to the Institute over the past five years. Proposed by policy analyst David Wojick, who holds a doctorate in epistemology and has worked for coal and electricity generation companies, the project would create education "modules" written to meet curriculum guidelines for every grade level.

"Many people lament the absence of educational material suitable for K-12 students on global warming that isn't alarmist or overtly political," the report reads. "Heartland has tried to make material available to teachers, but has had only limited success."

Funding skepticism

Heartland focuses on free-market issues across the board, including promoting charter schools, lobbying for business-friendly finance, insurance and real estate rules and promoting prescription drug availability before full Food and Drug Administration testing.

In the area of climate change, the leaked documents revealed that the group funds vocal climate skeptics, including Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change founder Craig Idso ($11,600 per month), physicist Fred Singer ($5,000 plus expenses per month), and New Zealand geologist Robert Carter ($1,667 per month). They've also pledged $90,000 to skeptical meteorologist Anthony Watts, who blogs at WattsUpWithThat.com.

The documents also reveal a communications strategy aimed at "keep[ing] opposing voices out" of publications such as Forbes Magazine, where the audience is "reliably anti-climate."

On the education front, Wojick would be paid $5,000 per module, or $25,000 per quarter, according to the report's tentative estimates, to produce the Heartland climate curricula. The Institute's anonymous donor has pledged $100,000 to the project, which the Institute hopes to match from other donors.

Each module would inject skepticism into the scientific consensus on climate change. Example statements in the report include: "Whether humans are changing the climate is a major scientific controversy;" "Models are used to explore various hypotheses about how climate works. Their reliability is controversial;" and "Whether CO2 [carbon dioxide] is a pollutant is controversial." The modules would also teach that the idea of carbon dioxide as a pollutant is "controversial," arguing that carbon dioxide is crucial to life on Earth and that natural emissions are 20 times those of human emissions.

Creating controversy

In fact, while some of these statements may be politically controversial, they are not particularly scientifically controversial. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 Fourth Assessment Report, which synthesizes global scientific findings about climate change, states: "Since the start of the industrial era (about 1750), the overall effect of human activities on climate has been a warming influence. The human impact on climate during this era greatly exceeds that due to known changes in natural processes, such as solar changes and volcanic eruptions."

Likewise, while models cannot represent the climate system perfectly (thus the uncertainly in how much the Earth will warm for a given amount of emissions), climate simulations are checked and re-checked against real-world observations and are an established tool in understanding the atmosphere.

And while carbon dioxide is crucial for plant life, the carbon balance on Earth is a delicate cycle, with oceans and land able to absorb only so much CO2. Humans do emit only a fraction of the 750 gigatons of CO2 that move through the atmosphere each year, but small changes in the total amount can overwhelm so-called carbon "sinks" such as the ocean, resulting in important, and cumulative, changes in the atmosphere. [10 Ways the Weather Changed History]

"These documents are breathtaking, and they reveal what many of us have long suspected: That there is a campaign afoot by groups directly funded by the fossil fuel industry and right-wing foundations such as Koch Industries to mislead the public about climate change," Pennsylvania State University climatologist Michael Mann wrote in an email to LiveScience.

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AWARD

2019

2015 WINNERS

Robert Carter

Robert M. Carter, Ph.D. is a palaeontologist, stratigrapher, and marine geologist with a 50-year record of university teaching and publishing international research on ancient environmental and climatic change topics.

ICC-10-winners-carter

William Happer

William Happer, Ph.D. is a physicist who has specialized in the interaction of atoms and nuclei with radiation. He is the Cyrus Fogg Brackett professor of physics (emeritus) at Princeton University and a long-term member of the JASON advisory group, where he pioneered the development of adaptive optics and invented the sodium guide star to eliminate astronomical imaging blurring due to atmospheric turbulence.

ICC-10-winners-happer

James Inhofe

U.S. Sen. James Inhofe is well known in his home state of Oklahoma and in Washington, DC as one of the most conservative members of the United States Senate. Human Events recently ranked Inhofe #1 on its list of the “Top 10 Most Outstanding Conservative Senators.” In 2013, National Journal ranked Inhofe among the top five most conservative members of the Senate.

ICC-10-winners-inhofe

David Legates

David Legates, Ph.D. is professor of climatology in the Department of Geography at the University of Delaware and an adjunct professor at the university’s Physical Ocean Science and Engineering Program and in the Department of Applied Economics.

ICC-10-winners-legates

Anthony Watts

Anthony Watts is a 25-year broadcast meteorology veteran and currently chief meteorologist for KPAY-AM radio. He got his start as an on-air meteorologist for WLFI-TV in Lafayette, Indiana and at KHSL-TV in Chico, California.

2017 WINNERS

J. Scott Armstrong

J. Scott Armstrong is a professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and founder of the Journal of Forecasting, International Journal of Forecasting, and International Symposium on Forecasting.

ICC-10-winners-armstrong

John Barrasso

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso has a long and distinguished career in both medicine and public service. In 2012, Barrasso was reelected to the U.S. Senate with over 75 percent of the vote to represent his home state of Wyoming. He is the fourth-ranking member in the Senate Republican leadership and chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

ICC-12-winners-barrasso

Walter Cunningham

Walter Cunningham is best known as pilot of Apollo 7, the first manned flight test of the Apollo Program to land a man on the Moon. He is a retired Marine Corps fighter pilot with the rank of colonel and 4,500 hours pilot time. He is a successful businessman, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, lecturer, and author.

ICC-12-winners-cunningham

Myron Ebell

Myron Ebell is director of energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He chairs the Cooler Heads Coalition, representing more than two dozen non-profit groups in the U.S. and abroad that question global warming alarmism and oppose energy rationing policies. He led the EPA Transition Team for the Trump Administration in 2016-2017.

2014 WINNERS

E. Calvin Beisner

Dr. E. Calvin Beisner is national spokesman for The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, editor of the Cornwall Alliance’s electronic newsletter, and author or co-author of several major papers and articles on global warming produced by the Cornwall Alliance.

CCA-winners-for-site-Beisner

Alan Carlin

Dr. Alan Carlin, now retired, was a career environmental economist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1971 to 2009. His criticism of the agency’s draft Endangerment Finding led to efforts to silence him and orders to stop working on global warming issues. He chose to become a whistleblower, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute broke the story in June 2009.

CCA-winners-for-site-carlin

Tom Harris

Tom Harris is executive director of the International Climate Science Coalition, a non-partisan group of independent scientists, economists, and energy and policy experts who are working to promote better understanding of climate science and policy worldwide.

CCA-winners-for-site-harris

Sherwood Idso

Dr. Sherwood Idso, one of the world’s leading authorities on the effects of carbon dioxide on plants, is president of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change. Prior to 2001 he was a research physicist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service at the U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory in Phoenix, Arizona, where he worked since 1967.

CCA-winners-for-site-idso

Christopher Monckton

Christopher Monckton, Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, is chief policy advisor to the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI). He has held positions with the British press and in government, as a press officer at the Conservative Central Office and as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s policy advisor.

CCA-winners-for-site-monckton

Patrick Moore

Dr. Patrick Moore is an internationally renowned ecologist and environmentalist. Beginning his career as an activist/leader in the Greenpeace movement he now concentrates on collaborative efforts aimed at finding environmental solutions. He speaks and lectures frequently at universities, community meetings, and conferences.

CCA-winners-for-site-moore

Arthur B. Robinson

Dr. Arthur Robinson is a distinguished chemist, cofounder of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, and editor of the newsletter Access to Energy. He also works on the development of home schooling techniques and on the public dissemination of information on civil defense

CCA-winners-for-site-robinson

S. Fred Singer

Dr. S. Fred Singer was among the first and is still the most prominent scientist in the world speaking out against global warming alarmism. He is the author, coauthor, and editor of many books, including Climate Change Reconsidered (several volumes) and more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles.

CCA-winners-for-site-singer

Willie Soon

Dr. Willie Soon, an astrophysicist and a geoscientist, is a leading authority on the relationship between solar phenomena and global climate. His discoveries challenge computer modelers and advocates who consistently underestimate solar influences on cloud formation, ocean currents, and wind that cause climate to change.

CCA-winners-for-site-soon

Roy W. Spencer

Dr. Roy W. Spencer is a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He previously was a senior scientist for climate studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where he and Dr. John Christy received NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for their global temperature monitoring work with satellites

ORIGIN?

https://climatecrocks.com/2012/02/21/dear-phillip-morris-heartlands-love-letter-to-big-tobacco/

no lnx doc vid

Climate Denial Crock of the Week

with Peter Sinclair

“Dear Phillip Morris” – Heartland’s Love Letter to Big Tobacco

February 21, 2012

Ace researcher John Mashey, whose indispensable investigation into the anti science movement’s leading players and finances has now been posted online, concurrent with release of internal documents from the anti-science “think” tank, Heartland Institute.

Among the gems John has rediscovered, a 1999 love letter (and boot licking appeal for funding) from Heartland chairman Joe Bast to the Phillip Morris Tobacco company. This document is among the trove of materials released thru the tobacco lawsuits of the 90s, and is available in the Tobacco Legacy Library online – so there’s no way for Heartland to run from this further evidence of their dark history. It’s another key bit of evidence showing the tobacco funded roots of the climate denial industry.

The letter is from Bast to Roy Marden, a Phillip Morris executive, and member of the Heartland board. Marden had apparently invited Bast to solicit further funds from the tobacco giant.

Dear Roy:

Thank you for inviting me to request renewed general operating support for The Heartland Institute for 1999.1 note that Philip Morris contributed $5,000 last August (for a Gold Table at our annual benefit) and $25,000 in October (general operating support). It also has allowed you to serve on our Board of Directors, which has produced many positive results for the entire organization.

The letter goes on to extoll Heartland’s tireless efforts to assist the tobacco industry in their sale of death dealing, addictive substances to children and adults around the planet.

Because Heartland does many things that benefit Philip Morris’ bottom line, things that no other organization does, I hope you will consider boosting your general operating support this year to $30,000 and once again reserve a Gold Table for an additional $5,000.

We genuinely need your financial support. Maybe by the end of this letter you’ll agree that we merit even greater support; I certainly hope so!

Bast continues, enumerating various components of their disinformation campaign on behalf of tobacco.

Heartland has devoted considerable attention to defending tobacco (and other industries) from what I view as being an unjust campaign of public demonization and legal harassment. We’re an important voice defending smokers and their freedom to use a still-legal product.

The Heartlander, our monthly newsletter for members, has called attention to the dangerous legal precedents and discriminatory taxes that are part of the campaign against tobacco in cover essays appearing in the October, November, and June issues.

Recent and past Heartland publications on tobacco, including a Heartland Policy Study and several Perspectives, and the 21 documents on the subject available from PoIicyFax, are all available on Heartland’s Web site. Particularly popular are two of my essays, titled “Five Lies About Tobacco” and “Joe Camel is Innocent.”

Finishing up, Bast waxes on about plans for an online “Smoker’s Lounge”, as a clearinghouse for anti-science disinformation promoting tobacco.

We are also revamping our Web site to bring together into one place all the material on tobacco — the policy study, op-eds, PoIicyFax documents, and Heartlander essays — and identify it as the “Smoker’s Lounge” on the homepage. And we have discussed producing an Instant Expert Guide to Tobacco Litigation and reproducing an analysis done of the effect of a federal lawsuit against the tobacco industry on the level of payments states can expect to receive. Both of these projects are likely to come about in the coming months (though the latter only if it is still timely).

february 4, 2018

In January 2018, more than 200 scientistsendorsed an open lettercalling on the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) to remove climate change denier Rebekah Mercer from its board and to “end ties to anti-science propagandists and funders of climate science misinformation.” *The New York Times* reported that those among the AMNH letter calling for Mercer to step down were Michael E. Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, and Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. [60]

Milloy was among a group of climate change deniers whoresponded with their own open letter, calling for the AMNH “not to cave in to this pressure.” The letter was signed by numerous individuals with ties to groups funded by the Mercer Family Foundation such as Will Happer of the CO2 Coalition; Richard Lindzen, a fellow at the Cato Institute; and Craig Idso, the chairman of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change. There are a number of signatories affiliated with the Heartland Institute, which has received over $5.78 million from the MercerFamily Foundation since 2008. [61]

The letter reads: [62]

“The Earth has supported abundant life many times in the geological past when there were much higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is quite likely that future generations will benefit from the enrichment of Earth’s atmosphere with more carbon dioxide.

“Make no mistake, the agitators are not defending science from quackery — quite the contrary!”

santelli rant --> People around the country heard the call. As chronicled by Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake, protests soon broke out in Cincinnati; Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Feb. 27 saw tea parties outside the White House and ineight more cities, coordinated by John O’Hara of The Heartland Institute and J.P. Freire, then with The American Spectator, and apparently suggested by Tom Gaithens, a FreedomWorks “Minuteman.” (Although, tellingly, Fox News would report that more than 40 cities held similar rallies that day, relying on a Tea Party source. The claim lives on at Wikipedia.)

https://fisher.osu.edu/supplements/10/8357/O'Hara%20John%20M%20%20-%20FPS%20Resume.pdf

ill pol inst, chao

~ pope

http://www.alternet.org/environment/heartland-institute-attacks-pope-francis-climate-change

http://www.climatewiki.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

ClimateWikiis moderated and edited by The Heartland Institute, “the world’s most prominent think tank promoting skepticism about man-made climate change.” [The Economist, May 26, 2012]. Heartland is a 30-year-old national think tank based in Chicago. Interested in becoming a contributor? Visit our Website or Contact us by email.

ALEC Partners with Heartland Institute for Rollback of Renewables

Even more extraordinary is ALEC's push this year to repeal Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), which require that utility companies provide a certain amount of their total energy from renewable sources like wind.

"ALEC's long time role in denying the science and policy solutions to climate change is shifting into an evolving roadblock on state and federal clean energy incentives, a necessary part of global warming mitigation," says Connor Gibson, a Research Associate at Greenpeace.

In Germany, where the nation has set a goal of getting 35% of its energy from renewables by 2020, public committment to clean energy technologies is transforming markets, driving innovation and generating huge numbers of jobs. Even in the U.S., where there has been less public investment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says 3.1 million clean energy jobs have been created in recent years.

Perhaps because of RPS' job-creating qualities, ALEC's bill to repeal renewable standards, the "Electricity Freedom Act," was too much even for the most conservative legislatures. It failed to pass in every state where it was introduced -- even in North Carolina, where it had the backing of :{**Grover** Norquist:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:, and whose Republican-dominated legislature has been rolling multiple ALEC bills into law in 2013

It may be little surprise that ALEC's attack on renewables was spearheaded by one of its looniest members: the bill was brought to ALEC in May 2012 by the Illinois-based Heartland Institute, a group best known forbillboards comparing people who believe in climate change to mass murderers like the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

ALEC is usually very secretive about its model legislation and its efforts in the states, but ALEC did not disguise the fact that it had made the Electricity Freedom Act a priority for the 2013 session. ALEC's Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force Director Todd Wynn published blog posts on the topic and was quoted in the press discussing how ALEC was working with Heartland to promote the repeal bills.

In many of the states that have proposed versions of the Electricity Freedom Act, theright-wing infrastructurehas sprung into action, almost according to a script. The Beacon Hill Institute publishes a study (using discredited analysis) claiming that a state's renewable standards lead to higher energy costs, as it did in states like Maine and Ohio and Wisconsin and Arizona. The David Koch-founded and-led Americans for Prosperity organizes an event to "educate" its members about how renewables are "punishing" consumers, as they did in Nebraska, and perhaps invite a guest from the Heartland Institute to make similar claims, as they did in Kansas.

ALEC, the Heartland Institute, and the Beacon Hill Institute all have received money from foundations associated with Charles and David Koch, and each are also part of the State Policy Network, an umbrella group of right-wing organizations that claim adherence to the free market. SPN has received at least $10 million in the past five years from the mysterious Donors Trust, which funnels money from the Kochs and other conservative funders. SPN was also a "Chairman" level sponsor of ALEC's 2011 Annual Conference and ALEC is an Associate Member of SPN.

But even though the ALEC/Heartland anti-renewable energy fight found little success in 2013, the group is not giving up.

New Avenue Sought to Rollback Renewables

“I expect thatNorth Carolina and Kansas will probably pick up this issue again in 2014 and lead the charge across the country once again,” Wynn said.

ALEC now appears to be modifying its strategy to find a more palatable way to attack renewable standards.

At its August 2013 meeting, ALEC will consider a watered-down version of the Electricity Freedom Act with a bill called the "Market Power Renewables Act." That legislation would phase-out a state's Renewable Portfolio Standards and instead create a renewable "market" where consumers can choose to pay for renewable energy, and allow utilities to purchase energy credits from outside the state. This thwarts the purpose of RPS policies, which help create the baseline demand for renewables that will spur the clean energy investment necessary to continue developing the technology and infrastructure that will drive costs down.

But, it would satisfy ALEC's goal of preserving reliance on dirty energy from fossil fuels.

ALEC Bills Undermine Environmental Regulations, First Amendment

ALEC energy, environment, and agriculture bills moving in the first six months of 2013 include:

The "Electricity Freedom Act," introduced in six states, repealing (or in some states weakening) Renewable Portfolio Standards. The standards have been a key component driving renewable energy growth -- which threatens the profits of ALEC's polluter members.

Variations on the "Resolution in Support of the Keystone XL Pipeline"(introduced in ten states) calling on the federal government to approve the controversial project to transport tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada across the United States. It is no coincidence that pipeline operator TransCanada is an ALEC member and funder.

The misleadingly-named "Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act" (introduced in five states) which would actually make it harder to find out what chemicals are being pumped underground through the fracking process. The bill, which was brought to ALEC by Exxon Mobil, carves out a giant loophole for "trade secrets" -- potentially concealing the information the public might want to know.

The "Environmental Literacy Improvement Act" (introduced in five states), seeks to sow doubt in the minds of young people about man's role in the warming planet by requiring that educators "teach the controversy" when it comes to topics like climate change, where the science is beyond dispute.

The "Environmental Services Public-Private Partnership Act" (introduced in two states) would give for-profit companies control of vital public health services like treating wastewater and drinking water -- the last place where you want a company to cut corners to increase profits.

The "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act" (variations of which were introduced in nine states) have come to be known as "Ag-Gag" bills, as they criminalize investigations into abuses on factory farms and deem videographers "terrorists."

The "Disposal and Taxation of Public Lands Act" (considered in seven states) was modeled after a Utah law from 2012 and is an updated version of the ALEC "Sagebrush Rebellion Act," where Western states assert control over federal lands that are being protected as wilderness preserves, in many cases to allow for resource extraction.

ALEC Corporations Reap the Rewards

i wondered why heartland is in chic:

Illinois Ranks As Worst Rogue Coal State: Strip Mine Permit To Serial Violator Stuns Residents

[10] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/coal-marketing_b_882383.html

Heartland Coal Crisis: Illinois Bankrolls Big Coal School Program? Interview With Eco-Justice Leader Lan Richart

Posted: 06/22/11 05:42 PM ET

At ground zero in the nation's clean energy fight, The Heartland Coal Crisis will be a periodical series of blogs on coal and energy issues facing states in the Midwest, with a special focus on the Heartland Coalfield Alliance campaign for a just transition to a clean energy and sustainable economy.

While a national campaign succeeded last month in getting publisher Scholastic, Inc. to nix their unabashedly Big Coal-cheering "The United States of Energy" curriculum, few people realized some states -- such asKentucky -- are quietly using taxpayer funds to subsidize similar coal industry-composed materials and websites for children.

In a state where child laborers lost their lives in the coal mines as Peabody Coal took out ads for "clean coal" in the 1890s, Illinois is no exception -- even as thestate slashes the education budget for schools.

As part of the whopping $145 million budget for the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity's Office of Coal Development -- a marketing and development slush fund, for the most part, to keep the state's "coal revival" in gear -- Illinois has been pushing a misleading and downright shameless Big Coal-approved curriculum and educational activities on children and their teachers around the state.

Forget dime bag hustlers on the playground: The state spends thousands of dollars a year to distribute small bags of coal -- unit price: 10,000 bags @.25 per bag -- to Illinois children, even as mercury rates soar, and coal burning cities like Chicago rank among the highest in related asthma and health care problems.

Here's one quick example: While Illinois is the birthplace of industrial strip-mining, where thousands of acres of the best farm lands and diverse have been left in ruins, DCEO's website for kidsproclaims: "Reclamation is returning the land to the way it was or better than before mining." A little cartoon figure adds a kicker:

Courtesy: Illinois Department of Commerce

At its annual Coal Education Conference at Rend Lake Resort last week, the state picked up the tab for a four-dayBig Coal junket hailed as an "exciting summer conference exploring the Illinois coal industry."

For Carbondale activistand radio host Brent Ritzel, who organized a counter exhibit at the conference:

The one-sidedness of the proceedings (they never knew the answer to any question that could potentially be used to paint the coal industry in a negative light, here was no discussion concerning the public health impacts of coal at all) was not lost on many of them, and one teacher indicated that she was going to be contacting Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to express her dissatisfaction and concerns regarding the event.

Perhaps the most egregious example of the Illinois-sponsored Big Coal pusher on children is the state-supported curriculum, "From the Coal Mines to the Power Lines," which provides hundreds of pages of material, maps, posters and CD-ROMs in an attempt to glorify the coal industry.

I spoke with Lan Richart, co-founder of the Eco-Justice Collaborative in Chicago and a founding member of the Heartland Coalfield Alliance, about the state's coal education program and curriculum.

JB: The DCEO coal curriculum is directed toward children and adolescents -- the very age group affected by coal-burning pollutants. How does the curriculum handle coal-burning realities?

LR: Given its length, the curriculum is remarkable in the absence of material honestly discussing the enormous environmental and social costs attributable to coal. Virtually nothing is said about the devastating health effects of coal combustion; that according to the American Lung Association 24,000 people die prematurely each year because of coal-fire power plants, that coal plants are the largest source of mercury in the world, or that coal is responsible for much of the U.S. power-related emissions of particulates, nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide, contributors to respiratory illness, lung and heart diseases and asthma attacks. Many of coal's victims are the very targets of this curriculum.

The voluminous materials also totally ignore or gloss over:

The ravages to the landscape of strip mining; the massive land subsidence of longwall mining;

The long-term storage of toxic coal sludge, containing chemicals like lead, arsenic, cadmium and selenium in unlined reservoirs hundreds of acres in size across our Illinois farmlands;

The disruption of surface drainage; damages to wells, septic systems, homes and outbuildings; and

The injection of mine wastes into the ground.

JB: Three miners die daily from black lung disease, and as the recent Upper Big Branch report noted, there is a "deviant" culture of placing profit over safety in many mines. Many Illinois mines have been cited for constant violations. Do you think the curriculum deals forthrightly with the realities of underground mining and workplace safety?

LR: Absolutely not. The overarching message in the curriculum is that although mine safety regulations affect the cost of coal production, their implementation have brought about dramatic improvements over the past century. By example, mine fatalities of the 1940s are compared to those of the 1990s, showing a reduction of 98 percent. I saw no mention of contemporary examples of mining violations, or recent tragedies resulting from questionable or unethical mining operations.

The treatment of mining laws focuses on improvements made not on current conditions. In the real world mining safety and environmental violations are rampant. As an example, SourceWatch states that since 2005, the Galatia mining complex in Saline County, Illinois has incurred over 2,700 citations and $2.4 million in proposed fines. A spokesman for the United Mining Workers noted that this mine is not particularly better or particularly worse than any other mine in the country.

JB: Speaking of children, coal mining began with child labor until several major moves to halt it. What sort of historical perspective does the curriculum provide? Likewise, Illinois used legal slaves in the first mines -- is that ever discussed?

LR: References are made to historical mining practices, especially as a way to contrast them with current conditions. The role of immigrants and child labor are mentioned, as well as the development of unions to improve worker conditions. No mention is made of the early use of slave labor.

JB: Illinois has an important legacy of union activism. Does the curriculum provide any context for the conditions that led to the rise of unions for workplace democracy?

LR:Several short sections provide a historical context for the conditions driving the development of miners' unions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The economic reasons why mine owners of the past might have exploited workers are referenced. However, discussions of today's mining conditions, issues of worker exploitation or union busting are lacking.

JB: Thousands of acres of Shawnee forests and rich farm land have been strip-mined in Illinois, and citizens have been forcibly removed off their ancestral lands. How does the curriculum deal with stripping and reclamation?

LR: Anyone who is familiar with surface mining operations knows that this form of coal extraction requires massive land disturbance, the exposure and release of toxic materials from the coal seam and the disruption of surface and groundwater drainage. Examples abound of inadequately reclaimed mined land, with lost farmland productivity, water quality problems, limited vegetative cover and low habitat diversity. Instead of acknowledging these challenges, the curriculum teaches children that mined lands are routinely restored to parks, wildlife areas, golf courses and farmlands. The DCEO website states that "reclamation is returning the land to the way it was or better than before mining." I wish it were true.

JB: Does the curriculum discuss climate change in an adequate fashion -- especially given Illinois' role in FutureGen and coal?

LR:Greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired electricity, account for 27 percent of total U.S. emissions and are projected to grow by a third by 2025. Over 97 percent of all climate scientists and virtually every Academy of Science in the World are in consensus that global warming is real and that human activities such as the combustion of fossil fuels are contributing to it. Yet, in the Teachers Resource Section, high school teachers are coached to respond to students questioning the connection between coal and climate change, that the evidence is unclear whether the combustion of fossil fuels has led to global climate change and that global warming is complex due to natural phenomenon.

At a time when these students are considering what could be the greatest threat to their entire generation, they are told that the evidence is unclear, that the issue is complex; essentially coal is not a problem.

The State of Illinois is heavily promoting the coal economy and FutureGen, an advanced coal technology plan that hopes to successfully demonstrate carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) in conjunction with a retrofitted coal-fired power plant. Despite the fact that CCS is still in the development phase and there are no guarantees that it can be successfully implemented on a scale and in a time frame necessary to address climate change, the curriculum speaks of it as an available technology. Ironically, CCS is mentioned primarily in the context of the cost of implementation and the increased price of generated electricity that would result if the power industry had to reduce carbon emissions.

JB: How do you see this curriculum as serving the coal industry?

LR: The curriculum is a seemingly exhaustive attempt to extol the virtues of coal and the coal industry, emphasizing the difficulties coal operators face in bringing coal services and products to consumers, often in the face of restrictive regulations. The introduction clearly states its purpose: "By including coal education in their curriculum, teachers will bring to their students and communities an awareness of our state's greatest natural resource and the positive role coal plays in our day-to-day lives and the economy of the state."

It would seem that in promoting such a curriculum the coal industry and DCEO are attempting to lay a cultural foundation, beginning with the very youngest members of our communities, that supports the unquestioned growth and development of a private industry; an industry that each year is responsible for billions of dollars of health and environmental damages and is right now ushering us headlong into climate catastrophe. Short-term the big financial winner will be the coal industry. Long-term, the losers will be the students whose teachers have indoctrinated them into the "coal culture."

JB: Other thoughts?

LR: I don't think that the coal industry or the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity have any business producing educational curricula for our schools.

I would hope that any teacher receiving these materials would be able to see them for what they are: a medium for promoting an economic agenda. While it is true that coal currently serves as a primary power source for our country, it also has a very dark side. The DCEO curriculum and its current efforts to promote a coal future in Illinois fail to account for the significant social and environmental costs borne by society on behalf of the coal industry.

Leaked Document: DCI, Heartland Institute and Exxon plan attacks on Clean Air Act

An anonymous source sent Greenpeace a copy of an invitation, agenda and attendees list for a May 2006 meeting organized by the Heartland Institute and hosted at the DCI Group offices “to discuss public policy challenges related to the Clean Air Act.” The only corporation represented at the meeting was ExxonMobil. Exxon representatives gave two presentations over the course of the full day meeting. Six ExxonMobil staff are listed as invited guests. Two DCI – Tech Central Station representatives are named on the invitees list, along with a note “plus DCI field officers and staff”. It is unknown whether Andrea Saul attended this meeting.

Heartland Instituete DCI Clean Air Act mtg Guestlist (p. 3)

Organizations invited to this session included:

American Council for Capital Formation
American Enterprise Institute
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
Black Chamber of Commerce
Cato Institute
Center for Science and Policy
Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)
CRA International
Frontiers of Freedom
George C. Marshall Institute
Manhattan Institute
National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF)
Phoenix Strategies

{cke_protected}

nipcc: http://www.skepticalscience.com/news.php?n=1295

A quick NIPCC sample of familiar people, mostly climate fakexperts:187

 Anderson, economics professor at GMU, author Fire and Ice188

 Armstrong, marketing forecaster at Wharton School, U Pennsylvania

 :{Avery, agricultural economist at Hudson Institute

 Bast, President of Heartland, tobacco advocate, no degree known}:

 Battaglia, chemistry professor, author of Green Outside, Red Inside

 Carter, marine geologist, adjunct researcher at James Cook University

 Corbyn, meteorologist with a secret forecasting method189

 Courtney, coal industry scientist and editor

 Crockford, best-known as researcher of the evolution of dogs

:{ D’Aleo, retired TV meteorologist

 Easterbrook, emeritus geology professor, known for imminent global cooling

 Goklany, EE and policy analyst at US Dept of Interior}:

 Goldberg, mechanical engineer

 Gray, retired coal industry researcher

 Haapala, economist, SEPP Exec. VP

 Hagen, combustion engineer

 Heiss (dec), rocket scientist

 Idso, Craig, geographer, Chair of CSCDGC

 Idso, Sherwood, soil scientist, president of CSCDGC

 Jaworowski (dec), retired prof of atomic radiation

 Khandekar, retired Environment Canada scientist

 Kininmonth, retired meteorologist

 Labohm, economist

 Lupo, atmospheric scientist

 Maccabee, radiation biophysicist,

 Monckton, UK Viscount, claimed membership in House of Lords

His presence alone causes a serious credibility problem.

 Motl, Czech theoretical physicist, string theorist, blogger (not for children)

 Scafetta, theoretical physicist dedicated to planetary cycles, not CO2

 Schmitt, geologist/astronaut

 Segalstad, geologist

 Soon, astrophysicist at HS CfA, not Harvard U

 Weber, meteorologist with German Coal Mining Association

187 www.desmogblog.com/global-warming-denier-database has many of these

188heartland.org/sites/all/modules/custom/heartland_migration/files/pdfs/20560.pdf

maskey desmog pdf

14 February 12 at 4:08pm

Fake science, fakexperts, funny finances, :{free of tax:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:

Desmogblog (http://s.tt/1982E)

14 February 12 at 2:13pm

Heartland Institute Exposed: Internal Documents Unmask Heart of Climate Denial Machine

Internal Heartland Institute strategy and funding documents obtained by DeSmogBlog expose the heart of the climate denial machine – its current plans, many of its funders, and details that confirm what DeSmogBlog and others have reported for years. The heart of the climate denial machine relies on huge corporate and foundation funding from U.S. businesses including Microsoft, Koch Industries, Altria (parent company of Philip Morris) RJR Tobacco and more.

We are releasing the entire trove of documents now to allow crowd-sourcing of the material. Here are a few quick highlights, stay tuned for much more.

-Confirmation that Charles G. Koch Foundation is again funding Heartland Institute’s global warming disinformation campaign. [Update: Apparently even the Koch brothers think the Heartland Institute's climate denial program is too toxic to fund. On Wednesday, Koch confirmed that it did not cut a check for the $200K mentioned in the strategy memo after all. A statement released on KochFacts.com and the charleskochfoundationfacts.org states that "…the Charles Koch Foundation provided $25,000 to the Heartland Institute in 2011 for research in healthcare, not climate change, and this was the first and only donation the Foundation made to the institute in more than a decade. The Foundation has made no further commitments of funding to Heartland.”]

Greenpeace’s Koch reports show the last time Heartland received Koch funding was in 1999.

The **January 2012 Confidential Memo: 2012 Heartland Climate Strategy** states:

“We will also pursue additional support from the Charles G. Koch Foundation. They returned as a Heartland donor in 2011 with a contribution of $200,000. We expect to push up their level of support in 2012 and gain access to their network of philanthropists, if our focus continues to align with their interests. Other contributions will be pursued for this work, especially from corporations whose interests are threatened by climate policies.”

-Heartland Institute’s global warming denial machine is chiefly – and perhaps entirely – funded by one Anonymous donor:

Our climate work is attractive to funders, especially our key Anonymous Donor (whose contribution dropped from $1,664,150 in 2010 to $979,000 in 2011 - about 20% of our total 2011 revenue). He has promised an increase in 2012…”

-Confirmation of exact amounts flowing to certain key climate contrarians.

“funding for high-profile individuals who regularly and publicly counter the alarmist AGW message. At the moment, this funding goes primarily to Craig Idso ($11,600 per month), Fred Singer ($5,000 per month, plus expenses), Robert Carter ($1,667 per month), and a number of other individuals, but we will consider expanding it, if funding can be found.”

-As Brad Johnson reported today at ThinkProgress, confirmation thatHeartland is working with David Wojick, a U.S. Energy Department contract worker and coal industry consultant, to develop a ‘Global Warming Curriculum for K-12 Schools.’:{

-Forbes and other business press are favored outlets for Heartland’s dissemination of climate denial messages, and the group is worried about maintaining that exclusive space. They note in particular the work of Dr. Peter Gleick:}:

“Efforts at places such as Forbes are especially important now that they have begun to allow high-profile climate scientists (such as Gleick) to post warmist science essays that counter our own. This influential audience has usually been reliably anti-climate and it is important to keep opposing voices out.” (emphasis added)

Note the irony here that Heartland Institute – one of the major mouthpieces behind the debunked ‘Climategate’ email theft who harped about the suppression of denier voices in peer-reviewed literature – now defending its turf in the unscientific business magazine realm.

-Interesting mentions of Andrew Revkin as a potential ally worth “cultivating,” along with Judith Curry.[cf cointelpro atrazine flip attempts]

“Efforts might also include cultivating more neutral voices with big audiences (such as Revkin at DotEarth/NYTimes, who has a well-known antipathy for some of the more extreme AGW communicators such as Romm, Trenberth, and Hansen) or Curry (who has become popular with our supporters).”

-Confirmation that skeptic blogger Anthony Watts is part of Heartland’s funded network of misinformation communicators.

“We have also pledged to help raise around $90,000 in 2012 for Anthony Watts to help him create a new website to track temperature station data.”

Stay tuned for more details as DeSmogBlog and others dig through this trove of Heartland Institute documents. The Heartland Institute's legacy of evasion of this level of transparency and accountability has now been shattered.

Read the documents [all PDF (except one .doc)]:

January 2012 Confidential Memo: 2012 Heartland Climate Strategy

Minutes of January 17 board meeting (.doc)

Agenda for January 17, 2012 Board Meeting

Board Meeting Package January 17, 2012

Binder 1 (maybe overlap with above documents)

2012 Heartland Budget

2012 Heartland Fundraising Plan

2010 Heartland IRS Form 990 (public document)

Stay tuned… see also DeSmogBlog's Richard Littlemore's coverage.

**The Heartland Institute alleges that the 2012 climate strategy document is a "fake" and has threatened the DeSmogBlog with legal action. However, the organization has not provided any proof to support its allegations. We see no basis in fact or law for us to remove this document, and will leave it available in the public interest.

Related Profile(s) :

S. Fred Singer

Craig Idso

Bob Carter

Anthony Watts

The Heartland Institute

Desmogblog (http://s.tt/1982E)

14 February 12 at 2:13pm

Heartland Institute Exposed: Internal Documents Unmask Heart of Climate Denial Machine

We are releasing the entire trove of documents now to allow crowd-sourcing of the material. Here are a few quick highlights, stay tuned for much more.

Greenpeace’s Koch reports show the last time Heartland received Koch funding was in 1999.

The **January 2012 Confidential Memo: 2012 Heartland Climate Strategy** states:

-Heartland Institute’s global warming denial machine is chiefly – and perhaps entirely – funded by one Anonymous donor:

-Confirmation of exact amounts flowing to certain key climate contrarians.

“funding for high-profile individuals who regularly and publicly counter the alarmist AGW message. At the moment, this funding goes primarily to Craig Idso($11,600 per month), Fred Singer ($5,000 per month, plus expenses), Robert Carter($1,667 per month), and a number of other individuals, but we will consider expanding it, if funding can be found.”

-As Brad Johnson reported today at ThinkProgress, confirmation that Heartland is working with David Wojick, a U.S. Energy Department contract worker and coal industry consultant, to develop a ‘Global Warming Curriculum for K-12 Schools.’

-Forbes and other business press are favored outlets for Heartland’s dissemination of climate denial messages, and the group is worried about maintaining that exclusive space. They note in particular the work of Dr. Peter Gleick:

-Interesting mentions of Andrew Revkin as a potential ally worth “cultivating,” along with Judith Curry.[cf cointelpro atrazine flip attempts]

-Confirmation that skeptic blogger Anthony Watts is part of Heartland’s funded network of misinformation communicators.

“We have also pledged to help raise around $90,000 in 2012 for Anthony Watts to help him create a new website to track temperature station data.”

Read the documents [all PDF (except one .doc)]:

January 2012 Confidential Memo: 2012 Heartland Climate Strategy

Minutes of January 17 board meeting (.doc)

Agenda for January 17, 2012 Board Meeting

Board Meeting Package January 17, 2012

Binder 1 (maybe overlap with above documents)

2012 Heartland Budget

2012 Heartland Fundraising Plan

2010 Heartland IRS Form 990 (public document)

Stay tuned… see also DeSmogBlog's Richard Littlemore's coverage.

Related Profile(s) :

S. Fred Singer

Craig Idso

Bob Carter

Anthony Watts

The Heartland Institute

===

14 February 12 at 4:08pm

Fake science, fakexperts, funny finances, free of tax

Modern anti-science was created by the tobacco industry in the 1950s and then used against climate science, often by the same well-experienced think tanks and individuals. Tobacco anti-science is strangely entangled with climate anti-science, as the attached report shows in detail involving Fred Singer's SEPP, Joseph Bast's Heartland, and more.

S. Fred Singer is President of the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP), but has done almost all the work himself for 20 years., including help for tobacco in the early 1990s. Research for Weird Science sent me on a trek through his and other IRS Form 990s, which unearthed many curiosities of strange governance, fakery and funny finances, all tax-free.

Singer claimed Frederick Seitz as Chairman for two years after his demise and 20 years after a Philip Morris staffer had written in 1989:

“Dr. Seitz is quite elderly and not sufficiently rational to offer advice.”

SEPP’s finances were curious. SEPP paid no salaries, even for Singer’s 60-hour workweeks. Money flowed oddly. Asset trades often exceeded normal incomeand they accumulated to$1.5M, tax-free. Then one money trail led to Heartland.

Heartland Institute’s Joseph Bast staunchly defended “Joe Camel,” the infamous campaign to addict younger children. Heartland got tobacco funding for many years, along with a Philip Morris Board member.

Whitney Ball’s DONORS TRUSTfunded a major expansion of Heartland climate anti-science. Singer collected old associates to help write “NonGovernmental International Panel on Climate Change“ (NIPCC) reports, filled with unsupported claims and long-refuted anti-science.

He was helped by CraigIdso, of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change (CDCDGC), whose money flows also seem unusual. Robert Ferguson’s Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) was a website and a PO Box in a UPS store and he was actually a CSCDGC employee.

Under Jay Lehr and James Taylor, anti-science permeated Heartland’s Environment and Climate News (E&CN) sent mostly to elected officials. Heartland incessantly touted its access and influence with such officials, but its tax forms claimed no lobbying. It ran “fake science” conferences, paying for government staff attendance. It sent money to foreign non-charity advocacy groups, sent anti-science handbooks to school boards and urged parents to complain. It has been criticized in Nature and Science.

Free speech allows people to express opinions, even lie about facts, but tax-free operation is a revocable privilege. Spreading factual untruths and confusion about smoking or climate science is neither research nor education in the public interest.

Read the report, at least the first 21 pages, backed by nearly 200 of detailed backup.

This report was scheduled to be published in a few days, and by astonishing coincidence, just today we see Heartland Institute Exposed. The report was done entirely from public sources, but today's new information is quite consistent and fills some holes. However, the unnamed large Anonymous donor is now seen to be someone hiding behind DONORS TRUST, and some of the smaller ones dedicating funds appear in pp.57-59, with red itemizations. We also see some of the actual payments I had to infer.

03/11/12 CORRECTION: p.58 omitted a DONORS CAPITAL item for 2008: “For media materials $100,000”, which should be added to various subtotals, making them consistent with the $4,610,000 reported on p.57, Fig. H.1.4. H/T to Michael Fisher.

Attachment Size

fake.pdf 4.99 MB

Desmogblog (http://s.tt/1982E)

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14 February 12 at 2:13pm

Heartland Institute Exposed: Internal Documents Unmask Heart of Climate Denial Machine