The Koch funded Heartland Institute issued its report called the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change’s (NIPCC) to counter the recently released, much more comprehensive IPCC Report. The NIPCC report tells readers of all the wonderful things that Climate Change has in store for humanity. It tells us we should welcome Climate Change for the many beneficial alterations to our environment it will usher in.
Climate change is good for you, says ultra-conservative Heartland Institute
New study by thinktank funded by Koch brothers aims to debunk authoritative UN climate change report
By Suzanne Goldenberg
For those concerned about climate change, the ultra-conservative Heartland Institute offers up a calming solution: try thinking of yourself as a pea, instead of a human. Peas in a lab sprouted faster with extreme concentrations of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas mainly responsible for climate change than under normal growing conditions, Heartland said.
What's good for a pea pod isn't necessarily good for the planet, of course. Idso did not mention how rising temperatures and growing water scarcity might affect plant growth under climate change. It was just one of many lapses by what claimed to be a serious scientific examination of the threat of climate change from the thinktank funded by the Koch oil billionaires and anonymous donors.
The Heartland Institute has over the years published its own parallel-universe version of the blockbuster climate reports produced by thousands of scientists under the banner of the IPCC.
The IPCC reports are seen as the authoritative account of how climate change is threatening security, food supply and humanity.
Who produced this 1,000 pages of self-serving distortions, and glaring omissions? Heartland won't say.
Tuesday’s report, a weighty volume of more than 1,000 pages, was funded by three family foundations – whose identities Heartland refused to disclose.
The summary – of what purported to be ground-breaking climate science – relied heavily on material published by Idso and Heartland as well as a self-published paper. It otherwise cited only one paper published this century, with most of the references dating to the 1970s. One reference was to a paper published in 1904 and another to 1918.
And while in the real world understanding of climate change has moved on, through the work of scientists and real-time evidence in heat waves and killer storms, Heartland’s stable of experts remains resolute in sticking to their arguments that climate change does not exist – or might even be beneficial.
“If you look at the real world data it shows that rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere actually have a positive effect,” Idso said.
The argument has gained some currency among ultra-conservative groups like Heartland, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), and the coal lobby, according to Kert Davies of the Climate Investigation Centre.
So Heartland's author/hacks are trying to have it both ways: Climate Change isn't real, and Climate Change is wonderful.
This 1,000 page evasion of the latest and best science is the world as the Koch Brothers want Americans to imagine it.