The serious professional libertarian fools at The Heartland Institute grouptthink tank are not April Fools. They have done this year-round for decades. And now they have been taken to the cleaners by their own grifting President, Frank Lasée.
The Heartland Institute is an American conservative and libertarian public policy think tank founded in 1984 and based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The Institute conducts work on issues including education reform, government spending, taxation, healthcare, tobacco policy, global warming, hydraulic fracturing, information technology, and free-market environmentalism.
In March 2017, the Institute's program the Center for Transforming Education began an unsolicited mailing of the Institute's book Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming and a companion DVD to all 200,000 K-12 science teachers in the U. S., with a cover letter giving a link to an online course planning guide. The material is not science and was intended to confuse teachers, according to the National Center for Science Education.[52][92][93]
Spam, voodoo, junk science, spam, Fossil Foolism, Internet Conspiracy Theories, spam, spam, lies, damned lies, spam with an egg on top, and spam.
Rather than invest scarce world resources in a quixotic campaign based on politicized and unreliable science, world leaders would do well to turn their attention to the real problems their people and their planet face.
The book is available as a PDF from Heartland.
The Heartland Institute has defended its decision to send the book to educators against criticism by three liberal Congressmen (see here, and here) and the National Science Teachers Association (see here). We’ve also responded to a ‘Spanish Inquisition-style’ letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos sent by radical Democratic U.S. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, Elizabeth Warren, Brian Schatz, and Edward Markey (see here).
Yes, all right, we know about you. Although I must say, I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition.
Back to Wikipedia:
In the 1990s, the Heartland Institute worked with the tobacco company Philip Morris to attempt to discredit the health risks of secondhand smoke and to lobby against smoking bans.[3][4]:233–34[5] Since the 2000s, the Heartland Institute has been a leading promoter of climate change denial.[6][7] It rejects the scientific consensus on climate change,[8] and says that policies to fight it would be damaging to the economy.[9]
Damaging to their grift, certainly.
Another tidbit from Wikipedia:
On Thursday May 3, 2012, Heartland launched an advertising campaign in the Chicago area, and put up digital billboards along the Eisenhower Expressway in Maywood, Illinois, featuring a photo of Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber" whose mail bombs killed three people and injured 23 others, asking the question, "I still believe in global warming, do you?" They withdrew the billboards a day later.[71][72] The Institute planned for the campaign to feature murderer Charles Manson, communist leader Fidel Castro and perhaps Osama bin Laden, asking the same question. The Institute justified the billboards saying "the most prominent advocates of global warming aren't scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen."[73]
The Latest Foolishness
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Heartland Cleans House After Hiring Girl Who Marches With Neo-Nazis, While Doubling Down on Climate: “Recently, the Heartland Institute fired nearly half its staff, according to reporting by Alex Kauffman of HuffPost. According to Kauffman, the organization’s (former) events coordinator Nikki Comerford said that ‘Heartland is broke’ because president ‘Frank Lasee spent all of our money in six months including the savings.’ Heartland responded to the report with a press release about the ‘reorganization,’ promising two new initiatives ‘to counter the global alarmist Climate Delusion.’
The Heartland Institute conducted layoffs of some full- and part-time staff on Friday, March 6, and we have reorganized the leadership of the organization. This reduction in personnel and reorganization will make Heartland more efficient and focused. It will put us in a stronger financial position to continue advocating for personal freedom, as well as to continue our important role in educating the public and public officials about climate alarmism, and focus on the science and the significant threat alarmism poses to our economy. Working with supporters and contributors, we are confident Heartland's mission-oriented work will continue, uninterrupted, for many years to come.
This month, Heartland will be announcing the launch of two important new initiatives to arm policymakers and the public with vital information to counter the global alarmist Climate Delusion. Heartland will also be hosting its 14thInternational Conference on Climate Change in Las Vegas in May. The Heartland Institute’s new personnel structure will allow us to more effectively promote these important truths and programs.
However, the Conference Web site says,
Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, this conference, scheduled for May 7-8, 2020, has been postponed. A new date will be announced in the coming weeks. All who have registered for tickets and made reservations at Caesars Palace will be contacted by The Heartland Institute about getting a refund or keeping their registration active when a new date is secured.
The entire schedule of sessions has been scrubbed. Don't worry, you aren't missing anything.
Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science
"Wind comes at a great cost. Without subsidies and mandates it would not exist. Don’t believe the lie that is costs less than natural gas. It costs more. Also wind power after nearly a trillions dollars world wide investment is less than one half of one percent of world energy supply. And somehow wind and solar energy are the future. The future of waste and poverty. Stop the madness. Keep your money in your pocket. Don’t let leftists take your money in the form of higher taxes and higher gas and electric prices. Don’t vote for leftists, it’s a costly mistake."
And much more in that vein.
Heartland's Frank Lasée Debunks Chicago Climate Emergency
Chicago Alderman Matt Martin, author of the proposed Climate Emergency Ordinance, vs. Frank Lasée, implausible villain and cad. Lasée starts straight in here claiming that mitigating Global Warming is only about Democrats engaged in financial corruption to benefit their friends in the renewable energy business.
I don't particularly recommend that you actually watch that. If you have a serious interest in the methods of lying Denialists, as I do, OK. Warning: The first minute is Trump.
Naomi Seibt and Watts Up With That?
Climate Denier Roundup continued
As we’ve noted before, Heartland doesn’t seem bothered by their Anti-Greta’s anti-Semitism, so it will probably keep promoting her despite photos showing her marching alongside Neo-Nazis at an anti-abortion rally in 2018. And judging by the replies to her recent tweets, it certainly looks like someone’s paying for bots to elevate her.
If Seibt giving a fresh face to old myths is one of Heartland’s new projects, what’s the other? Judging by a Heartland press release posted on WUWT (complete with tracking links so Heartland can see how many clicks its employee Anthony Watts drives), and a much more reliable story from InsideClimate News, its new initiative looks to be a new website: ClimateAtAGlance.
The site offers short summaries of denier positions – just another convenient repackaging of basic and well-worn myths
Future Plans
Prominent U.S. climate denial group fires president amid financial crisis
James Taylor, director of Heartland's Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy, is being considered for the role of president. Neither Taylor nor a Heartland spokesman responded to requests for comment.
Taylor, who has been passed over twice for the president's job, briefly left Heartland to open a small pro-fracking think tank called the Spark of Freedom Foundation. He later returned to Heartland.
Heartland has received millions of dollars in funding from the energy industry over the years, but many of those contributions have dried up as major players in the oil and gas industry, like Exxon Mobil Corp., backed away from denying climate change. Other funders, such as Murray Energy Corp., have gone bankrupt.
Aw. Boo hoo.
Influence
The Heartland Institute
Freedom Rising
About Us
2018 By the Numbers
See what sets Heartland apart:
- 78% of state elected officials read one or more Heartland newspapers "sometimes" or "always."
- 45%of state elected officials say a Heartland publication influenced their opinions or led to a change in public policy.
Note: The image up top shows a card from the After Tarot card deck, where each of the cards shows a possible scene after the usual one. In this case,