Ahead of a major climate change report due to be released at the end of September, a prominent climate change denier organization has launched a misinformation campaign to muddle the findings of the UN panel of experts. E&E; News reports (article requires paid subscription) that Heartland Institute aims to present climate change as “politicized science” with a 1,200 page paper out this month.
Heartland has budgeted nearly $1.6 million for the release surrounding its report, according to internal documents leaked last year. The lead authors include familiar faces of the climate misinformation movement: The senior editor is Craig Idso, who has worked directly for energy companies, and has called carbon pollution a “win, win, win for all of life.” Rolling Stone once called out another of the paper’s authors, Fred Singer, a former mouthpiece for the tobacco industry who describes global warming as “unequivocally good news.” And a third author, Bob Carter, was recently dumped by his employer at James Cook University in Australia.
As scientists become more certain than ever that the world must address rising greenhouse pollution, Heartland has suffered setback after setback as it attempts to confuse the public. The same discredited organization that has questioned the link between second-hand smoke and health risks launched a billboard campaign last year comparing climate scientists to terrorists. It also secretly planned to teach schoolchildren that climate change is a hoax. As a result, the institute lost major corporate donors, although it retained oil, gas, and coal sponsors for its annual climate confusion conference.