Denial-a-Palooza: Does German Media Really Believe There is No Link Between Cigarettes and Lung Cancer?

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A US group called the Heartland Institute will be in Munich, Germany this week holding a conference that has become known as โ€œDenial-a-paloozaโ€ where a small group of unqualified โ€œexpertsโ€ gets together to talk about their conspiracy theory that climate change is a โ€œhoax.โ€ This year, Heartland Institute is partnering with the Germany-based European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE) to host the โ€œEighth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC8)โ€ November 30 โ€“ December 1.

Usually Heartland holds Denial-a-palooza in the United States, but I suspect the group is taking their event overseas where the media is less likely to know the long and sordid details of Heartlandโ€™s other efforts to attack conventionally accepted scientific conclusions. Not to mention Heartlandโ€™s offensive Unabomber billboard campaign and a long list of other outrageous stunts. 

Perhaps the Heartland Institute is banking on the German mediaโ€™s failure to Google search for evidence of the groupโ€™s long history of attacks on science and efforts to confuse the public about climate change and an array or other threats to public health and the planet.

Long before Heartland started raising money from dirty energy interests like the Koch brothers, they were taking money from tobacco companies to downplay the health risks of tobacco smoke.

In fact, the President of Heartland, Joseph Bast, even self-published a book called โ€œPlease Donโ€™t Poop in My Saladโ€ where he, according to a review on Heartlandโ€™s Smokers Club site:

โ€œโ€ฆ uses common sense, real science, and the (almost) lost art of of critical thinking to refute and debunk the outlandish claims and comments made by anti-smoking fundamentalists.โ€

In a 2007 document on Heartlandโ€™s website, Bast claims that:

โ€œThe public health communityโ€™s campaign to demonize smokers and all forms of tobacco is based on junk science.โ€

Of course, nowhere in these articles does it mention that, in the last two years alone, Heartland has received $200,000 in funding from tobacco giants Altria (previously named Philip Morris Companies Inc) and Reynolds America.

In a 1999 letter soliciting funding from the tobacco company Philip Morris, Bast wrote:

โ€œBecause Heartland does so many things that benefit Philip Morrisโ€™ bottom line, things that no other organization does, I hope you will consider boosting your general operating support this year to $30,000โ€ฆ We rely heavily on companies like yoursโ€ฆโ€ [my emphasis]

So here we are more than a decade later and Heartland is trying to convince the public that climate change is nothing to worry about, using the same playbook of doubt and confusion that Heartland uses to suggest that tobacco smoke is not a health threat.  As it turns out, tobacco products have ravaged a generation of people with lung cancer, emphysema and all sorts of other horrible and preventable diseases.

Bast is banking on the media overseas not knowing what media here in North America knows about Heartlandโ€™s shady corporate front group operation. Here, they are an organization completely discredited in the eyes of major media.

So my question now is: Will media in Germany fall for Bast and the Heartlandโ€™s latest attacks on reputable science and scientists? Will German media cover this yearโ€™s Denial-a-Palooza with a hefty dose of skepticism, or give them a platform to wrecklessly spread more confusion and doubt?

What do you think?

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Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a โ€œGreen Heroโ€ by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the โ€œTop 50 Tweetersโ€ on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevinโ€™s research into the โ€œclimate denial industryโ€ and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Kochโ€™s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a โ€œCertified Expertโ€ on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the worldโ€™s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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