Denial-a-Palooza: Heartland Institute's 5 Most Offensive Attacks On Science and Public Health

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With the ultra-conservativeย Heartland Institute completely discredited in the US, they are taking their climate change Denial-a-Palooza circus act over to Germany thisย week.

The Heartland Institute has a long history of attacking conventional science on behalf of their corporate funders, whether it be the link between human activity and climate change or the link between cancer and tobaccoย smoke.

Covering Heartlands’ activities over the last 7 years has been like watching a very, very slow trainย wreck.

Here’s some of the highlights of Heartland’s headย scratchers:

1. Unabomberย Billboard:

In May 2012, Heartland launched a billboard campaign comparing people who acknowledge the scientific reality of manmade climate change to serial killers like the infamous Unabomber, Tedย Kaczynski.

There was a huge uproar over the ads, and while Heartland’s president Joseph Bast thought it could help raise his organization’s profile, there was instead a massive exodus of corporateย funders.

2.ย Denial-a-Palooza:

Each year, Heartland convenes a whole bunch of grumpy old white men, puts them up at a hotel in Times Square or Chicago and the group proceeds to complain to themselves about how climate scientists are all wrong; Al Gore is the devil, and the United Nations is plotting to take over theย world.

I have actually attended a couple of Heartland’s conferences, which they call the โ€œInternational Conference on Climate Change,โ€ but is perhaps more well known by the name we gave it, โ€œDenial-a-Palooza.โ€

The intensity of crazy conspiracy theories at these meeting makesโ€ฆ. well, Ted Kaczynski lookย rational.

After 5 years of failing to garner any relevant media coverage, Joseph Bast announced at last year’s conference that there would be no moreย Denial-a-Paloozas.

Good call Joe. (So how to explain this Germanย junket?)ย 

3. Joe Camel isย Innocent!

In a 1996 newsletter, Heartland president Joe Bast wrote a โ€œdefense of smokingโ€ piece entitled โ€œJoe Camel is Innocent.โ€ While Bast and the infamous cigarette cartoon camel may share the same first name, that’s not his sole reason for empathy. Bast’s defense of cigarettes is more likely on account of the millions of dollars in funding the Heartland Institute has recieved from tobacco companies over the years. (Plus he’s a smokerย himself.)

In the last two years alone,ย Heartland has received a combined $200,000 from tobacco giants Altria (previously named Philip Morris) and Reynoldsย America.

In the Joe Camel memo, Bast writes in defense of using cartoons to advertise cigarette brands toย children:

โ€œLast time I checked, people under the age of 18 weren’t major buyers of life insurance, household cleaners, automobile rustproofing, or tires – yet Snoopy, Mr. Clean, Rusty Jones, and the Michelin Man are used to promote those products, Joe Camel isย innocent!โ€

Last time I checked, inhaling car insurance doesn’t lead to a high risk of developing lung cancer or respiratory disease. And, while Michelin tires are pretty cool, they aren’t highlyย addictive.

4. โ€œAngry Badgersโ€ and Leaked Heartlandย Memos:

Earlier this year, DeSmogBlog obtained Heartland Institute strategy and funding documents that substantiated in no uncertain terms that the Heartland Institute relies on big money, from big corporations like Microsoft and RJR Tobacco, as well as a large amount specifically dedicated to climate denial that almost certainly flows from the pockets of Chicago industrialist Barre Seid.

The leaked memos went viral and media had a feeding frenzy. Even more funders publicly dropped their support for the Heartland Institute. The documents revealed, among other things, that corporate money was flowing through Heartland to some very prolific climate change deniers, like $90,000 to blogger Anthony Watts and $11,600 a month in funding to Craig Idso who runs a group that argues that increased levels of greenhouse gas are in fact good for theย planet.ย 

One leaked memo titled โ€œOperation Angry Badgerโ€ talks about a strategy to spend over $600,000 to help defend conservative Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker from a recall effort that was launched after Walker went after the State unions’ collective bargainingย rights.

5. Pooping in Myย Salad

In what must go down as a top ten contender for the most tasteless book title ever, Joseph Bast self-published a book in 2006 in โ€œdefense of smokers’ rightsโ€ called โ€œPlease Don’t Poop in Myย Salad.โ€

Most ridiculous quote in theย book:

No victim of cancer, heart disease, etc. can โ€œproveโ€ his or her cancer or heart disease was caused by exposure to secondhandย smoke.

Seriously, you just can’t make this stuffย up.

We wish the Heartland Institute an enjoyable German vacation this week. Don’t let reality spoil theย view.ย 

ย 
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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 partyย networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a โ€œCertified Expertโ€ on theย political and community organizing platformย 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 ICTย 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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