After spending the 90’s helping the tobacco industry hide the dangers of secondhand smoke, The Heartland Institute is still around and still working the wrong side of the debate, presently functioning as “the primary American organization pushing climate change skepticism.”
This is the billboard they paid to put up in Illinois ahead of their 7th annual ‘The Climate Isn’t Changing’ Conference. Two others included Fidel Castro and Charles Manson with the same line. All three variations were taken down after the resulting public outcry.
This is the billboard Forecast the Facts attempted to put up in response, but failed to get Clear Channel’s approval.
This is the billboard Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project successfully replied with.
How did Heartland not suffer a fatal heart attack from its smoky past? Because when there’s money on the wrong side of the debate, the bullshit never ends. That’s why this time there’s an effort under way to cut off the flow of funds to this cancerous institution. A third of their funding has already fled and you can help wise up the stragglers.
A few corporate donations shouldn’t be enough to shoot humanity in the foot. Not if we’re paying attention and can find the time to occasionally sign a petition or make a phone call. We’re not all going to agree, but how about we move on to arguing about how we get ourselves out of this mess.
On Misleading Mantras
Though this op-ed highlights the great disconnect between what young people are told and the...