UPDATE5: 5/5/10:30AM Donna Laframboise pulls out of the conference.
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2012/05/05/why-i-wont-be-speaking-at-the-heartland-conference/
Instead, those of us who had accepted Heartland’s invitation to take part in its conference found ourselves blindsided – a mere two weeks before the conference is set to begin – by a torrent of negative press. Suddenly, we were all publicly linked to an organization that thinks it’s OK to equate people concerned about climate change with psychopaths.
Blindsided is right. AFAIK, not one attendee was given the courtesy of weighing in on the billboard campaign beforehand, and if I had been given that courtesy my answer would have been a resounding NO. Instead, I believe we all got the notice after the fact.
UPDATE4: 7PM PST Heartland issues a press release ending the billboard
May 4, 2012 – The Heartland Institute has pulled its global warming billboard starring Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber whose manifesto expressed his belief in catastrophic man-caused global warming. The digital billboard ran for exactly 24 hours along the Eisenhower Expressway near Chicago in the suburb of Maywood, Illinois.
The following statement by Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast may be used for attribution. For more information, please contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at jlakely@heartland.org or 312-377-4000.
“This provocative billboard was always intended to be an experiment. And after just 24 hours the results are in: It got people’s attention.
“This billboard was deliberately provocative, an attempt to turn the tables on the climate alarmists by using their own tactics but with the opposite message. We found it interesting that the ad seemed to evoke reactions more passionate than when leading alarmists compare climate realists to Nazis or declare they are imposing on our children a mass death sentence. We leave it to others to determine why that is so.
“The Heartland Institute doesn’t often do ‘provocative’ communication. In fact, we’ve spent 15 years presenting the economic and scientific arguments that counter global warming alarmism. No one has worked harder, or better, on that task than Heartland. We will continue to do that – especially at our next International Conference on Climate Change in Chicago from May 21 – 23.
“Heartland has spent millions of dollars contributing to the real debate over climate change, and $200 for a one-day digital billboard. In return, we’ve been subjected to the most uncivil name-calling and disparagement you can possibly imagine from climate alarmists. The other side of the climate debate seems to be playing by different rules. This experiment produced further proof of that.
“We know that our billboard angered and disappointed many of Heartland’s friends and supporters, but we hope they understand what we were trying to do with this experiment. We do not apologize for running the ad, and we will continue to experiment with ways to communicate the ‘realist’ message on the climate.”
========================================================
UPDATE3: 3:15PM PST I saw this private letter to Joe Bast earlier from Ross McKitrick, and I agreed with Ross in a reply. He has posted it on Climate Audit so I’ll share an excerpt here:
He wrote: “This kind of fallacious, juvenile and inflammatory rhetoric does nothing to enhance your reputation…”
“…hands your opponents a huge stick to beat you with, and sullies the reputation of the speakers you had recruited. Any public sympathy you had built up as a result of the Gleick fiasco will be lost–and more besides–as a result of such a campaign. I urge you to withdraw it at once.”.
UPDATE2: 1PM PST
From Joe Bast via email:
We will stop running it at 4:00 p.m. CST today. (It’s a digital billboard, so a simple phone call is all it takes.)
UPDATE: I’ve added a simple poll at the bottom to gauge opinion on this issue. – Anthony
There’s a disturbance in the farce. Tom Nelson captures these:
Do you believe global warming is real, poses risks to the environment, and needs to be addressed? The Heartland Institute, a think-tank based in Chicago which has promoted climate skepticism, wants you to know you’re in some sinister company.
Twitter / @eilperin: In new ads, the Heartland …
In new ads, the Heartland Institute suggests only terrorists believe in the link b/w human activity and global warming: wapo.st/IOUuEI
Predictably, ThinkProgress/Climate Progress is all bent out of shape.
But Joe Romm and Brad Johnson (who now also runs “Forecast the Facts” to hassle TV weatherpeople) think nothing of making a similar comparison about “deniers”.
Speaking of “mass murderers and madmen”….
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/07/25/277564/norway-terrorist-is-a-global-warming-denier/
Romm of course will be unable to embrace his own hypocrisy, because he’s reportedly paid a six figure sum by the Center for American Progress to write the hateful detritus he produces daily.
That said, I’ll be blunt; I think Heartland’s billboard campaign is a huge misstep, and does nothing but piss people off and divide the debate further. IMHO it isn’t going to win any converts, and had they asked me I would have told them that it is a bad idea that will backfire on them.
Here’s what they have issued in a press release about it:
May 03, 2012May 3, 2012 – Billboards in Chicago paid for by The Heartland Institute point out that some of the world’s most notorious criminals say they “still believe in global warming” – and ask viewers if they do, too.
Heartland’s first digital billboard – along the inbound Eisenhower Expressway (I-290) in Maywood – is the latest effort by the free-market think tank to inform the public about what it views as the collapsing scientific, political, and public support for the theory of man-made global warming. It is also reminding viewers of the questionable ethics of global warming’s most prominent proponents.
“The most prominent advocates of global warming aren’t scientists,” said Heartland’s president, Joseph Bast. “They are Charles Manson, a mass murderer; Fidel Castro, a tyrant; and Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. Global warming alarmists include Osama bin Laden and James J. Lee (who took hostages inside the headquarters of the Discovery Channel in 2010).
Bast added, “The leaders of the global warming movement have one thing in common: They are willing to use force and fraud to advance their fringe theory.” For more about the billboards and why Heartland says people should not still believe in global warming, click here.
Ugh. Ugly.
There’s more than enough climate ugliness to go around. Though, it seems harder and harder to find this ultimate warmist embarrassment.
Anybody that can help with Donna’s suggestion?
And there’s many more examples of climate ugliness from the left that we’ve seen.
On another note, the serially mendacious commenter known as “Dorlomin” left this comment over at the Romm shop:
dorlomin says:
I thought I should clear this up. First, “dorlomin” of course is all about smear, that’s his MO, and the MO of the many anonymous cowards who purvey such things without having any integrity or courage themselves.
Second, the simple fact is that I didn’t know about the association of the person making the claim that “Climate skepticism could soon be a criminal offence in UK
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/07/19/climate-skepticism-could-soon-be-a-criminal-offence-in-uk/
Third, when I learned who was behind the story, I immediately took it down because it was an inappropriate source, just like I don’t post videos from LaRouche and other fringe organizations.
Of course “dorlomin” and left foot forward would have you believe that I consort with these folks and have them over for drinks and dinner, rather than the fact that once I learned more, I found them offensive and immediately deleted the story. It was my mistake for not checking sources further.
“dorlomin” is of course playing the very hate game he rants about, and is hypocritically blind just like Romm. The only difference is that one is paid to produce propoganda and the other is a coward.
But will Climate Progress delete their offensive story about climate deniers and terrorists? Not likely, it would hurt their sales figures image.
POLL:
Note: multiple anti vote stuffing features are enabled in this poll. I’ve made the questions simple so that editorial bias in the questions is minimal.
I agree with McKitrick, this is pretty childish. 1 very embarassing own-goal from the Heartland Institute. They should apologize immediately.
Everyone has the right to defend themselves, even the Heartland Institute. Gleick et al went after them in a no holds barred criminal fashion and the best defense, is a bloody good offense. It has never been about science but politics and propaganda. We’d be fools to not play the same cards back at them.
They’re screaming loud because those ads are right on the nail.
Unpopular though it appears to be, their move gets my vote.
Pointman
DJ says:
May 4, 2012 at 11:58 am
A picture of Pachauri would have been far better.
======
Along with “I also believe in reincarnation too.” You know how some of leftists feel about religious stuff. It’s funny that they always tried to paint me as bible thumper yet I rarely ever step in church (mainly for weddings) when it had nothing to do with anything I was discussing over climate stuff. Crazy…
Like everyone has said – a serious lapse in judgement (where have I heard that before?).
I daresay I was offended – because I believe in global warming. And I believe it global cooling. Its merely a question of timing and duration of a naturally cyclic process.
Further – I suspect that the CAGW could trot out some horrific persons on MY side of the debate as well.
But of course NOW they’re getting all sanctimonious about how offended they are (conviently forgetting their perjorative ‘denier’ term).
But they’re going to bash us without mercy. This stuff has no place in civilized debate – which I had THOUGHT that the Heartland was trying ro promote. Bad move, Heartland.
Mike Mangan-
you nailed it. the thing is, ‘publick’ has lost the ability to define right and wrong. e.g., nobody expects honesty from their elected officials yet they repeatedly pay for and endorse them.
how can this be? democracy. gang-rape is the epitome of democracy. the greatest good for the greatest number – and voted by the majority. you see, americans have substituted the concept of need for the concept of rights. therefore, they are unable to argue for their rights – instead they have accepted gangsterism that is democracy and they side with one or another gang.
there is no virtue that can be achieved by this vice. they are too crippled to understand that, though they sometimes have a vague feeling about it.
the fact that the heartland comparison of unabomber to the ecocommunists is accurate to the tiniest degree. but even those who stand to benefit from this understanding lack the wit to appreciate it. they might not hug a tree, but they sure would hug a cannibal.
and that is why losing is inevitable. there is no morality they can define – they have substituted political consideration – acceding to emotional blackmail – as the standard of value to guide their actions. good obedient sheep.
i’m sure heartland never expected this particular publicity stunt (for that’s all they do – they produce nothing of lasting value and can not, for they are mere epiphytes on parasites) would bomb among their presumed target audience. they surely must know that prosecuting gleick would be a winner – but perhaps they wish to trade forbearance for some favors from the establishment – you know- influence among our rulers.
until people do stand up and say no, they are merely negotiating and their abuse is therefore a business arrangement agreed to by all parties. as long as they pay up, are polite, and vote- they have no right whatsoever to complain about abuse. they asked for it, paid for it, elected it and bread a vast population of willing suppliers by virtue of their huge demand for it.
if anything, at least heartland billboard was close to open defiance. i have to give them credit for having some avocadoes. in an avocadoless world, that makes them pretty special.
Joe Bast’s Heartland Institute billboard expresses something I’ve thought about myself!
Why does no one discuss it? It is pretty obvious and offensive – but also a very very inconvenient Truth. What’s wrong with stating the facts about the dubious nature of the True Believing infamous fellow travelers?
Therefore, since I can see a lot of positive Truth telling, and since the Believers have very very deeply poisoned this well, I believe it may well clarify more than it obscures.
And thus, I think the stance Anthony defends – this will backfire – needs more support: who the Heck will remember ‘all the goodwill’ fallout from Gleick-gate in six months?
If one has to wrestle with pigs, how can anyone expect to stay clean?
Quiz – who said it – Algore or the Unabomber?
“Did Al Gore say it? Or was it the Unabomber? It may be more difficult to decide than you think.
Each quote below is either from Al Gore’s Book Earth in the Balance or from the Unabomber’s Manifesto.”
http://www.crm114.com/algore/quiz.html
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“The twentieth century has not been kind to the constant human striving for a sense of purpose in life. Two world wars, the Holocaust, the invention of nuclear weapons, and now the global environmental crises have led many of us to wonder if survival – much less enlightened, joyous, and hopeful living – is possible. We retreat into the seductive tools and technologies of industrial civilization, but that only creates new problems as we become increasingly isolated from one another and disconnected from our roots.”
1. __ Gore __ Unabomber
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“Again, we must not forget the lessons of World War II. The Resistance slowed the advance of fascism and scored important victories, but fascism continued its relentless march to domination until the rest of the world finally awoke and made the difference and made the defeat of fascism its central organizing principle from 1941 through 1945.”
2. __ Gore __ Unabomber
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“It is not necessary for the sake of nature to set up some chimerical utopia or any new kind of social order. Nature takes care of itself: It was a spontaneous creation that existed long before any human society, and for countless centuries, many different kinds of human societies coexisted with nature without doing it an excessive amount of damage. Only with the Industrial Revolution did the effect of human society on nature become really devastating.”
3. __ Gore __ Unabomber
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
More – see link above
At 4:52 PM on 4 May, Alexander Feht had written with punishing clarity:
I wasn’t a line officer, but I think I can still give that a great big “Bravo Zulu.”
REP;
Thank you, tho I never left – usually visit at least twice a day; just rarely speak up. 😉
The SOP that I refer to is not the sensational self-inflicted debacle that bids to reduce Heartland’s relevance, but the routine use of what the Left fondly euphemism as “snark”, here in the posts at WUWT.
There is a steady drizzle of such wince-worthy distractions in the post-Titles and content here on WUWT, such as are embraced at GRIST et al … current examples;
“I Feel a FAIL Coming On…”
“Jumping the shark…”
“[Sirs,] your crow pie is ready now.”
1.) Because WUWT is now well-established a leading go-to source for news on the Right side of the Debate-that-is-over, it does not need these attention-getting devices that – at their root – are what Nobodies employ to secure their first notice (and then hope their Content is actually of interest to the visitor). Snark-devices are not cost-free.
2.) The debate that has become the signature topic & success-venue of WUWT (tho I have it on impeccable rumour that Anthony Watts would love to wander other fields, too) is clearly going in Sceptics’ favour these days, and has been for some years now. Winners look better, when they look & act like winners. It is a ‘luxury’ that should be indulged – once one is winning, *be* the winner.
3.) Discipline is an essential ingredient of the Scientific Method & Position. As in the military, and conservative scenes in general, discipline is both a structural asset and an aesthetic element of the scientific personality/psychology. Judith Curry can turn a nice piece of humour … but she marches & salutes beautifully. Habitual snark is inherently antithetical of discipline.
If things continue as they are now for Anthropogenic Global Warming, it will not be long before the level of interest in it will begin to wane. As it finds its place between Phrenology and Phewey, its power to drive visitors to WUWT will fall. Mr. Watts will again wander the technical fields; take up anew interests neglected during the heyday of climate-arguments. He has the potential to convert the success of WUWT on the climate stage, to a new success on a stage of its/his own design.
I look forward to explorations inspired by asking, “what’s up with that?”.
[REPLY: It looks like almost two years since your last comment… would that some (perhaps even myself!) could exercise such restraint. Your comments are always welcome. Moderators are not really supposed to engage the commenters and I’ve far exceeded my allowance for the year today. WUWT encourages engagement. -REP]
Okay, Okay cut the crap!! Everyone knows that having a view on an issue does not mean that you are in anyway similar to a criminal lunatic with either the same view you have or a view different from what you have, grow TF up!!
Our local mass murdering lunatic has a view? who would have thought.
I also read Ross McKitrick’s letter earlier and he has hit the nail on the head. Heartland should not stoop so low. Heartland is supposed to be a professional outfit.
Pointman: It’s bad tactics no matter how you feel. Think about this: Just because someone you are opposed to commits war crimes does it make it OK for you to do likewise? An extreme example I know but I hope you get the gist of where I’m coming from.
OK, I’m out of my room.
Although I’ve said this before on other threads, let me repeat here.
A friend and I volunteer at a school district owned planetarium. This is one of the modern computer powered full dome video systems that can do about any subject justice and with a huge wow factor to boot. Hard science is a snap with this equipment, and even languages, history, sociology and the like can be presentations on the big dome.
One question from both students and adults floored me. What about the horoscope being a month off and a new sign of the zodiac? Huh? So we went through and explained the signs were developed some 4000 years ago, and over time the axis of the earth has shifted and…usually at this point their eyes are glazing over.
This year it is the Mayan calendar that has everyone spooked. What’s going to happen on December 21st? (the calendar starts over!) OK, well no worries because the conjunction of the planets this year is 180 degrees and we’ve already experienced a conjunction in 1982 that was close to 90 degrees and….(the eyes glaze over)
My colleague and I are both skeptical of the AGW position, and make no bones about it when it is brought up. We don’t attempt to push too much just mention there is a large body of science that supports our position. (eyes glaze over).
Don’t underestimate the power of an elementary teacher. They, as a group, prevented NASA from declaring Pluto a Dwarf planet for 20 years. Not because of the facts, but because they had been teaching Pluto was a planet their entire career. They prevented, single handedly, that announcement from the time Pluto was discovered to be only 1400 miles in diameter until just a few years ago.
In short, my interaction with what will soon be a voting block hasn’t impressed me. These people are easily distracted by the unimportant but flashy (read Hollywood here) and the pronouncements of the “pretty people”.
With HI, I believe them to be a good organization. I hope there is a better plan then just this lousy billboard. I’ve got my fingers crossed. At the moment it seems a huge error – on many levels. I’ll be patient for a while so you can show me this was more than a shot in the dark.
Mike
I agree with Pointman’s view, among others outside the consensus here. I really don’t understand the folks demanding that someone should be “fired” for this billboard.
I would like to ask those folks who are demanding someone’s head, if they personally contribute to Heartland? [I’ll assume the answer is No, unless they post that they do contribute.]
This was no big deal. Where is the untruth? In American jurisprudence, truth is an absolute defense. In fact, the lack of truth is pretty much entirely on the side of those pushing the CAGW scam. Why should they get another free pass? They hide out from any real debate, they only appear in tightly scripted, sympathetic venues… and now, no one is even allowed to show the kind of people who are pushing the Big Lie?? How does that work? Is the truth now off limits?
There is nothing wrong with showing the kind of people who support the “carbon” scare. Their policies unquestionably cause starvation and death, and closer to home their policies are the cause of rising food and gasoline prices. But we’re supposed to be all kissy-face with them? Why?
Since those sounding the false climate alarm are afraid to debate their position in public, too bad if it’s pointed out what kind of people they are, and what kind of people support their cause. The truth hurts the dishonest. That’s a good thing.
Finally, this has no comparison to ‘war crimes’. Heartland simply told the truth. Keep that in mind.
The early resonance within the warmist community seems that this type labeling is confronting to them. Why wouldn’t it?
Remember the equation of sckeptics as Holocast deniers. At this stage of the debate, when the sceptical view is holding and accelerating, they now have to manage negative perceptions of their humanitarian motives.
More heart and mind warfare by brokers like Heartland will see this mob of eco-warrior rent seekers off sooner rather than later. But their attack wedge isn’t the major one. New understandings and a cooling planet are quickly catching up.
Consider the change in the nature and polarisation of the debate since Climate-Gate 2, Glieck, ever more revealing data, Stevsmark, Nikolov, UHI, etc.
Tipping points, lines in the sand, whatever you call it, it has been crossed. This billboard reflects one mindset only in the new phase of the debate. Welcome to the future.
“the most prominent advocates of global warming aren’t scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen.”
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quotes_by/mikhail+gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev quotes:
Further global progress is now possible only through a quest for universal consensus in the movement towards a new world order.
I am a Communist, a convinced Communist! For some that may be a fantasy. But to me it is my main goal.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/kohlmayer051107.htm
“..Scores died and countless others suffered from diseases caused by exposure to radiation. Many could have been saved had Gorbachev done the decent thing. Chernobyl thus stands as tragic evidence of Gorbachev’s disdain both for nature and human life which, sadly, is all too often found in those who espouse the communist worldview.
Yet today this man is one of the world’s most prominent eco-lobbyists and an ardent proponent of global warming. The question is how we are to reconcile Gorbachev’s past behavior of environmental destructiveness with his present-day activism. We would do well to ponder this, because the answer sheds light not only on a wily personal reinvention, but also on the motives of those responsible for the creation and spreading of the global warming hysteria.”
====
Hmm, the political is still the strongest perhaps.., but I do think humour could be used to effect. I rather like the question posed by:
u.k.(us) says:
May 3, 2012 at 8:24 pm
multiple choice question for our fearless leaders.
12.500 years ago the Chicago area was:
A) Delightful
B) A swamp in need of draining
C) Future home of the most corrupt city in the country
D) Being scoured by a mile thick glacier, moving south-southwest
on
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/05/03/jumping-the-shark-climate-change-a-national-security-threat/#more-62859
Those pushing the green agenda are just as evil as Stalin, etc. We can not pretend that we are dealing with reasonable people who just have a difference of opinion. Being afraid to call the greenies out for what they are is just as bad as standing by silently as the fascists march across Europe.
At 5:29 PM on 4 May, Nerd had recounted:
Having myself long been a confrontational George H. Smith atheist (in much the same sense as is Penn Jillette), I delight in the Watermelon warmistas’ hostility to the worshipers of the Great Sky Pixie while they themselves are victims of their hysterical uncritical acceptance of bilge no less preposterously fantastical.
It’s like something out of Saki (H.H. Munro) when he depicted resentment between a couple of mooching confidence men “…to support the truth of the old saying that two of a trade never agree.”
[Moderator’s Note: Tucci is re-working the sermon about the beam and the mote. Let’s not let this go any further. Please. -REP]
@Jimbo. It’s not about how I feel, it’s about coldly assessing it as a piece of infowar propaganda. Ticks all the boxes, as far as I’m concerned. It’s not aimed at us superior beings in the blogosphere but Joe Public; simple, direct, the raw truth and nice and punchy.
Vocal climate skeptism needs to get out of the blogosphere closet and yes, that’ll involve getting down and dirty occasionally. It’s called fighting back. Why everyone is behaving like a virgin, who’s just got her bum pinched on this one, is beyond me.
Pointman
Oh, woe is me; Heartland has committed a terrible transgression. I think I’ll go to my room and cry or faint or something. Does anyone have a tissue?
What the hell? HI has been in the trenches and taking the battle to the loons for years! Much longer than some of you johnny-come-lately half-ass wannabe skeptics.
[SNIP: James, I completely agree, but let’s not do this here or now. Please. -REP]
James Sexton says:
May 4, 2012 at 6:18 pm
===============
ROTFL……exactly
I would really, really like to know what exactly that ‘terrible transgression’ is; can you point it out? And be specific as well please? (Your post may have missing a /sarc tag; IDK.)
Up-thread I asked:
“… why it is egregious to point out the influence the CAGW crowd has had on some of our more notorious criminals (like Ted K.), too. At this point I don’t know how much ‘motive’ AGW was for some of these characters, but didn’t Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, have a copy of Algore’s book (Earth in the Balance) in his possession, or was it the parallel writing style the two had as when Algore’s book and Ted’s [Unabomber] manifesto were compared?”
No answer to date …
.
came across this poem, seemed appropriate:
Resist the NEOCON deniers. We must believe.
We must trust the carbon trading markets and corporations and politicians to manage the temperature of the planet.
We must call it consensus even though all of the thousands of consensus scientists all have personal and unique views of CO2 climate crisis.
We must trust the good and trustworthy politicians who promise to lower the seas and make the weather colder by taxing the air.
We must continue to believe in climate change crisis despite Obama not even mentioning the crisis in his state of the union address.
We must believe even though the number of consensus scientists vastly outnumbers the marching climate change protesters.
We must believe and spread our love for the planet as we condemn billions to a CO2 death just to make sure the kids turn the lights out more often and vote left.
We must believe even though the thousands of consensus scientists refuse to march in the streets themselves. Don’t they have families to save too?
Believe. Believe. Believe so we can defeat the evil bible thumping necons and those ignorant of the ways of THE SCIENCE!
ALGORE is my shepherd; I shall not think.
He maketh me lie down in Greenzi pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still-freezing waters.
He selleth my soul for CO2:
He leadeth me in the paths of self-righteousness for his own sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of reason,
I will fear no logic: for thou art with me and thinking for me;
Thy Gore’s family oil fortune and thy 10,000 square Gorey foot mansion, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a movie in the presence of contradictory evidence:
Thou anointest mine head with nonsense; my fear runneth over.
Surely blind faith and hysteria shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of ALGORE forever
Well, well. So, WUWT must not be anything more than a relief valve.
Anything more is “over the top.”
Cowardice.
We held the ethical high ground until now. This was just plain stupid.