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.
An observation of verified fact is merely a datum. It’s only when the entirety of an argument is predicated on nothing more than that particular datum (in this instance the personal past histories of certain prominent True Believers in the AGW fraud) that a fallacy or even an arguable deviation from honorable conduct can be considered to have been committed.
In medicine we commonly discuss disease processes and treatment options while presenting specific (de-identified) patient histories in which the pertinent diagnoses were made and therapy undertaken. It’s called a “case presentation.”
That’s no more argumentum ad hominem or argument by association than are these observations by Heartland of the plain fact that the ranks of the AGW True Believers are replete with specimens who have no respect whatsoever for the individual human rights of innocent people.
Meaning that those innocent people out there have to be really skeptical of both the AGW conjecture and the schemers who are pushing it, right?
Heck, the Watermelons delight in attacking the (alleged) personal pecuniary motives of specific skeptics who give their Cargo Cult Science charlatans the razzberry, don’t they?
It is both truthful and effective for those of us on the responsibly skeptical side to voice perfectly honest observations about the character of conspicuous people who have made vehement public commitments to the most spectacular fraud in the history of the human race.
Well, from the comments above I’d say the ad worked…
Swaying public opinion requires a fine touch. It’s easy for it to go pear shaped. This ad was about as deft as a drunken bull elephant.
Heartland’s ad is a stretch but the current state of the AGW debate calls for and may be effective by mocking those who still adhere to the theory. That is certainly the trajectory of the issue.
More “Bad Press… ”
From the Heartland: Schoolchildren, Climate, and… Mass Murder?
Huffington Post (blog)
In February, leaked internal budget (PDF) and fundraising (PDF) documents from the Chicago-based propaganda contractor The Heartland Institute exposed the group’s plans to spend $100000 to create a 20-unit national school science curriculum falsely …
See more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shawn-lawrence-otto/heartland-institute-billboards-_b_1479262.html
Too bad they did these dumb billboards!
G.
What an idiotic stunt. To make a mildly controversial statement to garner publicity, fair enough maybe, but this doesn’t even have a logical point to make. Charles Manson believes in global warming. So? He probably brushes his teeth too, but that doesn’t make tooth brushing evil. Why did they think this would be in any way clever or effective? They have a whole field of open goals to choose from in terms of the lies, statistical fabrications, failure of predictions, circular reasoning and cherry picking endemic in the suffocating CAGW establishment. They could win the argument on the disparity between models and observations alone. Yet they manage to choose the most quick and effective way to make themselves look like a bunch of loons and alienate themselves from those who would really like to see reason and clear thinking replace the politics and the stupid PR war we currently have. Nice one.
The real problem is that the HI’s penny ante budget does not have the resources needed to buy the same kind of PR talent and media placement that the massively funded green activists have access to.
Keep in mind a old rule of thumb for information releases. If the agency makes a press release (has speech or some other high profile event) and it happens on a Friday, they want it to happen but not get much press coverage. If they want wide press coverage they do it on Monday do it will run all weekend.
With that in mind, this was not intended for general public consumption, but was a targeted message at some specific demographic (such as news editors) who will notice it and perhaps decide to provide a camera crew and a reporter to the next HI climate conference.
If they wanted national coverage the would have run the bill board in Washington or New York, but this bill board was local in Chicago, their own home turf.
A few national news feeds picked it up but coverage of Cinco De Mayo and the Kentucy Derby, and today’s jobs reports will wipe this off the national news by tomorrow.
For what ever reason they wanted to plant a seed and get this association out there, possibly for future reference to compare and contrast the media reaction their comment and other AGW comments that have been in the same vein.
Note also the Ted Kaczynski was born in Chicago and went to Harvard (just like a lot of high profile pro global warmers). Had a Phd in Mathematics and taught at University of California. Save for his conviction for bombing he would be a prime example of the sort of person the AGW crowd look up to and assert are more knowledgeable of the science than the skeptics.
Based on those observations I think this was a tactical move to set up conditions for some future action.
All that said some PR folks have done some truely bone headed promotions that rank right up there with throwing turkeys out of helicopters (Thanks Les Nessman 😉 )
Larry
“Looks like someone got to them:”
Sure they did: Ross McKitrick, Anthony Watts, Keith Kloor,… By the way, has anyone actually taken a look at the Unabomber’s manifesto to check if Heartland are factually correct? Oh, thought not. It’s actually available online for free if you know how to use Google. I certainly couldn’t find a single reference to global warming or climate change.
Hm. Interesting. I voice comments contrary to the majority’s “Heartland made a big blunder” noise, and my posts disappear without a trace.
How Romm-ish.
Ah, the wonders of the Intertubes. I remark on the curious absence of my previous comments critical of Mr. Watts’ and the majority’s condemnations of Heartland in this delightfully apt and manifestly gut-kicking advertising campaign, and those comments appear on the page.
[Reply: Certain words and phrasees trigger posts going into the Spam folder. This is a WordPress function, not a WUWT function. The Spam folder is not checked nearly as often as the awaiting Approval queue. If your comment doesn’t appear, ask us to check the Spam folder. It is not personal; all comments that don’t violate site Policy are posted. All of them. ~dbs, mod.]
Matching your opponents’ tactics by getting into the gutter will only work if you have a superior coercive machine. It also means that you have given up on the science and are willing to simply bash your opponents into submission. This is very bad tactics for the much smaller sceptical machine which has hitherto done very well by taking and retaining the high moral ground, consistently emphasising the science and, for the most part, observing gentlemanly standards.
Whatever the Warmists may deserve, I believe that the Heartland Institute has made a serious tactical error which they should immediately rectify.
You might keep in mind Milton’s words (slightly altered, for clarity) in his Areopagitica: “Then let Truth and Falsehood grapple. Whoever knew Truth to be worsted in a free and open encounter?” Let’s try to keep this free and open.
They should refrain from emotional appeals. To retain their credibility they need to be perceived as objective and their position should be based on merit. It is especially critical now, since people have learned that the “global warming” campaign was designed to manipulate perception in order to support a political and economic agenda. The Heartland Institute cannot afford to embrace tactics already exploited by those interests.
I have to admit that I never had a good feeling about the Heartland Institute and this lack of taste and implementation confirms it even more. I know politics makes strange bed fellows, but these guys are like the dudes that you never want to hear at the Karaoke bar – out of tune, out of tone, and out of touch.
I have to wonder if HI tried running this campaign by Dave Wojick or not? I’d think he’d have shot it down. OTOH, if the late John Daly were still around I think he’d have liked it. I complained to him one time that he didn’t help the skeptics position by being so harsh personally with the warmers. He replied that you had to fight fire with fire. I’m with the majority here and think trying the left’s tactics against them is wrong and won’t work.
Being nice and polite with bandits and thieves got us into two World Wars, Stalinist Russia, Nazi Germany, Maoist China, etc., etc., not mentioning numerous other catastrophes, conflicts, calamities, and social problems. And yet, the majority still insists on keeping up the smoke and mirrors of the non-existing “civilized debate.”
I’d say it is not “decency” any more. It is cowardice.
Tim,
Thanx for the baseless ad hominem attack, but Heartland is an excellent organization. It is a small counterweight to the CAGW behemoth. If you want to attack dishonesty and theft, there are Peter Gleick threads for that.
While y’all are hyperventilating over this you might want to remember that the people shown ARE “environmentalists.” You also must remember that there is a LARGE contingent in the Gorebull Warming Camp who BELIEVE we need to seriously REDUCE the world population.
Tell me how they plan on doing this?!?!?!?!?!
In other words there is NOTHING misleading or dishonest and the signs are very appropriate in also reminding those in the Gorebull Warming camp who many of their ALLIES or FELLOW TRAVELERS really are!!! When you are a USEFUL IDIOT it is good to be reminded of that occasionally.
“While y’all are hyperventilating over this you might want to remember that the people shown ARE “environmentalists.” “
Environmentalism wasn’t the basis for the HI billboard. Many sceptics are “environmentalists”, by the way.
Definitely a boneheaded move by Heartland. The people behind this billboard fiasco should be fired immediately.
Maybe you should have followed the link above associated with Ted Kasinky’s name that leads you directly to a quote from his manifesto.
“169. In the third place, it is not all certain that the survival of
the system will lead to less suffering than the breakdown of the
system would. The system has already caused, and is continuing to
cause , immense suffering all over the world. Ancient cultures, that
for hundreds of years gave people a satisfactory relationship with
each other and their environment, have been shattered by contact with
industrial society, and the result has been a whole catalogue of
economic, environmental, social and psychological problems. One of the
effects of the intrusion of industrial society has been that over much
of the world traditional controls on population have been thrown out
of balance. Hence the population explosion, with all that it implies.
Then there is the psychological suffering that is widespread
throughout the supposedly fortunate countries of the West (see
paragraphs 44, 45). No one knows what will happen as a result of ozone
depletion, the greenhouse effect and other environmental problems that
cannot yet be foreseen. And, as nuclear proliferation has shown, new
technology cannot be kept out of the hands of dictators and
irresponsible Third World nations. Would you like to speculate abut
what Iraq or North Korea will do with genetic engineering?”
Of course many of us watched news coverage of his bombing campaign over the years and already knew well his anti-technology philosophy, and did not need to re-read old news.
Larry
Tucci78 says:
May 4, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Ah, the wonders of the Intertubes. I remark on the curious absence of my previous comments critical of Mr. Watts’ and the majority’s condemnations of Heartland in this delightfully apt and manifestly gut-kicking advertising campaign, and those comments appear on the page.
==================
Yep, now did you have anything to say ?
J Bowers
May 4, 2012 at 4:34 pm
Try greenhouse gas and greenhouse effect.
Tucci78 says:
May 4, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Hm. Interesting. I voice comments contrary to the majority’s “Heartland made a big blunder” noise, and my posts disappear without a trace.
How Romm-ish
=============================
Tucci, you used the word f—r—-a—-u………. d
Wordpress doesn’t like that word….so wordpress dumped you into the spam folder
……has nothing to do with WUWT
I immediately wrote to both Heartland: the billboard was a bizarre concept worthy of firing the PR firm and whoever at Heartland approved it. The ad hominem attack on warmists is unacceptable. Most CAGW believers are there because they have a deep belief in the goodness of others, that those in authority will not mislead them for ulterior, personal motives, that “scientists” cannot be purchased through fear of career or grant loss, and that they do not give the benefit of doubt to their own emotional desires. The feel-good, fuzzy Green who likes kittens and polar bear cubs drinking Coca-Cola are NOT the type of people that the average Joe wants to execute (Unabomber) or assassinate (bin Laden).
There is something called “preaching to the choir”. Heartland, through these ads, appealed to the rabid skeptic (note “rabid”), while aggressively insulting the supposed audience, the wavering warmist or new-to-the-conflict, undecided.
After 10-10 and Peter Gleick, you would think Heartland would have both a clue about fairness and a suspicion that the warmists think Heartland is made up of cruel neo-Nazis, and that maybe a softer image would be appropriate. Instead, the Heartland PR guys handed them the whip and leather boots.
Fire somebody. Publicly. Apologize for being on the toilet when this decision was made.
If I hadn’t come to question CAGW from my own technical work, those ads would have pushed me into the warmist camp. Just as 10-10 would have pushed me into the skeptic camp.
Jeez. You’d think we were working with adults here. Some of this stuff makes me want to say “A plague on both your houses.”
As for those on the Heartland program, like D. LaF: nicely done, Heartland. So all of those guys you’ve invited also think the “enemies” of Global warming and/or Heartland are psychotic killers?