Guest Post by Joe Bast
In a December 28 post, blogger Greg Laden, a self-described “biological anthropologist and science communicator,” ranked The Heartland Institute’s efforts to expose global warming alarmism as one of the “top climate stories of 2012”. I suppose we should be flattered, but his error-filled explanation for including us in the list requires some corrections:
- Heartland isn’t a “climate denial ‘think’ tank.” Last time I checked, no Heartland spokesperson ever denied the existence of the climate, or even climate change.
- Heartland didn’t “implode” or “suffer major damage” in 2012. In fact, we increased receipts by about 15% from 2011, increased the number of donors nearly four-fold, more than doubled the number of policy advisors (to 237), and set records for press attention and online traffic for our sites. 2012 was a breakthrough year for us, thanks in no small part to the attention generated by our work on global warming/cooling.
- We have never tried to “prove that cigarette smoking was not bad for you.” We do argue that taxes on smokers are too high and second-hand smoke is not the public health threat that anti-smoking zealots claim.
- We were not “caught red handed trying to fund an effort explicitly (but secretly) designed to damage science education in public schools.” That description is based on a fake memo circulated by disgraced water scientist Peter Gleick. We announced the curriculum project in our members newsletter and explained there that our intent is to help de-politicize the issue. How is that a bad thing?
- We did run a billboard about global warming, but it did not “equat[e] people who thought the climate science on global warming is based on facts and is not a fraud with well-known serial killers.” The billboard simply pointed out that Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, still believes in global warming, and asked viewers if they do, too. We know why lefties went nuts over it – Kaczynski, after all, is one of their own – but it wasn’t inaccurate or offensive.
- We lost a few corporate donors who couldn’t stand the heat when liberal advocacy groups, using a donor list stolen by the aforementioned Peter Gleick, circulated online petitions demanding that they stop funding us. But as already mentioned, we gained many more donors than we lost and had an exceptionally good fundraising year.
- Laden ends by saying The Heartland Institute, “which never was really that big, is now no longer a factor in the climate change.” He’s right that we aren’t very big – about $6 million a year – but he’s wrong about the role we continue to play in the international debate. Our Eighth International Conference on Climate Change, held in Munich on November 31-December 1, 2012, was a huge success. We’ve got projects on climate already lined up for 2013 that make 2012 look like a dress rehearsal.
In short, Heartland played a major role in shaping the debate over global warming in 2012, and we expect to play an even larger role in 2013. Sometimes it takes a little controversy to break through media bias and public indifference. Heartland achieved this in 2012.
Joe Bast is the president of the Heartland Institute
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Note to get a window into the strange and hateful mind of Greg Laden, all you need to do is read his about page here and scroll down. Pity the soul that lives in Texas or West Virginia.
– Anthony
The major risks associated with second hand smoke are thing like
Worldwide, 40% of children, 33% of male non-smokers, and 35% of female non-smokers were exposed to second-hand smoke in 2004. This exposure was estimated to have caused 379 000 deaths from ischaemic heart disease, 165 000 from lower respiratory infections, 36 900 from asthma, and 21 400 from lung cancer. 603 000 deaths were attributable to second-hand smoke in 2004, which was about 1·0% of worldwide mortality. 47% of deaths from second-hand smoke occurred in women, 28% in children, and 26% in men. DALYs lost because of exposure to second-hand smoke amounted to 10·9 million, which was about 0·7% of total worldwide burden of diseases in DALYs in 2004. 61% of DALYs were in children. The largest disease burdens were from lower respiratory infections in children younger than 5 years (5 939 000), ischaemic heart disease in adults (2 836 000), and asthma in adults (1 246 000) and children (651 000).
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2810%2961388-8/fulltext
If you wish to continue associating WUWT with those who minimize or ignore these risks why do so. If you don’t want to post anything by Eli, simply strip the Rabett’s name from the comment.
[Note that The Lancet lacks credibility. Details can be found on-line. — mod.]
henrythethird says:
December 30, 2012 at 6:23 pm
Went to the “story” and saw their list of “helpers”:
“…The following people contributed to this effort: Angela Fritz, A Siegel, Eli Rabett, Emilee Pierce, Gareth Renowden, Greg Laden, Joe Romm, John Abraham, Laurence Lewis, Leo Hickman, Michael Mann, Michael Tobis, Paul Douglas, Scott Mandia, Scott Brophy, Stephan Lewandowsky, and Tenney Naumer…”
Stephan Lewandowsky? Really?
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It is a small, small world when you talk climate pscience propagandists and muckrakers.
“So a single billboard that was up for less than 24 hours is enough for Heartland to lose the high ground??
Your mind was already made up, and you are being an apologist for Peter Glieck, who never held any moral high ground. Gleick is a moral basket case, as are his enablers.”
This has nothing to do with MY mind per se; advertising is about winning fence-sitters. For those that were mere onlookers, incurious and possibly unaware of the climate details in dispute, the Heartland Institute lost any high ground garnered by the Gleick fiasco and then some.
So yes, the billboard is enough.
I learned something about second hand smoke from this thread. It isn’t the boogeyman I thought. Just the same, I avoid any place that has it. It makes my clothes stink. I really don’t need the leftist rants to educate me on this subject.
Similarly, I don’t need the leftist rants on CO2 to insulate my home, buy fuel efficient cars, etc. I do not like wasting my hard earned money on unnecessary fuel expenditures. Back during the Arab oil crisis of 1980 or so, my wallet got pinched hard. Those were the days of the coming ice age and I was madly adding insulation to my house, and I even made my own storm windows from second hand glass.
However, I admit that I did freak out at the first ice core results shown in Scientific American mag, to which I subscribed.
So I was a warmest believer up until 2008 when I had to help make a presentation on the subject.
After buying a few books, in found that there was such a thing as natural warming. Fair enough. I read Dr. Weavers book and found that he glossed over natural cycles. I smelled a rat. I read what Dr. Susuki had, and found that he supported DeSmogBlog. After asking honest questions on that blog I got booted. More rats! What the !?! was going on I wondered.
Then I watched a debate on the subject, Dr Lindzen and Dr Gavin Smidt (sp?) , no contest! I was appalled at the lack of science in the warmest presentation. No wonder they no longer debate global warming, as they have only arguements from authority on their side, and I already was disillusioned of the great authority of Dr Suzuki. That hurt as my kids were raised on that guy!
Then I discovered Steve McIntyre, and his work on auditing the hockey sticks. Wow, what a relief to find such amazing competence, and not only that, but an entourage of talented volunteers adding to his blog.
Then came WUWT. What an amazing science site!
Thus, back in 2008 we had to tell our 40 or so lunch club of well off, generally leftish crowd that the science was definitely not settled, and indeed, some of our hollowed science sources, such as Dr Weaver and Dr Suzuki, were vacuous.
I personally think Willis has nailed it, ie, the earths natural thermostat is the key, and the actual CO2 warming may end up not even being measurable. I do not dispute the 1C or so warming, but that number is a laboratory number. In the real world, the earth has huge natural feed backs, such as the thunderstorms around the equator that Willis documented. No way, no how, is 1 C going to happen. Maybe 0.3 C, but how can you even measure that?
So what is the point of my post? I think the warmists long since lost the scientific arguements, and all we have from them is personal attacks, such as this blog thread illuminates.
“How many people died because of delayed action due to Heartland’s ad campaign on second hand smoke?”
Since second hand smoke has yet to kill anyone, I would guess the answer to your question is zero.
Is that Greg Laden creature any relation to the other late unlamented slimeball of the same surname?
He seems equally pig-ignorant and hate-filled.
What a remarkably smug and unpleasant individual he is.
“Die Zauberflotist says:
December 30, 2012 at 6:17 pm
I notice you don’t deny being funded by the Koke Brothers, Grover Norquist, Tea Party and Big Fracking.”
—
Who are the Koke brothers?
The Tea Party is for the most part an informal association of like minded people. They don’t have much of a budget to begin with.
Who’s this “Big Frakking” that has you so scared?
Hire Josh for your next billboard campaign.
And I agree with others here: Stop defending the Kaczynski billboard disaster. Just dust off, learn, and move on.
Peter Gleick – he just needs the right venue for the advertisement. If he were made the poster child for LifeLock.
It could go something like this; “The crooks are becoming more sophisticated. Sporting PhD’s, political connections, and a deep abiding hatred of your freedoms. Can you afford to leave your personal effects and security at the whim of corrupt political appointees in the Attorney General’s office, who care more for their causes and agendas than in enforcing the law?
Use LifeLock, because Peter Gleick is out there… Still!”
artwest says:
December 31, 2012 at 2:56 am
One of the more effective ways to introduce people to the truth about climate is to invite them to come to WUWT and spend some time/exert some effort. The MSM has been bought out by anti-science interests so that isn’t a source of rational discussion. Their Progressive/UN agenda is illogical as reality demonstrates, but people have to see it explained in black and white to recognize their distortions and lies.
With 36,000,000 people viewing WUWT in 2012, that’s almost 100,000 a day! If even a tenth of these would actively recruit new readers to this Web site, our numbers would swell dramatically. I once issued that challenge and issue it again–Please tell your friends, neighbors, relatives and co-workers about this site. Spell the URL out to them; encourage them to add it to their Favorites; walk them through the various features and resources.
The readership trendline for WUWT is positive, but the slope would increase much faster if we’d all just take on this challenge. Billboards just won’t cut it.
Wait, what?
‘superior intellect’ posted here?
I once told an AGW True Believer (who’s arguments I thoroughly trashed), that he ought to visit Skeptical blogs, and try his luck out here. I even suggested he use the handle ‘superior intellect.’
Can’t be the same guy… he wouldn’t be that stupid……. or would he?
There is a climate activist willingness based in self righteous certitude that accepts and promotes violating eithical and legal standards. You see it in Climategate, James Hansen and acitivist music professors – multiple people calling for everything from reporting only one side and embarking on public indoctrination campaigns to civil disobedience, to intentional theft and defamation ala Gleick to more extreme activist actions and calls to execute deniers. So as for running a single billboard of the Unabomber that reminds everyone that such a continuum of activist behavior exists, well excuuuuuuuse Heartland
Ian Holton says:
December 30, 2012 at 7:50 pm
A silly crazy stance to take by Heartland if you ask me…an opening for criticism if ever ther was one!
Who thought that foolishness up!
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I would wholeheartedly agree with you,……. if the truth were irrelevant.
Is Heartland tax deductible?
It would seem Greg Laden is just another run of the mill narcissist. He fits the description perfectly. Also, I’ve read where over-generalization is the sign of a weak mind. Another apt description for someone who tries to group all the people in one state together.
DaveyInUk says:
December 31, 2012 at 3:35 am
I use to wonder how Hitler got the Germans to put people in gas chambers. As the arrogance of the left increases I am seeing how he did it. From a historical perspective it is very illuminating. From a personal perspective it is very frightening.
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Very frightening since our politicians all seem to be on the same bandwagon that is headed towards a world totalitarian state.
The Director General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, is openly calling for ‘Global Governance’ and the destruction of national sovereignty yet you do not hear a peep from the MSM or our political ‘leaders’
Where the heck is the outrage? Where the heck is the call for Lamy’s removal? Where the heck is the call for leaving the WTO?
Here is where global warming and the carefully orchestrated economic crisis is used by Lamy as an excuse for calling for Global Governance. Remember Bill Clinton’s five new banking laws, WTO ratification and China championing caused the US economic crisis. Now Clinton is a speaker at LSE along with Lamy and Tony Blair. All three advocating LSE’s “Third Way”
How dare the son of a syphilitic camel point out the decimation of employment when the WTO was instrumental in causing that problem!
Other Articles by Lamy: (They are short)
what does “governance” really mean
What is frightening about this one is he discusses how to get the people to ‘buy-in’ “We have to explore how to ensure that citizens have the feeling that they belong…” Note feeling is another weasel word.
Pascal Lamy: Local governments, global governance
He says “…In fact, the Wesphalian order is a challenge in itself. The recent crisis has demonstrated it brutally…. The main challenge here is that the Westphalian order gives a premium to “naysayers” who can block decisions, thereby impeding results”
The WTO is “a laboratory for harnessing globalization” — Lamy
Lamy makes clear what he means by Westphalian and that he wants it overturned. “… the classical Westphalian order is based on the full sovereignty monopoly of nation states. We must find ways to address the opposition from sovereign nation-states who resist more or less intensely — depending on the state and on the subject matter — transferring or sharing with international institutions their jurisdiction over certain matters.”
Global Governance: Lessons from Europe
He suggest the EU as a model for world governance. , “the European construction is the most ambitious experiment to date in supranational governance. It is the story of a desired, defined and organized interdependence between its member states…. In the longer term, we should have both the G20 and the international agencies reporting to the “parliament” of the United Nations. In this respect, a revamping of the UN Economic and Social Council could lend support to the recent resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on a UN-system-wide coherence.”
“Global governance requires localising global issues” — Lamy
In this article Lamy is very open in his desire to wipe out national sovereignty. “Europe scores in my view rather highly. Thanks to the primacy of EU law over national law. Thanks to the work of the European Court of Justice in ensuring enforcement and respect for the rule of law. And thanks to a clear articulation between the Commission, the Parliament, and the European Court of Justice….the European integration process shows that supra-national governance can work.”
Pascal Lamy launches new LSE programme London School of Economics and Political Science: launch of LSE’s new Global Dimensions programme
As I said WHERE THE HECK are our politicians who should be fighting the overthrow of their nations?
This is what Heartland is actually fighting in their role in shaping the debate over global warming. It is the reason those supporting ‘The Cause’ will not debate. They know their science ins nothing but a house of cards. “Global Warming is just the means used to make people ‘feel’ they all belong to a ‘Global Society’ and need ‘Global Governance’ since one nation can not handle such a huge ‘catastrophic’ crisis alone.
Unfortunately it is working on the Sheeple.
Heartland lost the high ground?
I can’t believe people actually claim that nonsense after Peter Gleick committed identity theft and admitted to it……
The comparison to the Pacific Institute and the Heartland is just a no-brainer. One has an admitted felon as their leader, the other put up a billboard? Really?
All warmists have zero credibility with their lack of model accuracy after 15 years of no warming. I am sorry, but in science you can’t be that wrong and still even pretend to hold onto any high ground or moral superiority especially when you have moonbats such as Greg Laden making a name for themselves with insults.
I guess perhaps warmists believe that science is about such things as insults, derision, dehumanizing their opponents and commiting crimes. I cry for the science of my parents and grandparents day back when it was about being correct versus “politically correct.” What nonsense!
Life is nothing but doom&gloom when you are a secular anti-humanist.
When you lack the grace to accept your ignorance.
Lack the humility to say “I don’t Know”.
And fear the human beast of yourself.
But maintain the fiction you alone are the rational adult in every room.
Even an atheist, can admit the logical synergy between, I do not know and its gods will,act of god.
Everything is=God? Man is natural . Ignorance is massive. Knowledge a window into ignorance.
If one desires certainty, science thro the scientific method will not help.
But a theology by which the human species is defined as a cancer of the planet, does not give rise to humility, grace or any thing good.
Values require a philosophy that self hatred does not allow.
@ur momisugly DaveyInUk says: December 31, 2012 at 3:35
When dogma is being seen as science, when people believe that they have absolute knowlegde with no test in reality and aspire to the knownledge of gods. Arrogance, ignorance, the push button order and the beliefs that the end justifies the means.
People should head the warning given to us by Jacob Bronowski.
http://youtu.be/j7br6ibK8ic
So and now I am off to Rotterdam to spend newyears eve with friends,
Billy says:
December 30, 2012 at 9:03 pm
The Mayo Clinic lists tobacco smoking as a MAJOR RISK FACTOR for lung cancer with strong association. No link of causation has been found. Another MAJOR RISK FACTOR is radon gas from living in houses. No campaign of house demolition or enforced homelessness has been put in place….
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You have not checked the radon laws in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts, home of the foremost Marxist Scholars in the world. (Quote from a communist friend)
Heartland’s ad required me to play defense when the shoe should have been on the other foot.
RockyRoad says:
December 31, 2012 at 6:54 am
One of the more effective ways to introduce people to the truth about climate is to invite them to come to WUWT and spend some time/exert some effort. …. I once issued that challenge and issue it again–Please tell your friends, neighbors, relatives and co-workers about this site. Spell the URL out to them; encourage them to add it to their Favorites; walk them through the various features and resources.
The readership trendline for WUWT is positive, but the slope would increase much faster if we’d all just take on this challenge. Billboards just won’t cut it.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I use an index card with specific articles and URLs listed or better yet the back of one of my business cards. It helps if you write the information out in front of the people.
I have found the banking crisis or food are a good lead in as a ‘hook’ to get people into a discussion.
Henry Kissinger’s statement:
“Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.”
Is a real winner for making the connections.
artwest says:
December 31, 2012 at 2:56 am
James Sexton says:
December 31, 2012 at 12:36 am
Really? There are people here who still think Heartland was wrong about the unabomber campaign?
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Yes.
How many people who were alarmists did it convert to sceptics?
How many uncommitted citizens did it convince to become sceptics?
I’d suggest zero, not a single one.
…………
They have absolutely no idea how egregious warmist measures are.
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Would that be because some skeptics are unwilling and have no stomach to call things for what they are?
I’ll say this, unless the world’s populace understand how ruinous these people are, we’ll never be rid of this blight on humanity. Do you think we’ll convince the world by demonstrating alarmists are wrong on their energy calculations of polar albedo? Or, do we win by demonstrating how monstrous and disastrous their advocacy is? Heartland started a necessary part of the conversation which far too many skeptics shirked away from. You’re right. They have no idea. And, thanks to many skeptics, most still don’t.
Gleick won this year’s Climate Prat award.
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/ladiees-and-gennulmen-we-have-a-winnah/
Pointman
Gail Combs says:
December 31, 2012 at 5:54 am
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It is a small, small world when you talk climate pscience propagandists and muckrakers.
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Have you run across a “Bud Ward”? Where does he fit in?