General Motors Decides Climate Change Is Real, Pulls Support From Heartland Institute

After getting called out by an environmental group, General Motors has pulled support from the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based nonprofit well-known for attacking the science behind global warming and climate change.

The automaker told the Heartland Institute last week that it won't be making further donations, spokesman Greg Martin said. At a speech earlier this month, GM CEO Dan Akerson said his company is running its business under the assumption that climate change is real.

"We applaud GM's decision and the message it sends -- that it is no longer acceptable for corporations to promote the denial of climate change and that support for an organization like Heartland is not in line with GM's values," said Daniel Souweine, campaign director for Forecast the Facts, a group that urges meteorologists to talk more openly about climate change.

Internal documents leaked in February showed that the General Motors Foundation -- which the automaker runs separately from its business -- donated to the institute $15,000 in 2010 and again in 2011, with another $15,000 expected to be gifted this year.

Heartland, which identifies itself as a free-market think tank, has questioned the ideas on global warming through its newsletters, web site and associated scientists. Last year, the tagline for its annual conference on the subject was "Global Warming: Was It Ever Really a Crisis?"

Joseph Bast, president of The Heartland Institute, said GM had been a Heartland supporter for 20 years. "We regret the loss of their support, particularly since it was prompted by false claims contained in a fake memo circulated by disgraced climate scientist Peter Gleick," he said in a statement. "We once again respectfully ask liberal advocacy groups such as Huffington Post, the Center for American Progress, 350.org and Greenpeace to stop attacking scientists who question the theory of man-made global warming and corporations and foundations that are willing to fund open debate on this important public policy issue."

The Heartland Institute said the internal documents were stolen by someone posing as a member of the board, who asked for the material to be sent to a new email account. Since then, Peter Gleick, president and co-founder of climate research group the Pacific Institute, has confessed to the stunt and noted that he regrets his actions.

The bulk of Heartland's funding comes from one anonymous donor, who has given the group $11 million since 2007.

Nonprofit groups are not legally obligated to reveal their donors. Previously Heartland was transparent about its funding, even posting a list of contributors on its website, but removed it in 2004.

"Critics who couldn't or wouldn't engage in fair debate over our ideas found the donor list a convenient place to find the names of unpopular companies or foundations, which they used in ad hominem attacks against us," institute representatives wrote after taking down the list. "After much deliberation and with some regret, we now keep confidential the identities of all our donors."

GM was not the only automaker to fund the Heartland Institute: Ford and Chrysler also contributed to it in the past. Ford and Chrysler told The Huffington Post that they had stopped funding the organization over the past decade, but neither automaker had records detailing reasons for pulling that support.

Greenpeace has pressured companies to stop funding Heartland, said Kert Davies, Greenpeace's research director. "Their brand of intervention on the climate discussion, bending the information, is noxious," he said. "GM doesn't want to be associated with this kind of nonsense on climate change, which is great."

Jamie Henn of 350.org said Heartland has been spreading misinformation to confuse people.

The Center for American Progress did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This story has been updated to include comments from the Heartland Institute, Greenpeace and 350.org, as well as details about the role of the Pacific Institute's Peter Gleick in obtaining institute materials.

Comments

[MeRainyday]

12:16 PM on 04/05/2012

Now on to WUWT! The 'scientific' climate deniers blog! WATTS UP WITH THAT is garbage science!

[Robco1]

01:34 PM on 04/07/2012

And paid for by Heartland, among others. Watts takedown on the Crock of the Week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcxVwEfq4bM

[Robco1]

05:32 PM on 04/03/2012

Bravo to GM for doing the right thing, and finally renouncing global warming science denial peddled by the fossil fuel lobby and their PR machine. Now the question should be "why hasn't the IRS prosecuted the tax-cheating Heartland institute for masquerading as a 501c-3 when in fact they are a PR and lobbying firm?

Just look at their 2010 Prospectus, which is itself really a capabilities brochure. The org chart says it all: "donors" (read: clients) attending Monday morning meetings, vetting issues and talking points, receiving progress reports? That is not how a think tank operates, that is how a PR firm operates. http://ijish.livejournal.com/29235.html

Write your congressmen and women. This fraud organization should be brought to justice.

[jimboy71]

04:58 PM on 04/09/2012

GM sees the future, finally, and it is oil free.

[Frank-Landfield]

12:59 PM on 04/03/2012

Hopefully we can survive into the 22nd century

[Donald Holzum]

07:02 PM on 04/02/2012

Welcome to the 21st Century!

[efmo]

03:25 PM on 04/02/2012

Heartland is bankrolled by the Kochs. The institute also has public spokesmen who assure everyone, who listens, that radioactivity is good for you.

[jimboy71]

04:59 PM on 04/09/2012

Ann Coulter, for one (erm...half of one...).

[Jake Dogg]

03:08 PM on 04/02/2012

So, we all know we can create a hole in the ozone from man made products and chemicals... But, some question whether we can change the climate? Seems pretty obvious.

[chaparellii]

02:45 PM on 04/02/2012

In chicago....March was the warmest month ever recorded.....ever!...2 weeks 70 + degrees.....it used to snow in March.....Nuff Said

[Publicola]

01:50 PM on 04/02/2012

Heartland Institute "Expert" Hides the Global Warming Incline

"What is Heartland doing that's so awful?"

Amongst other things, Heartland and Heartland "experts" promote climate science disinformation.

For example, Heartland Institute global warming "expert" Dr. Robert M "Bob" Carter has committed de facto global warming fraud by misrepresenting increasing global temperature trend lines as flat.*

Isn't that like a global warming hoax - a climate science scam?

And yet, per just-released Heartland Denialgate documents Bob Carter is on the Heartland payroll to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars a year, despite the claim on Heartland's and Carter's websites that Carter receives "no research funding from special interest organisations".**

Bob Carter is a leader of and/or major contributo­r to several of the most prominent organizati­ons that are "skeptical­­" of man-made global warming as well, including:

* The Heartland Institute
* The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI)
* The Science and Environmen­tal Policy Project (SEPP)
* The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)
* The Nongovernm­ental Internatio­nal Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC)
* The Internatio­nal Climate Science Coalition (ICSC)

------------------
* http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2011/07/bob_carters_trend_lines.php
http://tamino.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/bob-carter-does-his-business/

** http://heartland.org/robert-m-carter
http://members.iinet.net.au/~glrmc/index.htm

[SallyMaclennane]

11:48 AM on 04/02/2012

Isn't this the auto company that Obama bought with taxpayer money?

[Booji Boy]

02:04 PM on 04/02/2012

That dingbot comment, like all others, was predictable. Get a real job.

[SallyMaclennane]

02:09 PM on 04/02/2012

I'll take that as a "yes".

[efmo]

03:26 PM on 04/02/2012

Interestingly enough, the other car companies indicated they had already stopped contributing to Heartland (a bogus think tank.) Curious you missed that piece.

[Steven Kippel]

11:37 AM on 04/02/2012

I doubt it was based on a faked email. It was probably based on reality.

[Wanderland]

10:22 AM on 04/02/2012

There is little sense in using the Heartland Institute's donors to discredit them. The HI discredited itself for denying a link between tobacco and cancer for so many years.

They are a lie-machine, plain and simple. Humans with moral compasses don't work for or associate with these miscreants.

[Mort Adela]

10:09 AM on 04/02/2012

The GOP isn't going to be happy about this.

[mgrant33301]

06:50 AM on 04/02/2012

im unsure if those leading the pack of climate change deniers are ostriches with their heads in the sand or if they have an economic agenda, which is most likely. but it's nice to see a large corporation such as GM come out FINALLY with their support of science vs extremism.

[maxwelldog]

12:26 AM on 04/02/2012

And maybe now there will be more interest in cannabis composites, which can be made into automobiles and are more durable than steel, lightweight enough to mount a hybrid engine into that will get the fast speeds Americans say they need.

[Publicola]

12:17 AM on 04/02/2012

Conservative Climate Scientist Barry Bickmore:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’ve recently been involved with other scientists and scholars in Utah trying to stop the spread of outright lies, half-truths, abuses of data, and distortions about climate change.  Much of this disinformation is coming from (or through) some Republican members of the Utah Legislature...

I'm a Republican myself, and it galls me that my own party has locally fallen for a bunch of conspiracy theories and scientifically incompetent trash. In my opinion, something has to be done to save the party from disaster in the long run...

Democracy depends on accurate information being readily available to the public, and I see people who propagate such disinformation campaigns as enemies of Democracy.

http://bbickmore.wordpress.com/about-this-blog/

[Shawna Lit]

10:18 AM on 04/02/2012

You don't sound like a republican, you sound like a conservative. I have respect for actual conservatives. Thank you for your attempts in trying to stop the lies.

[Publicola]

11:09 AM on 04/02/2012

I am not Dr. Bickmore but share your sentiments.

[comment from Ron]

10:44 AM on 04/02/2012

I appreciate your comments and certainly agree with you. What I don't understand is how you can remain in the Republican Party? I get that you probably have fiscal conservative opinions and probably don't feel you fit into the Democratic Party, but your Party has gone so far to the right over the last 20 to 30 years I simply can not fathom a person of science staying in this Party. I personally am a Democrat and so I am sure we have differing opinions on many issues, but still don't get why anyone would stay with a totally extreme Republican Party.

[Publicola]

11:08 AM on 04/02/2012

You'll have to ask Dr. Bickmore those questions - I was quoting him and am not a member of the Republican Party, which I agree has been taken over by the extreme, science-denying right.