Heartland's Climate Change Billboard: HuffPost Follows Publicity Stunt To Its Logical Conclusion [UPDATE]

The Heartland Institute is out with what is quite possibly its most ill-considered publicity stunt to date: a poster ad campaign comparing a belief in global warming to the psychology of mass murder.

The Chicago-based think tank notorious for denying the basic facts about global warming on Thursday launched billboards in Chicago featuring the likes of Ted Kaczynski (better known as the Unabomber) and convicted murderer and cult leader Charles Manson, saying these notorious criminals "still believe in global warming" and asking viewers if they do, too.

The first billboard appeared on Thursday over the Eisenhower Expressway, the interstate freeway running west from the Chicago Loop.

"Of course, not all global warming alarmists are murderers or tyrants," notes Heartland in its press release (some killers also simply think puppies are cute, breathe air and tie their shoes one at a time).

It isn't the first anti-environmental campaign to draw such outlandishly false connections, though it is probably the most prominent. The website Vegetarians Are Evil, for instance, makes such meaningless revelations as identifying Genghis Khan as a vegetarian.

HuffPost has compiled a slideshow parodying Heartland's ploy for media attention, because it seems like the only rational response. We make some equally empty observations -- Kim Kardashian still believes in marriage; Donald Trump still believes in great hair; Charlie Sheen still believes in winning -- and we ask our readers: Do you?

UPDATE: 5:40 p.m. -- The Heartland Institute has pulled its digital billboard featuring Ted Kaczynski, which ran for just 24 hours before going dark. In a statement issued late Friday afternoon, Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast said the billboard was "always intended to be an experiment" and acknowledged having disappointed even defenders of the Institute.

“We know that our billboard angered and disappointed many of Heartland’s friends and supporters," he said, "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."

The retraction comes after the ad campaign was widely criticized, receiving censure even from leading climate skeptic Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), who indicated Friday in a statement to The Washington Post that he would not participate in the upcoming Climate Change Conference if the Heartland Institute continued its ad campaign.

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shryock

It never is what it is anymore

669 Fans

11:14 AM on 05/09/2012

Could you put up a pro-marriage billboard with Kaczynski's photograph instead of Kim Kardashian's?
What would it say about marriage if Kaczynski still believed in it?

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Publicola

Reality has a scientific bias

502 Fans

10:58 AM on 05/09/2012

Heartland Institute Threatens 71-Year-Old Veteran
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gary Wamsley
Colonel, USAF, Retired

"When I read the original articles on the release of confidential documents from the Heartland Institute board meeting, (see They’re Coming for Your Kids) I was infuriated.

"I reacted by sending a strongly worded email to the president and all the board members of the Heartland Institute.

"Surprisingly, one board member and institute president Joseph Bast responded to my email.

"Bast’s response is one that I would consider threatening. He said he was turning the email over to their legal department, the forensic staff and the FBI. He also warned me not to delete any emails.

"Apparently, I was supposed to be frightened by the specter of this multimillion dollar non-profit (?) spending resources on an old veteran. The whole idea seems ludicrous and they know it. Still, I am not afraid of the battle if it comes. This is a tactic that big money often used to suppress free speech...

"During my career I have been in position for many sensitive positions and have had top secret clearances, I have been investigated by the Civil Service Commission, the FBI and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. I feel secure that the government knows who I am.

"I decided to publish these emails so that you can judge the exchange for yourself."

http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2012/02/19/heartland-institute-threatens-71-year-old-veteran/

Orkneygal

63 Fans

08:14 AM on 05/09/2012

Update about the Yamal Deception

http://bishophill.squarespace.com/

10:53 AM on 05/09/2012

Heartland Institute Global Warming "Expert" Hides the Incline
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Orkneygal,

Isn't Heartland Institute Global Warming "Expert" Dr. Robert M "Bob" Carter committing facto global warming fraud by misrepresenting increasing global temperature trend lines as flat?*

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

If you disagree please provide a scientifically-valid explanation for Bob Carter's gross misrepresentation of scientific data.

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, including:

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

Also:

You Orkneygal have indicated that you live in New Zealand - what relationship do you have with Bob Carter's global warming "skeptic" organization the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition (NZCSC)?

Please finally answer these questions instead of continuing to run away from them - think you.

------------------
* http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2011/07/bob_carters_trend_lines.php

08:46 PM on 05/09/2012

The world owes much to the courageous Dr Carter. He is a giant among pygmies.

Those that mis-represent science are the ones that use proxies upside down, discard data that doesn't support their political agenda, lie to Enquiries about what they have done and illegally block legitimate FOI requests from truth seekers.

There are More Comments on this Thread. Click Here To See them All

10:13 PM on 05/09/2012

Heartland Institute "Expert" Hides the Incline
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Orkneygal: "Dr Carter... is a giant amongst the pygmies."

Calling the other "experts" on the Heartland Institute's payroll "pygmies" is an insult to real pygmies: real pygmies don't grossly distort and tell falsehoods about climate science.

Apparently, you have still not educated yourself on the fact that Bob Carter has misrepresented increasing global temperatures as flat.*

Let me help you with that:

With respect to global temperature Bob Carter has claimed:

"There was no temperature increase from 1979 to 1995"

-and-

"There was no [temperature] change between 1999 and through today"

http://www.sydneyminingclub.org/presentations/2011/april/bob-carter/index.htm
[Slide 6: "Satellite Temperatures, 1979-2011"]

As can be seen in that link, to support his assertion Carter shows UAH global satellite temperature data and puts flat lines across the data for those time periods.

The statistically uneducated observer might be mislead into assuming those are statistically-derived trend lines. As statistician Tamino demonstrates however statistical trend lines for that data in fact show warming trends.

http://tamino.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/bob-carter-does-his-business/

Dear Orkneygal,

Do you agree that Dr. Carter's analysis that I have addressed here is not scientifically valid? 'Yes' or 'No'?

And if 'No':

Please explain in why you think that Carter's analysis I have addressed here is or even could be scientifically valid.

Please answer, Orkneygal, instead of continuing to run away from answering the questions - thank you.

gallon

Those who fail to remember history are, um

392 Fans

04:15 PM on 05/09/2012

Thanks for the extra propaganda.

HUFFPOST SUPER USER

Robert Fanney

Scribbler

2265 Fans

10:05 PM on 05/08/2012

Hate to say it, but Heartland and the global warming deniers are the ones who are at dire risk of implicating themselves. Maybe not direct murder, but definitely accomplices to a growing threat of worldwide harm. Global warming, if left unchecked, will result in many deaths. The Sahel and many other regions are already suffering. So how many of those will these deniers and their oil and gas backers be blamed for? How many were the smoking industry blamed for?

keme

105 Fans

08:47 PM on 05/08/2012

Even though it might have backfired, Heartland's plan was probably to push the debate way, way out there to the extreme fringe. They have to push it there because they can't defend their position using science and they know it. Their only recourse is to shift the debate far from the actual science into crazyland territory (giving themselves the home-field advantage).

Heartland exists to promote free market ideals. That's their mission, the reason they exist. They see AGW as a threat to their mandate and clients; therefore, those who advocate for and advance the science of AGW become the enemy. Heartland is incapable of seeing this issue or participating in a debate without politicizing; "the free market" is their filter and entire frame of reference.

Compare this to the National Academy of Sciences, that is "dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology." They, like all the science academies of the developed world approach this issue from a science perspective, which is appropriate. Therein lies the difference. On one hand we have the evidence and the science, and on the other, we have batsh*t crazy political and profit-driven propaganda. The divide just keeps getting wider. Time to marginalize Heartland and show them to be the extremists they are. Perhaps with this campaign, they've saved us the effort.

palindrom

944 Fans

09:51 PM on 05/08/2012

"Their only recourse is to shift the debate far from the actual science into crazyland territory (giving themselves the home-field advantage)."

Priceless. Bravo!

maxwells

282 Fans

07:16 PM on 05/09/2012

"Heartland exists to promote free market ideals."?

Yeah? Superficially.

Yet, Heartland's main funders seem to be fossil fuel barons running their decidedly UNFREE market, a market that's no more "free" from their machinations than the U.S. and global tobacco market is from those who've controlled it for many decades, and who've used Heartland to drive its TOBACCO PR MACHINE.

2007 Union of Concerned Scientists Report:
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warming/exxon_report.pdf
details links between Big Tobacco and Big Oil/Coal

Using Heartland as a primary artery, Big Oil/Coal adopted Big Tobacco's successful strategies of stalling and doubt sowing long ago.

But here's an outline of how online PR operatives right here on Huff Po implement that very same strategy.

http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2024233595-3602.html
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Global_Climate_Science_Communications_Plan_(1998)

And here's GOP PR operative Frank Luntz's 2002 memo - coaching GOP on how to do likewise.

Meanwhile, what global company is by far the largest in the world, with assets MUCH LARGER THAN the TWO LARGEST publicly traded corporations, Exxon and Apple COMBINED (~1 $Trillion)?

Why SAUDI ARABIAN-American OIL Co., of course ! (Est. $2.2 to $7 Trillion)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_companies#cite_note-41
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_American_Oil_Company

BTW, Exxon is said to own a 30% stake in SAUDI ARABIAN-American Oil Co.

http://www.ewg.org/project/luntz-memo-environment

This comment has been removed due to violations of our [Guidelines]

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08:05 PM on 05/08/2012

Your continued cowardly defamation of Dr Carter has lead me to study his work more carefully.

He is a towering pillar of scientific ethos and a true role model for other to follow.

Those committing global warming fraud are people like Mann, Trenberth, Briffa, Hansen, Jones and the like. They manipulate data, dream up non-sensical statistical treatments, use proxies upside down, and share tricks on how to hide the decline. Then they lie about it, withhold information and illegally avoid FOI requests.

Your Rommulan drivel is laughable.

08:55 PM on 05/08/2012

Here Orkney the hypocrite calls out someone for pointing out the questionable tactics of Dr. Carter. Then Orkney directly proceeds to bashing some important scientists by name, and behind their back.
These are Heartland tactics. What is your connection Orkney?

Orkney thinks itself/himself/herself clever by calling HuffPostians Rommulans. The private joke is that everyone here is supposed to be a disciple of Joe Romm.

Joe Romm runs and writes an influential climate blog. To the deniers, a Romm article is like sunlight on trolls. Deniers hate him, hence the twisting of his name as an insult. Thanks to Orkney for reminding us of Romm.

http://thinkprogress.org/author/joe/

11:15 PM on 05/08/2012

Heartland Institute Global Warming Expert Bob Carter Hides The Incline

Orkneygal: "Dr Carter... is a towering pillar of scientific ethos and a true role model for other to follow."

Really.

As I have repeatedly explained to you, Orkneygal, with respect to global temperature Bob Carter has claimed:

"There was no temperature increase from 1979 to 1995"

-and-

"There was no change [in temperature] between 1999 and through today"

http://www.sydneyminingclub.org/presentations/2011/april/bob-carter/index.htm
[Slide 6: "Satellite Temperatures, 1979-2011"]

As can be seen in that link, to support his assertion Dr. Carter shows UAH global satellite temperature data and puts flat "lines" across the data for those time periods.

The statistically uneducated observer might be mislead into assuming thone lines are statistically-derived trend lines. As statistician Tamino demonstrates however that assumption would not be correct - statistical trend lines over those periods with respect to that data in fact show warming trends.

http://tamino.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/bob-carter-does-his-business/

Dear Orkneygal,

My 'Yes' or 'No' question to you, again*, is the following:

Do you agree that Dr. Bob Carter's analysis that I have addressed here is not statistically or scientifically valid? 'Yes' or 'No'?

And if 'No':

Please explain in why you instead think that Carter's analysis I have addressed here is or even could be statistically and scientifically valid.

Please finally answer these questions, Orkneygal, instead of continuing to run away from them - thank you.

08:16 PM on 05/08/2012

Ork, I'd like a half dozen cinnamon raisin please.

ILoveFiction

That's unbelievable!

247 Fans

08:38 PM on 05/08/2012

Hah!

StephenBP

What's he building in there?

1510 Fans

05:37 PM on 05/08/2012

The Heartworm Institute calls their approach to climate change “realist”. And it is. It is a realistic attempt by really short sighted corporations to improve their bottom line by smearing people who are trying to make important deductions about damage to the planet’s atmosphere that is being caused by really short sighted corporations. “Don’t worry, be happy!” says the Heartworm Institute.

The damage to the planet’s atmosphere is being detected by changes in temperature and weather patterns which are decreasing the planet’s carrying capacity for human life.

“Plants love CO2!” says the Heartworm Institute, neglecting to mention that there will be fewer and fewer places to grow plants as desertification and other factors continue to rise along with human urban and suburban development.

Note: Because Ted Kaczynski believes in gravity doesn't mean that the Heartworm Institute and all its supporters can now throw themselves out of 12th story windows with impunity. Much as I despise their tactics and their imbecilic adherence to nonsense, I wouldn't want any of them to get hurt based on their line of non-sequitor beliefs.

ubrew12

that crazy uncle from Amarcord

1191 Fans

08:51 PM on 05/08/2012

Really? These dudes are responsible for hundreds of thousands of American deaths by second-hand smoke. Yeah, Heartworm: if you feel the need to toss yourself out of a window, you have my blessing. I have a bad feeling that's how you're going to end up anyway, voluntary or not.

08:09 AM on 05/09/2012

Just trying to keep some semblance of civility..... ;>)

05:14 AM on 05/08/2012

This billboard is repulsive.

So is this similar article from Rommulan headquarters, which none of the alarmists objected to since it was first published in July 2011.

http://tinyurl.com/7cad6ac

Suddenly, the Rommulans have disappeared the article from their site.

08:06 AM on 05/08/2012

I'm sorry.

We're not looking for a replacement for Rush Limbaugh at the moment.

But thank you for auditioning.

08:52 PM on 05/08/2012

Orkneygal!!!
'Because anything is better than Rush...'

08:35 AM on 05/09/2012

Mark Twain was brilliant.
What do you claim to be?

09:14 AM on 05/08/2012

Orkneygal: "This billboard is repulsive."

Orkney thinks itself/himself/herself clever by calling HuffPostians Rommulans. The private joke is that everyone here is supposed to be a disciple of Joe Romm.

Joe Romm runs and writes an influential climate blog. To the deniers, a Romm article is like sunlight on trolls. Deniers hate him, hence the twisting of his name as an insult. Thanks to Orkney for reminding us of Romm. He is an important figure. To employ the Orkney dialect, Romm is truthful, wonderful and insightful.

Envirohag

14 Fans

08:29 PM on 05/07/2012

I saw the billboard still going yesterday on the Eisenhower.

jimboy71

Hen Diapheron Heautoi

1299 Fans

03:42 AM on 05/08/2012

Not that it matters. I seriously doubt this kind of nonsense is convincing anyone who isn't already brainwashed into thinking conservation is evil.

06:06 PM on 05/08/2012

Agreed. It instead demonstrates the ridiculousness of the climate "science" "logic" promoted by prominent climate science so-called "skeptic" organizations like Heartland.

The Heartland Institute should get its tax exemption status pulled however - the people should not be subsidizing their anti-science propaganda.

Drash

I'm kind of a big deal

864 Fans

03:50 PM on 05/07/2012

When you have no data supporting your position you resort to putting up billboards with nonsensical messages.

03:43 AM on 05/08/2012

There never was any at Heartland. It is all spin, all the time...(also, lies).

groland

socially left, fiscally right

719 Fans

03:20 PM on 05/07/2012

This is a perfect illustration of how the right debates an issue.

03:44 AM on 05/08/2012

To be fair, the far right. What most Americans don't get is that there is no moderate right anymore...and if we go to the other end of the spectrum on the left, we have a system in which the debate is written into the history books at a time it never happened after the fact, with complete re-write of the salient points.

Climate Lurker

311 Fans

02:30 PM on 05/08/2012

Moderates are considered radical left by the "mainstream" right these days.

dublindude

Obscure quote to give the impression I'm deep.

106 Fans

12:30 PM on 05/07/2012

Osama Bin Laden believes in god. Do you?

AKansasComment

Don't it make my brown eyes blue

894 Fans

02:56 PM on 05/07/2012

Have to F&F that one. Love it!

03:45 AM on 05/08/2012

Well, to be fair, he doesn't believe in anything anymore...

06:13 PM on 05/08/2012

Ted Kaczynski still believes Bin Laden is dead.

Do you?

DocSkull

My questions aren't rhetorical.

636 Fans

11:19 AM on 05/07/2012

You can tell that the Heartland Institute designed their own ad. I can't imagine that a professional would put the client's name right next to the face of a mass murderer.

frayjumper

62 Fans

10:53 AM on 05/07/2012

Ted Kaczynski still believes the earth is round, do you?

BlueLily216

Rest In Peace Sandy Hook

1095 Fans

09:58 AM on 05/08/2012

Also very true. If we lived several centuries ago these are the kind of people that would have burned Galileo and copernicus at the stake.

Tea for me

Lipton only:>) Proud Lib/Prog Dem

2321 Fans

10:41 AM on 05/07/2012

Link to corporations and foundations that sponsor Heartland Institute...most without a clue what it is up to!

http://pinterest.com/climatebrad/heartland-institute-sponsors/?timeline=1

I posted this last night and it never showed...

Tea...Democrats 2012...local...state...and federal..SCOTUS nominees, too!

chrisd3

Excelsior!

487 Fans

11:44 AM on 05/07/2012

I have to repeat myself here: Microsoft, one of the businesses listed at pinterest, is NOT a "sponsor" of Heartland. Heartland is just one of 40,000 nonprofits that have taken advantage of Microsoft program to provide free or reduced cost software to nonprofits.

I would suggest that anyone planning to boycott or take any other action against any of the entities listed on pinterest should do a little research first. Things are not always as they appear.

12:59 PM on 05/07/2012

People should contact Microsoft and others and tell them to take them off their non-profit list for goodies....and why...simple.

I didn't bring up boycott...I posted so others may contact...inform..One guy on another thread said his union was on the list and he was going to contact them...let them know.

Knowledge is power for those on the list.....and for us.

Tea..Best to you and yours.

Tea...Democrats 2012

amber15

353 Fans

12:31 PM on 05/08/2012

this is such bs! If Microsoft doesn't want the blow back from supporting Heartland they are big enough and smart enough to withdraw their funding.
Stop the pansy excuses.