They're Back!

The Heartland Institute, the organization that brought you the widely spoofed Unabomber billboard, the faux International Climate Change Conference, and that has been working on a curriculum for middle and high school students designed to teach controversy and confusion, is at it again.

Heartland just sent out copies of the "Summary for Policy Makers" of its already discredited Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) to educators, asking teachers to, in effect, forget that the National Academies agrees that human activities are seriously impacting the climate system, and instead teach doubt and denial.

Heartland has done this before, touting that it sent 100,000 copies of a book that makes fun of people who take climate change seriously and a misleading DVD claiming climate change is only due to natural cycles to "educators, business and civic leaders, judges, environmental journalists, and elected officials across the country." Now Heartland is targeting K-12 science teachers. 

We'll be tracking this closely to determine the scope and impact of Heartland's effort—most teachers won't be fooled by this ruse, but a few might. Meanwhile, while we won't link to the NIPCC report, you can easily find it online. And you can send Heartland your "criticism, corrections, and suggestions for a future edition" to nipcc@heartland.org.

Short Bio

Mark McCaffrey is a former Programs and Policy Director at NCSE.