Tens of thousands signed our petition telling an oil-and-coal-funded organization to cease and desist its plans to send a "curriculum" about climate denial into our children's classrooms.
Oil and coal companies will stop at nothing to deny that climate change is a reality. Recently, it was revealed that the Heartland Institute -- an ideological group with industry funding -- wants teachers to be their mouthpieces for climate denial.
This is simply unacceptable. Our science classrooms should teach science. What they shouldn't do is spread a fossil fuel company's propaganda.
Fortunately, Corey Husic, a high school student in Pennsylvania, asked the Heartland Institute to cease and desist its plans for a climate denial curriculum. Nearly 30,000 of you joined Corey by adding your names to his request.
And here's what's most important: We need to make sure the Heartland Institute's plans are widely publicized all over the country -- so that not a single teacher is fooled into adopting their so-called "curriculum."
That's why we created a powerful video, "Heartland Department of Education," to bring their agenda into the light of day. Our video has already received widespread attention and nearly 460,000 views.
Climate change is real and happening now. But we can't get to work on solving this crisis if the deniers succeed in spreading their distortions, mistruths and propaganda -- into the media, into our daily life, and into our children's schools.
Maggie L. Fox
President and CEO
The Climate Reality Project
If you go to the Heartland Institute's Website (http://heartland.org/ideas/global-warming-not-crisis) you will see that this organization uses very vague, subtle arguments to try to convince people that our environment is not in trouble. Their missions statements says:
The Heartland Institute is a national nonprofit research and education organization. Founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1984, Heartland’s mission is to discover, develop, and promote free- market solutions to social and economic problems.
However, they are working harder than ever to deny that our Earth is changing for the worse. They have even paid scientists to drop their beliefs that climate change is real.
Policy Advisors: Approximately 150 academics and professional economists participate in its peer review process, and more than 200 elected officials serve on its Legislative Forum.
Publications: Heartland sends six monthly public policy newspapers addressing the major domestic public policy issues to every national and state elected official in the U.S. plus 8,400 county and local officials and thousands of civic and business leaders. It also produces books, policy studies, and booklets.
Survey Results: A telephone survey of randomly selected state and local elected officials conducted in 2011 found 79% of state legislators and 63% of local elected officials read at least one of our publications. 45% of state legislators say a Heartland publication changed their mind or led to a change in public policy.
In their beliefs section, the Heartland institute uses arguments such as:
"Liberals have no reason to “look under the hood” of the global warming scare, to see what the real science says. They believe in global warming because they feel it justifies their ideological convictions ..."
"Extreme weather events, melting ice, and the spread of disease are all major talking points for Al Gore and other alarmists in the climate debate. If there is no consensus on these matters, then “skeptics” are right to ask why we should believe global warming is a crisis. "
"Probably two-thirds of the warming in the 1990s was due to natural causes; the warming trend already has stopped and forecasts of future warming are unreliable; and the benefits of a moderate warming are likely to outweigh the costs. "
What makes the Heartland Institute so much more dangerous and powerful than other anti-climate change institutions is that they are focusing on influencing schools and school children. Because many public schools are already having budget cuts, the teachers are vulnerable to an offer of free material.
Here is one of the Heartland Institute's messages:
This tells us a lot about the power of money and propaganda....
Below is the Climate Reality Project's Video:
No comments:
Post a Comment