 Heartland Institute in 2016 | |
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| Formation | 1984 (42 years ago) (1984) |
|---|---|
| Founders |
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| Type | Nonprofit |
| 36-3309812 | |
| Legal status | 501(c)(3) |
| Purpose | Public policy analysis |
| Headquarters |
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President | James M. Taylor[2] |
Chairman | Joseph A. Morris |
Key people |
|
| Revenue | $3.35 million[3] (2024) |
| Expenses | $3.7 million[3] (2024) |
| Website | heartland |
TheHeartland Institute is an Americanconservative andlibertarian501(c)(3)nonprofit public policythink tank known for its rejection of both thescientific consensus onclimate change and thenegative health impacts of smoking.[4]
Founded in 1984, it worked withtobacco companyPhilip Morris throughout the 1990s to attempt to discredit the health risks ofsecondhand smoke and lobby againstsmoking bans.[5]: 233–234 [6] Since the 2000s, the Heartland Institute has been a leading promoter ofclimate change denial.[7][8]
The institute was founded in 1984 by Chicago investor David H. Padden, who served as the organization's chairman until 1995. Padden had been a director of theCato Institute, a libertarianthink tank headquartered inWashington, D.C., since its founding as theCharles Koch Foundation in 1974.[9][10][11] Padden was also a former director ofCitizens for a Sound Economy, theActon Institute, theFoundation for Economic Education, and theCenter for Libertarian Studies.[10][11] At age 26,Joseph L. Bast became Heartland's first employee. Bast's wife, Diane, was Heartland's publications director.[12][13]
In the 1990s, the Heartland institute worked with the tobacco companyPhilip Morris to question serious cancer risks fromsecondhand smoke, and to lobby against government public-health regulations.[5] Starting in 2008, Heartland has organized conferences to question thescientific consensus on climate change.[5]: 334 [14]
After the election of U.S. presidentBarack Obama in November 2008, the institute became involved with theTea Party movement. In 2011, the organization's director of communications said that "the support of the Tea Party groups across the country has been extremely valuable."[15] Heartland was among the organizers of the September 2009Tea Party protest march, theTaxpayer March on Washington.[16][17]
In March 2020, Heartland laid off staff, reportedly in response to financial issues; they also removed its president,Frank Lasee.[18][19]
Since 2023, the institute has worked with right-wingmembers of the European Parliament (MEPs) from Poland, Hungary and Austria, helping coordinate campaigns against proposed environmental laws.[20]
In December 2024, the institute opened a European branch, Heartland UK/Europe, in London. The opening was attended by former UK prime ministerLiz Truss;Nigel Farage, the leader of the right-wingReform UK party, and severalToryMPs.[21]
The institute advocatesfree market policies.[22] The policy orientation of Heartland has been described asconservative,libertarian, andright wing.[13][23][24][25]
Heartland has long questioned the links between tobacco smoking,secondhand smoke, and lung cancer and the social costs imposed by smokers.[26] One of Heartland's first campaigns was to oppose tobacco regulation.[4] According to theLos Angeles Times, Heartland's advocacy for the tobacco industry is one of the two things Heartland is most widely known for.[27]
During the 1990s, the institute worked with tobacco companyPhilip Morris to question the links between smoking, secondhand smoke and health risks.[5] Philip Morris commissioned Heartland to write and distribute reports. Heartland published a policy study which summarized a jointly prepared report by theAssociation of Private Enterprise Education and Philip Morris. The institute also undertook a variety of other activities on behalf of the tobacco industry, including meeting with legislators, holding off-the-record briefings, and producing op-eds, radio interviews, and letters.[5]: 233–234
A 1993 internal "Five Year Plan" from Philip Morris to addressenvironmental tobacco smoke regulation called for support for the efforts of the institute.[28] In 1996, Heartland president and chief executive officer Joe Bast wrote an essay entitled "Joe Camel is Innocent!,"[4] which said that contributions from the tobacco industry to Republican political campaigns were most likely because Republicans "have been leading the fight against the use of 'junk science' by theFood and Drug Administration and its evil twin, theEnvironmental Protection Agency."[29] In the "President's Letter" in the July 1998 issue ofThe Heartlander, the institute's magazine, Bast wrote an essay "Five Lies about Tobacco",[4] which said "smoking in moderation has few, if any, adverse health effects."[30][31] In 1999, Bast referenced the essays in soliciting financial support from Philip Morris, writing "Heartland does many things that benefit Philip Morris' bottom line, things that no other organization does."[32] A Philip Morris executive, Roy Marden, the firm's manager of industrial affairs, was a member of the board of directors of the institute. Marden collected Key Actions promised by think tanks[33] Heartland's were "blast faxes to state legislators, off-the-record briefings, op-eds, radio interviews, letters". In 2005, the institute opposed Chicago's public smoking ban, at the time one of the strictest bans in the country.[34] In 2008, Heartland'sEnvironment and Climate News ran an article claiming no danger from secondhand smoke,[35]: 8 featuring image of man puffing smoke next to a young girl. In 2011,Environment and Climate News ran article byFred Singer[36]: 17 casting doubt onUnited States Environmental Protection Agency 1993 findings of harm.
The institute rejects thescientific consensus on climate change,[37] and promotesclimate change denial with claims that the amount of climate change is not catastrophic, claims that climate changemight be beneficial,[38][39] and that the economic costs of trying tomitigate climate change exceed the benefits.[40] According toThe New York Times, Heartland is "the primary American organization pushing climate change skepticism."[41] The institute has been a member of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a group dedicated to denying climate change science, since 1997.[42] Institute staff "recognize that climate change is a profound threat to our economic and social systems and therefore deny its scientific reality," wroteNaomi Klein inThis Changes Everything.[43]: 211
In their 2010 bookMerchants of Doubt,Naomi Oreskes andErik M. Conway wrote that the institute was known "for its persistent questioning of climate science, for its promotion of 'experts' who have done little, if any, peer-reviewed climate research, and for its sponsorship of a conference in New York City in 2008 alleging that the scientific community's work on global warming is fake."[5]: 233 The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society in a chapter "Organized Climate Change Denial" identified Heartland as aconservative think tank with a strong interest in environmental and climate issues involved in climate change denial.[44]: 149 Heartland "emerged as a leading force in climate change denial" in the decade 2003–2013, according to sociology professor Riley Dunlap ofOklahoma State University and political science professor Peter J. Jacques of theUniversity of Central Florida.[45] Historians James Morton Turner and Andrew Isenberg describe Heartland as a leader in the "scientific misinformation campaign" against climate change.[46]
Fred Singer was the founder and president of the closely-allied Science and Environmental Policy Project,[47][48] and Heartland is a member organization of theCooler Heads Coalition.[44]: 151 [49]
"Heartland's influence on national climate policy is at an apex" in March 2017 according toPBSFrontline.[50]
The institute previously employed GermanYouTube personalityNaomi Seibt as an "anti-Greta".[51][52] The institute's president, James Taylor, considered Seibt the star of its "media strategy for the masses" in the "fight against climate protection measures" which "needs a better image"—to "move away from old white men and instead showcase a younger generation."[53]
In 2008, the institute published a list purporting to identify "500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares".[54]The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the work ofJim Salinger, chief scientist atNew Zealand'sNational Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, was "misrepresented" as part of a "denial campaign".[55] In response to criticism, the institute changed the title of the list to "500 Scientists Whose Research Contradicts Man-Made Global Warming Scares."[54] Heartland did not remove any scientist's name from the list.[54][55] Avery explained, "Not all of these researchers would describe themselves as global warming skeptics...but the evidence in their studies is there for all to see."[54] The institute's then president, Joseph Bast, argued that the scientists "have no right—legally or ethically—to demand that their names be removed" from Heartland's list.[nb 2]
Heartland's conventions of climate change doubters are one of the things the institute is largely known for, according to theLos Angeles Times.[27] Between 2008 and 2023, the institute organized fifteenInternational Conferences on Climate Change, bringing together hundreds ofglobal warming deniers.[56][57] Conference speakers have includedRichard Lindzen, a professor of meteorology at MIT;Roy Spencer, a research scientist and climatologist at theUniversity of Alabama in Huntsville;S. Fred Singer, a senior fellow of the institute and who was founding dean of the School of Environmental and Planetary Sciences at theUniversity of Miami and founding director of the National Weather Satellite Service;Harrison Schmitt, a geologist and formerNASA astronaut andApollo 17 moonwalker; Dr. John Theon, atmospheric scientist and former NASA supervisor; andWei-Hock "Willie" Soon, a part-time employee of the Solar and Stellar Physics (SSP) Division of theHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.[58]
At the first conference in 2008, participants criticized theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change andAl Gore.[59][60] In 2010 theBBC reported that the heavily politicized nature of the Heartland conferences led some "moderate" climate skeptics to avoid them.[61]In an article inThe Nation, the 2011 conference was described as "the premier gathering for those dedicated to denying the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is warming the planet".[62]The 2012 conference was the main subject of the filmClimate of Doubt by theFrontline documentary TV series.[63]At the conclusion of that conference, Bast announced that the organization might discontinue the conferences.[64] But the conference series continued; the fifteenth was held in 2023.[57]
On Thursday May 3, 2012, Heartland launched an advertising campaign in the Chicago area, and put updigital billboards along theEisenhower Expressway inMaywood, Illinois, featuring a photo ofTed Kaczynski, the "Unabomber" whose mail bombs killed three people and injured 23 others, asking the question, "I still believe in global warming, do you?" They withdrew the billboards a day later.[65][66] The institute planned for the campaign to feature murdererCharles Manson, communist leaderFidel Castro and perhapsOsama bin Laden, asking the same question. The institute justified the billboards saying "the most prominent advocates of global warming aren't scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen."[67]
The billboard reportedly "unleashed a social media-fed campaign, including a petition from the advocacy group Forecast the Facts calling on Heartland's corporate backers to immediately pull their funding," and prompted Rep.James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) to threaten to cancel his speech at the upcoming seventh International Conference on Climate Change organized by Heartland.[68] Sensenbrenner ultimately did speak at the conference.[69] Within 24 hours Heartland canceled the campaign, although its president refused to apologize for it.[nb 3] The advertising campaign led to the resignation of two of the institute's 12 board members,[70] and the resignation of almost the entire Heartland Washington, D.C. office, taking the institute's biggest project (on insurance) with it.[71] The staff of the former Heartland insurance project founded theR Street Institute and announced they "will not promote climate change skepticism."[72]
Following the 2012 document leak and the controversial billboard campaign, substantial funding was lost as corporate donors, including theGeneral Motors Foundation, sought to dissociate themselves from the institute. According to the advocacy group Forecast the Facts, Heartland lost more than $825,000, or one third of planned corporate fundraising for the year. The shortfall led to sponsorship of the institute's May 2012 climate conference by Illinois'coal lobby, the Illinois Coal Association, the institute's "first publicly acknowledged donations from the coal industry," andThe Heritage Foundation.[71] The billboard controversy led to the loss of substantial corporate funding, including telecommunications firmAT&T, financial service firmBB&T, alcoholic beverage companyDiageo and about two dozen insurance companies, includingState Farm and theUnited Services Automobile Association.[73][74][75][76] Pharmaceutical companies Amgen, Eli Lilly, Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline ended financial support.[77] Heartland's May, 2012, climate conference was smaller than previous years.[64]
The institute wrote model legislation to repeal mandates onrenewable energy, such as solar and wind power, and presented the model legislation to theAmerican Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), anonprofit organization ofconservativestate legislators andprivate sector representatives that drafts and shares model state-level legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States. ALEC's board of directors adopted the model legislation in October 2012.[78]
In 2013, theChinese Academy of Sciences published a report from the Heartland Institute in order to better understand the public debate and encourage discussion of other views.[79] The preface included a disclaimer that the academy did not endorse the views in the report, but in June, the institute announced that the Chinese Academy of Sciences supported their views, and said the publication placed significant scientific weight against climate change.[80][81] The Chinese Academy of Sciences, responding to the announcement, said "The claim of the Heartland Institute about CAS' endorsement of its report is completely false," clarified that they did not endorse the views of the institute, and asked for a retraction.[79][82]
On April 28, 2015, theCatholic Church convened a council to discuss the religious implications of global warming. Held at theVatican and hosted by the Vatican'sPontifical Academy of Sciences, it was attended by theSecretary-General of the United Nations, as well as national presidents, CEOs, academics, scientists, and representatives of the world's major religions. The institute sent a delegation in an attempt to present a dissenting opinion. It held a "prebuttal" of the conference and argued that climate science does not justify papal recognition of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.[83]
After the council ended, a representative (Marc Morano) from the institute broke into a press briefing being given by Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon, who was reporting on his meeting with thePope. He interrupted the Secretary-General and the moderator, asking that global-warming skeptics be allowed to speak. After a few minutes, he was escorted from the premises by Vatican officials.[84] In response to the papal encyclical "Laudato Si'", which outlined the Church's moral case for addressing climate change, and in anticipation ofPope Francis' September 2015 visit to the United States, Gene Koprowski, director of marketing for the institute, suggested that the Pope's pronouncements on climate change indicate that "pagan forms are returning to the Church this day."[85]
In March 2017, the institute's program the Center for Transforming Education began an unsolicited mailing of the institute's bookWhy Scientists Disagree About Global Warming and a companion DVD to all 200,000K-12 science teachers in the U. S., with a cover letter giving a link to an online course planning guide. "The material is not science and was intended to confuse teachers", according to theNational Center for Science Education.[50][86][87]
The institute is a critic of current federal, state, and local budgets and tax codes. Several of the institute's budgetary views includeprivatization of federal services to a competitive marketplace, changing the tax code to a more simplified version of the current code, and implementing Taxpayer Savings Grants.[citation needed]
In 1987, the institute advocated for tenant ownership of theChicago Housing Authority'sCabrini-Green Homespublic housing complex through acooperative orcondominium conversion.[88] In 1990, the institute advocated for lower taxes in Illinois to foster job growth.[89]
The institute advocated for the privatization ofIllinois' toll highway system in 1999 and 2000.[90][91] In 2008, the institute opposed state subsidies and tax credits for local film productions, saying the economic benefits are less than the incentives.[92]
The institute supports charter schools, education tax credits to attend private schools, and vouchers for low-income students, as well as the Parent Trigger reform that started in California. The institute supports the introduction of market reforms into the public K–12 education system to increase competition.[93]
In 1994, the institute criticized theChicago Public Schools' reform efforts and advocated privatization of public schools andschool vouchers.[94]
The institute advocates for free-market reforms in healthcare and opposes federal control over the healthcare industry. Heartland supportsHealth Savings Accounts (HSAs), replacing federal tax deductions for employer-based healthcare with a refundable tax credit to allow individual choice over health insurance, removing state and Federal healthcare regulations aimed at providers and consumers of healthcare, and reducing litigation costs which are associated with malpractice suits.[95]
In 2010, Heartland published the 66 page bookThe Obamacare Disaster byPeter Ferrara, which opposed thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[96]
In 2015, the institute filed anamicus curiae brief in support of the petitioner inKing v. Burwell, aSupreme Court case challenging income tax subsidies to those who enroll in health insurance under thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act via the federal as opposed to thestate health insurance exchanges.[97][98]
The institute advocates forhydraulic fracturing (aka "fracking"), awell-stimulation technique in which rock is fractured by pressurized liquids,[99] publishing essays in support of fracking in various national newspapers.[100][101][102] On March 20, 2015, Heartland's science director defended hydraulic fracturing on theYour World With Neil Cavuto program onFox News.[103][104]
According to its brochures, Heartland receives money from approximately 5,000 individuals and organizations, and no single corporate entity donates more than 5% of the operating budget,[105] although the figure for individual donors can be much higher, with a single anonymous donor providing $4.6 million in 2008, and $979,000 in 2011, accounting for 20% of Heartland's overall budget, according to reports of a leaked fundraising plan.[106] Heartland states that it does not accept government funds and does not conduct contract research for special-interest groups.[107]
Oil and gas companies have contributed to the institute, including $736,500 fromExxonMobil between 1998 and 2005.[78][108]Greenpeace reported that Heartland received almost $800,000 from ExxonMobil.[55] In 2008, ExxonMobil said that it would stop funding to groups skeptical of climate change, including Heartland.[108][109][110][failed verification] Institute president Bast argued that ExxonMobil was simply distancing itself from Heartland out of concern for its public image.[108]
The institute has also received funding and support from tobacco companiesPhilip Morris,[5]: 234 Altria andReynolds American, andpharmaceutical industry firmsGlaxoSmithKline,Pfizer andEli Lilly.[106]State Farm Insurance,USAA andDiageo are former supporters.[111]The Independent reported that Heartland's receipt of donations from Exxon and Philip Morris indicates a "direct link...between anti-global warming sceptics funded by the oil industry and the opponents of the scientific evidence showing that passive smoking can damage people's health."[59] The institute opposes legislation on passive smoking as infringing on personal liberty and the rights of owners of bars and other establishments.[112]
As of 2006, theWalton Family Foundation had contributed approximately $300,000 to Heartland. The institute published an op-ed in theLouisville Courier-Journal defending Wal-Mart against criticism over its treatment of workers.[citation needed] The Walton Family Foundation donations were not disclosed in the op-ed, and the editor of theCourier-Journal stated that he was unaware of the connection and would probably not have published the op-ed had he known of it.[113] TheSt. Petersburg Times described the institute as "particularly energetic defending Wal-Mart."[113] Heartland has stated that its authors were not "paid to defend Wal-Mart" and did not receive funding from the corporation; it did not disclose the approximately $300,000 received from the Walton Family Foundation.[113]
In 2010,MediaTransparency said that Heartland received funding frompolitically conservative foundations such as theCastle Rock Foundation, theSarah Scaife Foundation, theJohn M. Olin Foundation, and theLynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.[114] Between 2002 and 2010,Donors Trust, a nonprofitdonor-advised fund, granted $13.5 million to the institute.[115] In 2011, the institute received $25,000 from theCharles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.[116] The Charles Koch Foundation states that the contribution was "$25,000 to the Heartland Institute in 2011 for research in healthcare, not climate change, and this was the first and only donation the Foundation made to the institute in more than a decade".[117]
In 2012, a large number of sponsors withdrew funding due to the2012 documents incident and the controversy over theirbillboard campaign. The institute lost an estimated $825,000, or one third of planned corporate fundraising for the year.[71]
In 2022,ProPublica reported thatSteve Baer had saidBarre Seid was "the major patron" for the Heartland Institute.[118]
On February 14, 2012, the global warming blogDeSmogBlog published more than one hundred pages of documents said to be from the institute. Heartland acknowledged that some internal documents had been stolen,[116] but said that one, the "Climate Strategy memo", was forged to discredit Heartland.[119][120][121]
The documents were initially anonymously sourced, but later found to have been obtained by climate scientistPeter Gleick.[121][122] The documents included a fundraising plan, board of directors meeting minutes, and the organization's 2012 budget.[123][124] The documents were analyzed by major media, includingThe New York Times,The Guardian,United Press International and theAssociated Press. Donors to the institute included theCharles G. Koch Charitable Foundation,Microsoft,General Motors,Comcast,Reynolds American,Philip Morris,Amgen,Bayer,GlaxoSmithKline,Pfizer andEli Lilly, liquor companies, and an anonymous donor who had given $13 million over the past five years.
The documents contained details of payments to supportclimate change deniers and their programs, namely the founder of theCenter for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change,Craig Idso ($11,600 per month), physicistFred Singer ($5,000 plus expenses per month), geologistRobert M. Carter ($1,667 per month) and $90,000 to blogger and former meteorologistAnthony Watts. The documents also revealed the institute's plan to develop curriculum materials to be provided to teachers in the United States to promote climate skepticism, plans confirmed by the Associated Press.[106][116][125][126][127][128] The documents also disclosed Heartland's $612,000 plan to supportWisconsin Act 10 and to influence theWisconsin's recall elections called "Operation Angry Badger."[116][129] Carter and Watts confirmed receiving payments.[126]
Microsoft said its donation had taken the form of gratissoftware licenses, which it was issuing to allnonprofits, and Glaxo said their donation was for "a healthcare initiative" and they did not support Heartland's views on climate change.[130] Several environmental organizations called on General Motors and Microsoft to sever their ties with Heartland.[citation needed] Climate scientists called on Heartland to "recognise how its attacks on science and scientists have poisoned the debate about climate change policy."[24]
Gleick described his actions in obtaining the documents as "a serious lapse of my own and professional judgment and ethics" and said that he "deeply regret[ted his] own actions in this case". He stated that "My judgment was blinded by my frustration with the ongoing efforts—often anonymous, well-funded, and coordinated—to attack climate science and scientists and prevent this debate, and by the lack of transparency of the organizations involved."[131] On February 24, he wrote to the board of thePacific Institute requesting a "temporary short-term leave of absence" from the institute.[132][133] The board of directors stated it was "deeply concerned regarding recent events" involving Gleick and the Heartland documents, and appointed a new Acting Executive Director on February 27.[134] Gleick was later reinstated to the Pacific Institute after an investigation found Gleick did not forge any documents, and he apologized for using deception to acquire the documents.[135][136]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)The Heartland Institute, a leading think-tank promoting climate change denial...
Similarly, the Heartland Institute, a small regional think tank in the 1990s, emerged as a leading force in climate change denial in the past decade
Presenters at the Heartland Institute Conference attacked the findings of mainstream scientists ...
They include right-wing think tanks such as the Heartland Institute...[permanent dead link]
The first international conference designed to question the scientific consensus on climate change is being sponsored by a right-wing American think-tank which receives money from the oil industry.
At the world's biggest gathering of climate change sceptics, organised by the right-wing Heartland Institute...
Jay Lehr, science director at the right-wing Heartland Institute, concurs.
...the Heartland Institute, the primary American organization pushing climate change skepticism...
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