NYT's Andrew Revkin: The Heartland Files and the Climate Fight
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/documents-appear-to-reveal-broad-effort-to-amplify-climate-uncertainty/
The documents say that over four years ending in 2013, the group expects to have spent some $1.6 million on financing the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, an entity that publishes periodic reports attacking climate science and holds lavish annual conferences. (Environmental groups refer to the conferences as “Denialpalooza.”)
Heartland’s latest idea, the documents say, is a plan to create a curriculum for public schools intended to cast doubt on mainstream climate science and budgeted at $200,000 this year. The curriculum would claim, for instance, that “whether humans are changing the climate is a major scientific controversy.”
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The newly disclosed documents that are evidently authentic are being pored over by many environmentalists and journalists, with a particular focus on the tax reporting of the group — which was clearly the intention of the person who disseminated them. On his blog, the environment writer Keith Kloor posted an excerpt from the e-mail message that apparently was sent with the documents to an initial batch of 15 people (I was not among them):
Dear Friends (15 of you): In the interest of transparency, I think you should see these files from the Heartland Institute. Look especially at the 2012 fundraising and budget documents, the information about donors, and compare to the 2010 990 tax form. But other things might also interest or intrigue you. This is all I have. And this email account will be removed after I send.
