A fresh scandal over climate change has erupted in the US after leaked documents appeared to show a right-wing funded campaign to influence how climate science is taught in schools.
The internal budget and strategy documents from a Chicago-based nonprofit group called the Heartland Institute were made public last week, and showed US$200,000 was to be spent on a “global warming curriculum project.”
The project would teach that “whether humans are changing the climate is a major scientific controversy” and that climate models’ “reliability is controversial,” according to some of the leaked documents.
Others showed hundreds of thousands of US dollars in donations from fossil fuel industries and interests, an anonymous donor’s pledge of US$1.25 million, and US$300,000 to be paid to a team of scientists to rebut UN findings on climate change.
The Heartland Institute has said that one of the leaked strategy memos, a two-page document, was fabricated, but has not commented on the others and did not respond to requests for an interview.
The scandal appeared to take on larger dimensions yesterday when a lawmaker called for a hearing into whether one of the scientists named in the documents, a government employee, had improperly accepted payments from Heartland to spread the anti-climate-change message.
Indur Goklany, assistant director of programs, science and technology policy at the Department of the Interior, was named as being allocated US$1,000 per month to write a chapter on economics and policy for the Heartland Institute.
The chapter was to appear in a book produced by the group’s “Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change [NIPCC], an international group of scientists that produces critiques of the reports of the United Nations’ IPCC.”
A Democratic congressman from Arizona, Raul Grijalva, requested a full hearing of the Natural Resources Committee, noting that it is unclear whether Goklany received payments — which is illegal for federal employees — or if other government scientists were involved.
“Our Committee has a unique responsibility to find those answers,” Grijalva wrote.
His appeal is awaiting a decision by senior lawmakers.
Another government contractor, David Wojick at the Department of Energy (DOE), has drawn scrutiny for his alleged links to the group after documents showed he would be paid US$25,000 quarterly for his work in drafting the school curriculum.
Wojick is listed as a “senior consultant for innovation” at the DOE’s Office of Science and Technological Information.
Greenpeace USA sent a series of letters to the government urging an official inquiry into whether the documents reveal illegal payments to government scientists and a conflict of interest.
The documents show Heartland, which was founded in 1984, has “a coordinated multimillion dollar, multi-year campaign to sow confusion about climate change and climate change science,” Greenpeace USA research director Kert Davies said.
Another wrinkle emerged in the story on Monday when a prominent climate scientist admitted he had posed as a Heartland board member to fraudulently obtain copies of the confidential internal documents and distribute them to colleagues and the media.
Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, said his involvement began early this year when he “received an anonymous document in the mail describing what appeared to be details of the Heartland Institute’s climate program strategy.”
Gleick said he then “solicited and received additional materials directly from the Heartland Institute under someone else’s name,” which “confirmed many of the facts in the original document.”
Gleick apologized late on Monday, adding: “My judgment was blinded by my frustration with the ongoing efforts — often anonymous, well-funded and coordinated — to attack climate science and scientists.”
The blogosphere has been jammed with commentaries on his actions, alternately blasting Gleick for poor ethics or hailing him as a hero.
Heartland Institute president Joseph Bast said the group was seeking legal counsel, accused Gleick of a “crime” and added: “A mere apology is not enough to undo the damage.”
Greenpeace’s Davies said the revelation “has sort of made everything uglier,” but should pass.
“Yesterday ... it was: ‘Oh my goodness, a scientist stole some documents.’ But you know, we will get over that because the truth is — what really happened was that he verified that the documents were real and they were from Heartland,” Davies said.
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
RSS