Leaked documents give inside look at Heartland Institute

The Guardian : Confidential documents leaked from the Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank, reveal details of the organization’s strategy on climate change, says the Guardian‘s Suzanne Goldenberg. Heartland has been a significant promoter of climate change skepticism, and the leaked documents indicate that discrediting climate science is a core mission of the organization. One plan includes spending $100 000 for spreading the message in K–12 schools that “the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain—two key points that are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science,” the documents said.Although the oil industry is not one of Heartland’s big funders, the institute has received support from the Charles G. Koch Foundation, says Goldenberg; and an anonymous donor has paid millions of dollars to the institute over the last five years. Heartland has characterized the release of the documents as both theft and fraud, but it has identified only one of the documents as false.