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Climate Denial for the Classroom [1]
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Date: 2023-03-01
Photos from the Heartland Institute climate change denial pamphlet distributed to schools.
The Heartland Institute sent copies of its 2-page climate denial pamphlet, “Climate at a Glance,” to 8,000middle and high school teachers in the United States. Its goal is to influence what gets taught in classrooms by providing material for lessons that purport“to show the earth is not experiencing a climate crisis.”
The Heartland Institute is aligned with some of the more outrageous climate deniers in the country. Keynote speakers at its recent conference included Senator Ron Johnson (Rep-WI) and Congressional Representative Lauren Boebert (Rep-CO). At a 2021 meeting of Republican Women of Greater Wisconsin, Johnson said, “I don’t know about you guys, but I think climate change is — as Lord Monckton said — bullshit.” He accused the Democratic Party of using the threat of climate change to create a“state of fear” that would allow them to extend their control over the country and argued in favor of global warming because “Mankind has actually flourished in warmer temperatures.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel describes Johnson as an “irresponsible representative of Wisconsin citizens” who got his political start with support from the fossil fuel industry. According to the website OpenSecrets, Johnson has received over $900,000 in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry since 2009 including from Koch Industries.
In Congress, Boebert introduced a bill to block the United States reentering the Paris Climate Agreement that is trying to limit the burning of fossil fuels and keep global temperatures from reaching catastrophic levels. In a press release, Boebert announced "My bill prohibits Congress from spending a single penny on the Paris Agreement until this treaty is ratified by the United States Senate” and she calledPresident Biden’s support for the agreement “unconstitutional.” Boebert also praised “President Trump's leadership” in exiting the job-killing ParisAgreement.” At a recent meeting of the House Natural Resource Committee and in her speech to the Heartland Institute Conference, Boebert, apparently referring to seasons, emphatically declared “I’m not here to deny climate change. I don’t think anyone here is. It happens four times a year.”
In their Heartland speeches, Boebert and Johnson blamed the scientific consensus on the causes, current impact, and future consequences of climate change on “radical leftists” who are“deceiving Americans” and are committed to “destroying our lives.” Boebert and Johnson both claimed they were denouncing climate change science because they “cherish freedom.” Boebert’s speech was especially incomprehensible as she broke down into giggles, thanked Jesus for setting her free, praised the founders for their faith, and never discussed climate change at all.The Heartland climate denial pamphlet was written by Heartland senior fellow Anthony Watts, a television meteorologist, and James Taylor, President of the institute, and a talking head on rightwing television. It was edited by H. Sterling Burnett, who has academic credentials but no background in science.
The pamphlet opens by acknowledging that the “climate has modestly warmed,” but credited the warming for record crop yields because of longer growing seasons for cereal crops. The pamphlet claimed that since 2015 “almost every important U.S. crop has set a record for yield per acre.” Supposedly, increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has benefited crop production and the warming of the oceans has led to increased evaporation making for greater precipitation and more water available for planting (6). The section includes footnotes to U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the National Agricultural Statistics Service of the UnitedStates Department of Agriculture. Not cited was that corn and soybean production in the United States was down in 2022. Corn production declined by 9% from 2021. Because corn is used for animal feed, hog production has also decreased. In addition, cotton production declined 16% from 2021.
A recent New York Times article documents how the recent drought in Texas, the worst in over 1,000 years, forced farmers to abandon three-quarters of the cotton crop because of heat and parched soil. West Texas is the largest supplier of “upland cotton” in the United States and the third-biggest producer worldwide. Upland cotton is used in a variety of absorbent consumer products including diapers, bandages, and tampons and also in the manufacture of blue jeans. In Pakistan,the world’s sixth-largest producer of upland cotton, floods, worsened by climate change, destroyed half of the cotton crop. According to Forum for the Future, by 2040, half of the areas here cotton is grown will face a “high or very high climate risk. ”Other agricultural problems were also ignored in the pamphlet. Weeds, agricultural pests, and fungi will also thrive with warmer temperatures, additional rain, and increased levels of CO2 . U.S. farmers currently spend more than $11 billion a year to rid fields of weeds and human health is threatened by increased use of pesticide use due to increased pest pressures and reductions in the efficacy of pesticides. While higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere can stimulate plant growth, it also can reduce the nutritional value of food crops.
The Heartland pamphlet claims that “data show drought conditions in the United States have become less frequent and less severe as the climate has modestly warmed.” Of course, drought is regional, so severe drought in one area may be balanced by excess rain in other parts of the country. From 2011 to 2017 California suffered through its longest drought in recorded history and areas of the state have been experiencing extreme drought again since 2020 and it is not clear whether record precipitation this winter will end the drought. One recent study concluded that California is in the midst of its worst drought in the last 1200 years, a drought that is contributing to record wildfires in California forests.
This is happening in a state that produces almost three-fourth of the fruit and nuts grown in the United States including almonds, apricots, avocados, dates, figs, grapes, kiwi, lemons,melons, nectarines, olives, peaches, pistachios, plums, prunes, strawberries,and walnuts.
In the Heartland pamphlet,concerns about “future flooding” are dismissed as “speculative predictions”(10), diminishing snow cover isn’t happening (12), fresh water lakes are not growing smaller (16), and “lower water levels at Lake Mead are not alarming nor surprising” (18). Basically, Heartland cherry-picks data. Climate change impacts on different regions differently. While snow cover may not be diminishing in certain regions, almost half the world's mountain glaciers are expected to disappear by the end of the 21st century. Glaciers near Banff in the Canadian Rockies have retreated over 1,500 feet since 2010. Glaciers in Montana’s Glacier National Park have shrunk on average by 40% since the 1960s and some have virtually disappeared.
Lake Mead is a reservoir that was created by the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River about 24 miles east of Las Vegas, Nevada. Since May 2022, the reservoir has been at about 25% of capacity, down from 40% in 2010. If water levels continue to drop, Hoover Dam will no longer be able to generate electricity. Globally, the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan,Lake Chad in Africa, Qinghai Lake in China, Lake Urmia in Iran, the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and the Salton Sea in Southern California are a fraction of their previous size because of changes in rainfall and increased human need. The drought crisis on the Colorado River that feeds Lake Mead is also impacting on the Salton Sea in California’s Imperial Valley, an area that produces much of the lettuce and broccoli grown in the United States. Because of increased water use and decreasing supply, the Salton Sea may soon completely disappear.
The Heartland pamphlet also dismisses the impact of the break-up of the Greenland Ice sheet (27), ocean acidification (32), shifts in ocean currents (34), sea-level rise (36), and extreme weather events (40). Polar vortex cold snaps that result from changes in the high altitude Jet Stream are cited as proof that claims of “global warming defy common sense” (40) and after all, there were devastating hurricanes (41), heat waves (49), and forest fires (54) before the IndustrialRevolution released greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, so what’s the big deal.
The Heartland Institute does not worry that climate scientists overwhelmingly warm of the disastrous consequences of climate change as a number of indicators reach tipping points because “Throughout the course of human history, there have been many periods during which a majority of scientists have wrongly concluded all sorts of erroneous assertions about the natural world and human beings” (76).
The Heartland pamphlet reminds me of the story of the man who jumped off a forty story building on a dare. After the first 10 stories, he thought to himself, “This is okay, no problem so far.”Ten stories later he thought, “What’s the big deal?” Ten stories later, he was convinced he would win the bet. Then SPLAT.
The Heartland Institute no longer releases information on its funding sources fearing that donors would face harassment. In the past, oil and gas companies, including ExxonMobil, were major contributors, but ExxonMobil has since disassociated itself from climate denier organizations. Other funders before Heartland blocked information were the rightwing Walton, Koch, Bradley, Mercer, Searle, Olin, and Scaife Foundations, Phillip Morris, Pfizer, and the Illinois Coal Association. Heartland also partners with the Koch brothers’ American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in its anti-climate change campaigns.
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