Denialgate refers to the release of controversial documents from the Heartland Institute, a conservative American think tank. The name is analogous to Climategate.
The documents were obtained by Peter Gleick, an environmental scientist concentrating on freshwater habitats and climate change and also co-founder of the Pacific Institute, who has been one of the leading voices in modern climatology. The documents revealed Heartland's plans for their work to "debunk" climate change, including payments made to prominent "independent" climate contrarians like Fred Singer.[1]
The documents include a list of personnel and board members, a proposed fundraising plan for 2012, a proposed budget for 2012, an agenda and minutes for the meeting, and a few other minor papers.
In addition to the funding provided to some "independent" climate contrarians such as Anthony Watts, the papers reveal that Heartland actively solicits funding from industrial interests allied with Heartland's own stances in favor of fracking, charter schools, and deregulation of the financial industry, and in opposition to climate change mitigation and universal healthcare. The proposed budget and fundraising plan include proof that the Heartland Institute actively fabricates local "grass-roots" opposition to issues, as with their plan for "Operation Angry Badger," which would create and fund a series of small websites in Wisconsin to support the restrictions on collective bargaining by unions that were recently passed in that state. The documents also describe Heartland's work on paying David Wojick to product a global warming curriculum for K-12 schools "that casts the science as a controversy and that global warming may not be ascribed to human activity,[2] consistent with Heartland's position on global warming.
The documents were obtained by Peter Gleick, an environmental scientist concentrating on freshwater habitats and climate change and also co-founder of the Pacific Institute, who has been one of the leading voices in modern climatology. The documents revealed Heartland's plans for their work to "debunk" climate change, including payments made to prominent "independent" climate contrarians like Fred Singer.[1]
The documents include a list of personnel and board members, a proposed fundraising plan for 2012, a proposed budget for 2012, an agenda and minutes for the meeting, and a few other minor papers.
In addition to the funding provided to some "independent" climate contrarians such as Anthony Watts, the papers reveal that Heartland actively solicits funding from industrial interests allied with Heartland's own stances in favor of fracking, charter schools, and deregulation of the financial industry, and in opposition to climate change mitigation and universal healthcare. The proposed budget and fundraising plan include proof that the Heartland Institute actively fabricates local "grass-roots" opposition to issues, as with their plan for "Operation Angry Badger," which would create and fund a series of small websites in Wisconsin to support the restrictions on collective bargaining by unions that were recently passed in that state. The documents also describe Heartland's work on paying David Wojick to product a global warming curriculum for K-12 schools "that casts the science as a controversy and that global warming may not be ascribed to human activity,[2] consistent with Heartland's position on global warming.
