Prompting outrage from activists and teachers, but applauded by climate skeptics, the Heartland Institute this year sent the book to more than 8,000 American teachers to “present facts”according to them ignored or distorted by experts and the media.
“Climate at a glance for teachers and students”, fact-checked by AFP, follows another mass mailing of books in 2017, demonstrating a desire to cast doubt on the scientific evidence on the crisis that threatens the planet.
“It is outrageous that such propaganda has been sent […] for the purpose of infecting the minds of children”told AFP Susan Joy Hassol, director of the association Climate Communication.
The book’s 80 pages, which rely on data, charts and footnotes citing conventional sources like government and international agencies, come across as a legit reference.
But according to scientists who spoke to AFP, the book is riddled with misleading claims. In particular, he insinuates that the rise in the level of CO2 has a positive impact on crops and coral reefs, that the decline in snow is negligible, that the rise in water levels is not accelerating and that heat waves are less severe. .
“We trust our data”assured AFP its editor, the chief climatologist of the Heartland Institute Sterling Burnett.
Suspicions of links with the fossil industry
The publication of the book follows a rise in climate denial in the United States since July 2022, when President Joe Biden won the necessary support for a major climate spending bill.
Mr. Biden, who encourages Americans to embrace electric cars and renewable energy, provokes scorn from skeptics who see their lifestyle and values under threat. Yet studies show that many Americans accept the reality of climate change.
The opacity of funding for the Heartland Institute, founded in 1984, leads activists to suspect that it acts in the interests of the fossil industry. If he does not disclose his main funders, he already declared in 2012 to have received funds from the charitable branch of the oil giant Koch Industries.
The secret is also kept about the 8,000 recipients of the book. Questioned by AFP, Burnett affirmed “not to be in charge of sending”, and transferred the request to the direction of the communication of the institute, which did not answer.
“I would bet the mailings have been strategically distributed in certain electoral districts to support certain politicians who continue to deny or mislead about climate change”suspects Kate Cell, head of the climate campaign for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“How not to collate data”
The scale of the shipment is smaller than the hundreds of thousands of copies sent in 2017. Glenn Branch, deputy director at the National Center for Science Education, sees it as a “tacit admission” of the ineffectiveness of Heartland’s strategy. .
Science teachers have become “better prepared to explain climate change, and become all the more suspicious of climate-skeptical content”Branch told AFP.
Still, reviews on online ordering site Amazon are overwhelmingly positive. “Every grandparent should get one for their grandkids, every teacher should get one for their students. The sky is not falling, spread the word!”wrote one reader.
AFP could not confirm that these comments were independent of the institute.
“It’s very sad, at the very least”Jeffrey Grant, a science teacher in Illinois, told AFP. “I plan to use their graphs to show my students how not to put data together to support their science demonstrations.”
