Defending Heartland

Published August 6, 2007

As a Southwest Florida resident and senior fellow for environment policy at The Heartland Institute, I was surprised and appalled that on July 31, the News-Press published an irresponsible letter accusing Heartland of spreading “lies and mistruths” and creating “smokescreens about the reality of global warming.”

When environmental extremists irresponsibly claimed the Gulf Stream was on the verge of shutting down, The Heartland Institute reported the truth (see http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=20505 and http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/314/5802/1064a).

When environmental extremists irresponsibly claimed global warming was melting the glacier atop Mt. Kilimanjaro, The Heartland Institute reported the truth (see http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=14287 and http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/55553/page/1).

Time and again, global warming alarmists make wild, irresponsible assertions that are contradicted by sound science … and then they have the nerve to try to smear anybody that reports the scientific evidence. It is disappointing that the News-Press decided to publish just such a smear attempt.


James M. Taylor ([email protected]) is senior fellow for environment policy at The Heartland Institute.