Issue and Opponent: The Heartland Institute is considered a pseudo-think. It is the leading denier of global warming and is often cited by conservative politicians. The Heartland Institute holds regular conferences on climate change denial, publishes reports that question climate science, and provides direct funding to prominent deniers. Leaked documents revealed the Heartland Institute’s strategy to promote global warming denial in schools through curricula that positioned climate change as a “major scientific controversy.” These documents also revealed organizations that had been funding the Heartland Institute, and General Motors (GM) was one of several companies exposed to funding climate change denial. In 2009 and 2010, it contributed $15,000 to the think tank.
Dilemma Action: Forecast the Facts, an advocacy group focused on increasing awareness of climate change, targeted GM after leaked documents revealed it provided funding to the Heartland Institute. Their campaign would target the company’s customers to effect change. Forecast the Facts collected more than 20,000 signatures. In total, nearly 10,000 of the signatures were from GM car owners, all calling for the company to pull its funding from the Heartland Institute.
Outcomes: General Motors initially defended its support of Heartland. One of their spokespeople even stated, “We support a variety of organizations that give careful and considerate thought to complex policy issues, and Heartland is one of them.” However, after the group’s continuous campaign, GM pulled its funding from the Heartland Institute, with its CEO declaring “GM’s CEO. “We know that we’re not going to be able to stop Heartland from being Heartland. What we can do is make sure whoever is associated with them pays a price for that”. The Heartland Institute’s president, Joe Bast, issued a massive attack on Forecast the Facts. Bast del eared that the petition was a fraud and defended his organization by denying the Heartland Institute’s climate change denial. It later stated that the organization regretted the loss of support from GM.