In the wake of the appalling and short-lived billboards put up by the Heartland Institute that claimed that those who accept the reality of man-made global warming were serial killers and terrorists, some corporate sponsors are pulling their funding of the organization. State Farm posted on its Facebook page:
State Farm is ending its association with the Heartland Institute. This is because of a recent billboard campaign launched by the Institute.
And that’s just the beginning. It was too much even for Rep. James Sensenbrenner, one of the most outspoken climate change deniers in the Republican party. He’s pulled out of an upcoming conference in response to the campaign.
Now the Heartland Institute has suffered its first major defection in the way of GOP public officials: GOP Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, a leading climate “skeptic,” will be pulling out of an upcoming conference sponsored by the group where he was supposed to speak, his spokesperson confirms to me.
A large group of insurers is also pulling its support and hammering the group as it does:
Growing unease among insurers crystallized late last week when Heartland purchased the first billboard in a campaign that likened climate advocacy to murder, terrorism and despotism. The electronic highway-side ad displayed a picture of Ted Kaczynski, who killed three people, next to the words “I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?”
“It was disgusting. It was revolting,” Brad Kading, president of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers, said of the ad in an interview over the weekend. “It was a terrible mistake.”
His group, which donated $125,000 to Heartland over the last two years, told the libertarian president of Heartland, Joe Bast, that their relationship is “untenable” in a letter Friday evening.
And even some of their own staff is furious and apparently preparing to leave the group:
Other insurers are also cutting ties in a major upheaval that coincides, sources say, with the departure of Eli Lehrer from Heartland’s Washington-based center, known by its acronym, FIRE. Lehrer and his staff were shocked by the billboard campaign, which they learned about in an emailed press release from Heartland headquarters Thursday, said Ray Lehmann, deputy director of the center.
“I don’t know what the goal was,” Lehmann said of the ad, which he called an “ad hominem attack” on climate advocates. “But it certainly was outside our project, and it did reflect badly.”
The Bermuda association is the only insurance group to publicly announce its withdrawal from Heartland as of Sunday, but others are already canceling their support as Lehrer completes his separation from the Chicago group, according to a source at one insurance company that is terminating its sponsorship.
“All of the insurers and reinsurers that funded Eli are either in the process of withdrawing funding from Heartland or are considering doing so,” said the source, who asked not be identified. “I think everybody’s reaction [to the billboard] was one of disgust and shock. It was the last straw for everybody.”
Lehrer was largely responsible for raising $1.03 million from insurers over the last two years for programs that seek reduced government subsidies in federal flood insurance, decreased development along coastlines and increased funding for efforts to strengthen homes against natural catastrophes…
When Lehrer learned of the billboard campaign, he began calling those companies to warn them, according to sources. During some of those conversations, Lehrer said he was seriously considering leaving Heartland.
“He’s gone,” the industry source said of Lehrer. “They’re negotiating out a departure for him and his team.”
Good. I hope it continues.
21 comments
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rowanvt
May 10, 2012 at 1:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And the poor persecuted Heartland Institute is wondering why they are being so maligned just because they told the truth.
*gag*
Hercules Grytpype-Thynne
May 10, 2012 at 1:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Not just “advocacy”: the mere fact of accepting the scientific consensus on the issue makes you just like Ted Kaczynski.
Ellie
May 10, 2012 at 1:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Second best news I’ve read all day!
suttkus
May 10, 2012 at 1:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’d be more excited about the backers pulling out of Heartland if it represented them actually changing their minds. It doesn’t. This money is just going to be moved to some other anti-reality organization.
slc1
May 10, 2012 at 1:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It should be noted that they were planning to add similar Osama bin Laden and Charles Manson billboards to their repertoire. Aside from everything else, what is there evidence that Mr. Manson believes and that Mr. bin Laden believed in global warming? I doubt that either of them ever gave it so much as a second’s thought.
slc1
May 10, 2012 at 1:30 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I wouldn’t celebrate too much. I’m sure that Charles and David Koch are quite prepared to make up any deficit that may accrue.
naturalcynic
May 10, 2012 at 1:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
One would think that the insurance industry would have had a clue about the actions of the Heartland Institute before this. After all, they are potentially serious losers if the climate gets nastier. They obviously thought about the problem with:
but failed to make the connection between these goals and the problems with denialism???
tommykey
May 10, 2012 at 1:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
SLC1, I believe OBL mentioned global warming in one of his fatwas against the United States.
Area Man
May 10, 2012 at 1:57 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
My thoughts about this are roughly the same as when advertisers pulled out en masse from Rush Limbaugh. Hey that’s great, but what were they doing supporting right-wing extremists in the first place? The mere fact that State Farm ever sent money to these guys pretty much guarantees that I won’t be buying insurance from State Farm (not that there was a strong probability of it happening anyway).
whirligig
May 10, 2012 at 2:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s hard to keep track of which companies are supporting terrible causes. I need an Android application that will let me scan product bar codes and give me an Index of Evilness for the producing companies so I know what not to buy. It should let me view the details behind the rating and the details should cite sources.
Call it “How Evil?” or something. I’m not joking, I want this enough that I would build it myself if I had the time and the evilness information.
dmcclean
May 10, 2012 at 2:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I can’t figure out why the “Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers” would want to join the camp of the AGW denialists in the first place?
Some parts of the island are relatively high (the maximum elevation is 76 m), but I’d have to think there are lots of high value properties on the shorelines, and the whole airport is only at 5m.
Area Man
May 10, 2012 at 2:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It appears that Heartland was doing some advocacy on behalf of the insurance industry that doesn’t have anything to do with climate change denial. From the short blurb above I can’t make out exactly what it was, but ironically it appears to have little to do with a “free market” approach.
But my question is, couldn’t the insurance companies have found some outfit to pursue their agenda that isn’t so ideologically extreme? It’s not just the climate change denial, Heartland was also a long-time advocate on behalf of the tobacco industry when they were still denying that cigarettes are bad for you. It’s not as if there’s a shortage of people or groups who will take insurance industry money to advocate on behalf of the insurance industry’s agenda. This is the equivalent of paying the Animal Liberation Front to advocate on behalf of gay rights.
Michael Heath
May 10, 2012 at 3:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Given these are prudent reasons to lobby Congress, one possible explanation is that Heartland had ties to Republican members of Congress these insurers could best reach through a libertarian/conservative-denialist group.
Attila
May 10, 2012 at 4:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I find it odd they are lobbying for items that seem heavily concerned over potential sea level rise — which most likely would be caused by global warming.
Michael Heath
May 10, 2012 at 5:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Attila writes:
Not mention being self-proclaimed free-marketers proclaiming libertarian solutions whose client base has them lobbying to offset the costs of sea-side development catastrophes onto taxpayers rather than owners and their insurance companies. Ya know, the private market. This reminds me of conservatives getting their panties in a bunch about the federal debt which they create when in power.
lippard
May 10, 2012 at 6:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I contacted USAA a few days ago, and they responded today that they have also cut funding to Heartland as a result of Lehrer’s departure. They said that their reason for funding had been to participate in Lehrer’s C-FIRE project.
Aliasalpha
May 10, 2012 at 9:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@whirligig
Its a good application idea but it’s running on a google platform so there’s going to be a little bit of evil in everything
StevoR
May 11, 2012 at 8:53 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
My cynical guess is that Heartland Institute will be renamed or “close” and then re-open in some new guise or be replaced by something nearly identical.
The HI name has been blackened beyond repair but their “work” will continue with a new badge.
(Didn’t Blackwater security company do this after their involvement in something or other awful with the Iraq war? Didn’t Union Carbide do that too after the Bhopal (spelling?) disaster? Aren’t there many more such examples?)
I could be wrong and hope I am.
I hope they soon disappear for good as do the rest of the Global Overheating Deniers but I’ll doubt we’ll be that fortunate. Although they’ve already done so much damage that we’ll find ourselves bitterly regretting in decades or even just years from now, methinks.
interrobang
May 11, 2012 at 9:41 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Stevo — Yes, Blackwater is now called Xe, Union Carbide was bought by Dow Chemical, Phillip Morris is now Altria, Andersen Consulting is now Accenture, and so on and so forth.
Michael Heath
May 11, 2012 at 9:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
terrobang:
They changed again to Academi, I forgot why.
badandfierce
May 14, 2012 at 1:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Who knew? “Hitler Ate Sugar” isn’t such a great argument.