What is the k-12 campaign?
Heartland's K-12 Campaign is an information campaign that is designed to encourage teachers to teach climate change as a controversial and uncertain theory of environmental science. The campaign consists of the distribution of copies of the book "Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming" to educators worldwide, specifically targeting science teachers inside the US. The book also comes with a DVD video from the President of Heartland, Joseph Bast, encouraging teachers to read the book and accept its ideals and "evidence." The book is penned by known Heartland consultants and is published under the NIPCC organization that the Heartland Institute founded.
accuracy of the book
DISCLAIMER: The following section of this website is author commentary and is based upon an investigation into the accuracy of Heartland's quoted sources, the nature of the book and personal judgement and opinion.
After briefly reading Heartland's book, the authors of this website came to a few conclusions in regards to the accuracy of Heartland's climate change claims. For starters, most of the sources, research and studies referenced within the book are from Heartland's own personal archives and posts from their respective "experts." Seeing as Heartland's "experts" are also the authors of the book and the book is published under a Heartland sponsored organization, Heartland supports most of its argument on climate change off of their own information. Aside from quoting themselves as scientific evidence for the disproof of climate change, the other sources referenced in the book can largely be considered to be out of date, with one of the sources quoted being from 1996, 1992 and later. As most of us are well aware, the environmental movement and climate change debate largely did not begin until the early 21st century, and only became visible on a national stage after 2008. Therefore, it can be said that with the velocity of scientific research and advancement and the salience of environmental issues on the world sphere, Heartland's information can largely be refuted simply because references are either not credible because they are biased or out of date. Furthermore, upon personal knowledge of the chemistry that underlies climate change, the greenhouse effect and more, the authors of this website have come to the conclusion to accept climate change as the molecular bonding of chlorine from CFCs to ozone have physically shown to break down stratospheric ozone and result in a hole in the Earth's protective ozone layer. Furthermore, the authors understand the chemistry of photochemical smog and the formation of thermal inversions which further contribute to climate change. And, even removed from a global perspective, the authors have seen the causation of thermal heat islands in cities where industrial consumption is at its highest. We have made our judgement on Heartland's claims, however, if you have yet to make your own judgement, we encourage you to read through the resources posted on our resources tab. We have compiled both articles from the Heartland website, science teachers, major news outlets and other blogs documenting the issue and we believe that they are well rounded enough to aid in the formation of your own opinions.
After briefly reading Heartland's book, the authors of this website came to a few conclusions in regards to the accuracy of Heartland's climate change claims. For starters, most of the sources, research and studies referenced within the book are from Heartland's own personal archives and posts from their respective "experts." Seeing as Heartland's "experts" are also the authors of the book and the book is published under a Heartland sponsored organization, Heartland supports most of its argument on climate change off of their own information. Aside from quoting themselves as scientific evidence for the disproof of climate change, the other sources referenced in the book can largely be considered to be out of date, with one of the sources quoted being from 1996, 1992 and later. As most of us are well aware, the environmental movement and climate change debate largely did not begin until the early 21st century, and only became visible on a national stage after 2008. Therefore, it can be said that with the velocity of scientific research and advancement and the salience of environmental issues on the world sphere, Heartland's information can largely be refuted simply because references are either not credible because they are biased or out of date. Furthermore, upon personal knowledge of the chemistry that underlies climate change, the greenhouse effect and more, the authors of this website have come to the conclusion to accept climate change as the molecular bonding of chlorine from CFCs to ozone have physically shown to break down stratospheric ozone and result in a hole in the Earth's protective ozone layer. Furthermore, the authors understand the chemistry of photochemical smog and the formation of thermal inversions which further contribute to climate change. And, even removed from a global perspective, the authors have seen the causation of thermal heat islands in cities where industrial consumption is at its highest. We have made our judgement on Heartland's claims, however, if you have yet to make your own judgement, we encourage you to read through the resources posted on our resources tab. We have compiled both articles from the Heartland website, science teachers, major news outlets and other blogs documenting the issue and we believe that they are well rounded enough to aid in the formation of your own opinions.
Responses to the book
After the 2012 document leak, there was some public uproar in regards to the motives of Heartland's initiatives, but for the most part, to the wide range of the public that is not as in tune to environmental issues, the campaign and the documents went unnoticed. However, as Heartland released their second phase of the K-12 campaign in 2016 with a new book and DVD sent to teachers, more and more people began to take notice, most notably the teachers receiving the campaign packets, and most of them referring to the campaign as anti-climate change propaganda. Since the second phase began, the public has taken much more notice in regards to the nature of the campaign and has been picked up by major news outlets like The Atlantic and Huffington Post. Aside from major reporting agencies picking up the story, science forums and teacher chat rooms have been flooded with comments warning other teachers of the campaign and encouraging them to immediately throw away the books should they receive one. However, Heartland has barely scratched the surface of their target market for the campaign, with their goal being to reach 200,000 teachers and educators with the second round of books. Despite warnings and awareness, some teachers, and even teachers who have slight skepticism regarding climate change may be easily swayed and convinced by the inaccurate information in the book. For that reason, the authors of this website set out to create a transparent and obvious warning about the Heartland Institute's initiatives.
One of the most notable responses to the book has come through high school AP Environmental Science teacher Brandie Freeman, who not only rejected the book, but refuted the book's content chapter by chapter on her personal blog. You can find her responses here.
One of the most notable responses to the book has come through high school AP Environmental Science teacher Brandie Freeman, who not only rejected the book, but refuted the book's content chapter by chapter on her personal blog. You can find her responses here.