The 'secret, corporate-funded' plan to make Americans doubt climate change

In a sort of reverse "Climategate," the libertarian Heartland Institute is embarrassed by a major leak. Here, 6 of the highlights The war over climate change flared up again this week, after an anonymous tipster leaked a trove of documents from the Chicago-based Heartland Institute, a libertarian group known, among other things, for opposing regulation of greenhouse gasses. In a sort of funhouse-mirror image of "Climategate" — the giant 2009 leak of supposedly conspiratorial emails among climate scientists — the Heartland document dump outlines one group's efforts to sow doubts about the scientific consensus that humans are dangerously changing the long-term climate through gas emissions. The Heartland Institute has implied that nearly all of the documents are authentic — they were apparently obtained when someone posing as a board member convinced a staffer to "re-send" the documents to a new email account. That's criminal fraud, Heartland said, and "we intend to find this person and see him or her put in prison for these crimes." In the meantime, here are six takeaways from what's already being called "Denialgate":

1. Heartland wants to sow doubt amongst grade-schoolers 
One ambitious plan detailed in the leaked documents is a K-12 curriculum designed to convince students that "whether humans are changing the climate is a major scientific controversy." Also "controversial": Whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant, and the reliability of the models showing how climate change works. This is necessary, Heartland says, because "principals and teachers are heavily biased toward the alarmist perspective." Heartland is clearly taking a page from "the religious Right's war on biology education and the science of evolution," says Brad Johnson at ThinkProgress. 

SEE MORE: Has climate change 'blocked' the next ice age? 

2. And it bankrolls "Denialpalooza"
The documents make it clear that the Heartland Institute is the "secret, corporate-funded" driving force behind the annual Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change. Called "Denialpalooza" by environmentalists, the lavish conference is "a conspiracy-theorist parody of the Nobel-prize-winning U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change," says ThinkProgress' Johnson. Heartland put up a four-year total of $1.6 million for the conference.

3. Heartland finances a stable of climate-change skeptics
One of the juicer documents lists the researchers Heartland supports on climate change, and how much it pays them for their work to counteract mainstream climate science and foster doubt. Topping the list is Craig Idso, founder of the Arizona-based Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, who gets $11,600 a month from Heartland. Weatherman-turned-blogger Anthony Watts received a total of $44,000, with another $44,000 pledged for later this year; University of Virginia physicist Fred Singer draws $5,000 a month plus expenses; and Australian geologist Bob Carter earns $1,667 a month. The researchers, when contacted, acknowledged the payments but said it had no influence on their work.

4. Blue-chip companies donated to Heartland
On Heartland's donor list are companies like tobacco giant Altria, Eli Lilly, Microsoft, GM, Comcast, and AT&T. Some of the companies, especially those with a record of supporting action to counter climate change, said their donations were for other projects, and distanced themselves from Heartland's views on global warming. Microsoft, for example, said it still believes "climate change is a serious issue that demands immediate worldwide action."

5. But most of the cash is from one mysterious donor
The institute's single biggest funder is mysteriously referred to as just "the Anonymous Donor." He gave $972,000 last year, and in 2008, he donated $4.6 million, or 58 percent of the nonprofit's entire budget. All in all, he's forked over $13 million over the past five years, almost all of it earmarked for global warming skepticism. In other words, says Richard Black at BBC News, "when the Heartland Institute speaks on climate change, it is speaking with the money, fundamentally, of one major donor. And we have no idea who he is."

6. Big Oil is almost nowhere to be found
"Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the Heartland documents was what they did not contain," say Justin Gillis and Leslie Kaufman in The New York Times: "Evidence of contributions from the major publicly traded oil companies." Environmentalists who have long suspected that Big Oil is secretly financing efforts to undermine climate science won't get much joy from the documents. But there is one exception: Charles Koch, bogeyman of the Left and co-owner of chemical giant Koch Industries, a major oil refiner. The Koch foundation gave $25,000 in 2011 and was projected to donate $200,000 this year.

Sources: ABC News, BBC News, Christian Science Monitor, Guardian (2), Huffington Post, New York Times (2), Reason, ThinkProgress, Watts Up

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Will Kickstarter 'change the world'?

The crowd-sourcing site reaches a major milestone, prompting big questions about the future of online fundraising for tech products, creative projects, and more Since it went live in 2009, Kickstarter has been the go-to website for those who need cash for do-it-yourself projects of all kinds, from comic books to indie movies to iPod watches. But the site had never featured a $1 million project — until last week, when two projects over the course of 24 hours surpassed that threshold. That's real money, and it's turning heads in the business world. Here, a guide to the latest twist in Kickstarter's "trailblazing" path:

Which projects passed the $1 million mark?
The first was the Elevation Dock, a sleek, aluminum iPhone dock that attracted more than 10,000 individual donations. The second was Double Fine Adventures, a throwback video game of the point-and-click variety developed by Tim Schafer (of Psychonauts and The Secret of Monkey Island fame).

Is this a trend or an anomaly?
It looks like Kickstarter's solidly on the upswing. Schafer's haul of $1.6 million surpassed the site's previous one-day record of about $740,000 — which had been set the previous day. And Kickstarter garnered more than $100 million in donations in 2011, up from $28 million in 2010. 

Do the project donors receive anything in return?
Unlike venture capitalist firms, Kickstarter donors do not receive a cut of future profits in return for their investment. (In the case of Double Fine Adventures, donors will receive a copy of the finished game.) Kickstarter doesn't want to be a traditional investment company, according to co-founder Yancey Strickler. "That's the disruption of Kickstarter," she tells GigaOm, "changing the question from 'Can this make money?' to 'Should this exist?'"

What does this hold for the future of crowd-sourcing?
A wide array of industries could see a "profound" shift away from traditional sources of funding, says E.D. Kain at Forbes. Is it possible that venture capitalists and middlemen will be replaced by "a whole new era of grassroots fund-raising and audience participation?" Kickstarter "will change the world," according to Greg Tito at The Escapist, particularly in creative industries where developers have traditionally relied on big companies and studios for financial backing.

Sources: The Atlantic, The Escapist, Forbes, GigaOm

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Bishops React to Obama's Change on Birth Control Rule

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that he and other bishops were waiting to see the details of proposed changes to a federal rule on birth control that President Obama announced Friday before deciding whether to embrace them. The rule would require religiously affiliated hospitals and universities to provide free contraception to their female employees.

As my colleague, Helene Cooper reports, the “accommodation” made by the president would allow such institutions and organizations to avoid paying for contraceptive care. Female employees, however, would be able to gain free access to birth control through their insurance plans, Mr. Obama said.

For months, Catholic bishops have been preparing a huge campaign to fight the new rule, my colleague Laurie Goodstein reported Friday.

In addition to reading letters from bishops about religious freedom at Masses across the country last weekend, the bishops also turned to YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to make their case that the dispute was not about birth control but government interference with religious freedom.

“The government has no right … to make you obey something that is contrary to your conscience.” – Archbishop Dolan ow.ly/8YiRD

— USCCB (@USCCB) February 9, 2012

This week, Speaker John A. Boehner promised legislation aimed at banning the rule. On Friday, some members of Congress used Twitter to dismiss Mr. Obama’s compromise approach, including Representative Marlin Stutzman, Republican from Indiana. Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat from Missouri, welcomed the change.

POTUS might have shuffled the deck but he’s playing the same game. His #HHS announcement changes nothing. bit.ly/xBeZ93

— Rep. Marlin Stutzman (@RepStutzman) February 10, 2012

Glad this got worked out today.Women get access to birth control, and Catholic Health Assoc agrees with new policy.

— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) February 10, 2012

Some people on Twitter are using the hashtag, #iusebirthcontrol, to voice their dismay over seeing politics and religion entering the discussion about the delivery of women’s health care services.

I was raised Catholic & #iusebirthcontrol It’s none of yr damn business why. Women shouldn’t have to justify sex,health,reproductive rights.

— Andrea Bronson (@AndreaBronson) February 10, 2012

Another Twitter user wondered if Catholic leaders would now turn their attention to other government laws and policies that are not consistent with church teachings.

#altuniverse Starting tomorrow, looking fwd to the same level of anger from @USCCB to pressure Republicans on #DeathPenalty and #DreamAct

— Christopher Duffner (@chrisduffner) February 10, 2012

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Hungary faces EU deadline to change laws, unlock aid talks

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - EU maverick Hungary will offer to tweak most of the laws at the heart of a dispute with Brussels when it responds formally to demands for change this week in a bid to unlock talks on vital aid.

The government's proposals are unlikely to differ from what it has been saying publicly for the best part of a month, but they should represent an effort to compromise that will push forward the process of finding a deal.

Officials will probably refuse to modify legislation in two areas previously criticized by the European Union: a cap on central bankers' salaries and an oath which the bank's leaders must take under the country's new constitution.

The latter issue is widely regarded as being largely symbolic but how Brussels responds will decide whether talks can be launched on a multi-billion euro financing backstop which the eastern EU member state needs to avert a full-blown market crisis.

"I don't think it will be all that smooth from now on, but we will be one step forward," said Zoltan Torok, an analyst at Raiffeisen. "There will be some more punches here and there, but we will make progress gradually (towards a deal with IMF)."

One lawmaker from Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz party said on Saturday talks on aid could start in early March and a deal could be agreed by May. [ID:nL5E8DAB5D]

But for formal talks to start, Orban, at odds with Brussels over a range of laws which some critics have called a threat to democracy, needs to reassure Brussels that his conservative government would respect the central bank's independence.

Addressing a domestic audience on Friday, there was little sign of the more conciliatory language that the prime minister has used towards the international community in recent weeks.

"There are many people in Hungary who are committed to European values, most of us are like that," he was cited as saying to a regional television station Eger Tv on Friday.

"But what we are experiencing, this kind of behavior, treatment ... this insulting, offensive tone how they talk with us and about us, does not make us friends of the EU...but rather its opponent."

Last month the Commission, the EU's executive, said new laws governing the central bank and the data protection authority threatened the two institutions' independence, and a third law which forced judges into retirement also violated EU rules.

On January 17 the Commission gave one month to Budapest to formally respond to its concerns, or face legal action. That would make Friday the deadline for a response.

Orban gave ground publicly on the EU's demands only after the forint plunged to record lows versus the euro and bond yields hit a ruinous 11 percent in the first week of January.

Now he will have to reassure both the EU and investors, who finance Hungary's high debt, that he is truly willing to comply with lenders' demands and would take the concrete steps needed for talks about a new financing deal to start.

HIGH HOPES

The IMF/EU safety net is vital for Hungary to restore confidence as it prepares to roll over nearly 5 billion euros of external debt on top of forint bond expiries this year amid the euro zone debt crisis.

Ruling Fidesz party lawmaker Antal Rogan told daily Magyar Nemzet on Saturday that he was certain a deal could be finalized by the middle of the second quarter.

"I think an agreement with the EU is possible on all three issues: the central bank, the data protection and also the issue if judges, the judiciary," Rogan told the paper.

But analysts said that even if these issues are resolved, the road to an agreement could be rocky due to the government's unorthodox economic policies and the country's fiscal risks.

The government has pledged to remove large windfall taxes on energy, retail and telecoms firms by 2013, and has also promised to halve the bank tax. But a sharp slowdown in the economy could jeopardize this year's budget deficit target of 2.5 percent, and next year looks even more challenging.

"Where I see the problem is the 2013 budget, how the government can prevent an overshoot in the deficit if crisis taxes are phased out, and this is where the government will have to offer a reassuring answer to lenders," Raiffeisen's Torok said. "I can't see for the time being what this reassuring solution could be."

(Reporting by Krisztina Than)

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