Dear State Farm
May 7, 2012
I’m idly speculating about what it might be like to be a fly on the wall at at the Heartland Institute’s morning staff meeting, if there is such a thing. Presumably lots of non-fair-trade, non-organic, coffee has been consumed over the weekend trying to come up with face savers after last week’s PR disaster – the “Unabomber” theme billboards comparing mainstream scientists to lunatic psycho killers and terrorists.
There have been at least one defection among properly embarrassed donors and some dropouts and expressions of dismay among scheduled speakers for Heartland’s upcoming “Denial-Palooza” freakshow, which is just weeks away. Apparently, the incident has now done more to associate Charles Manson and Ted (unabomber) Kaczynski with Heartland itself, than with climate science.
Corporations generally make donations in order that the magic of some perceived good cause can rub off a little bit. Try to imagine how a perceived association with the Unabomber tends to corrode that warm and fuzzy feeling.
The incident has also sparked renewed calls to Heartland donors to stop supporting the anti-science, pro-tobacco hate group. There are several listings of Heartland donors on the web, including this one. Some of their customers have begun to question the wisdom of supporting organizations that actively work to destroy our children and their future.
One notable example came from Scott Mandia of the Climate Science Rapid Response Team
S. L. Otto in the HuffPost has more details.
Climate science professor Scott Mandia has been insured by State Farm Insurance for 21 years, but when he read that State Farm has apparent given hundreds of thousands of dollars (PDF) to climate denial propaganda outfit The Heartland Institute, he began to question his loyalty to the company.
Last week, Heartland rolled out a hate-oriented billboard campaign that compared scientists, science organizations, and federal agencies who acknowledge that science suggests human behavior is warming the planet to “murderers and madmen” like Charles Manson and Osama bin Laden.
After a nationwide public outcry, Heartland discontinued the offensive billboard campaign, but Heartland president Joe Bast refused to issue an apology.
The whole episode prompted Mandia to wonder why State Farm would support an apparent anti-science hate group like the Heartland Institute. He wrote State Farm the following letter, and gave me permission to publish it here.
What do you think? Should mainstream corporations give money to groups like Heartland that deny mainstream science?
May 7, 2012
State Farm Insurance
One State Farm Plaza
Bloomington, IL 61710Dear State Farm,
As per a recent conversation with Tony Ardise, my State Farm agent, I provided him two weeks’ notice that I intend to cancel all of my policies with State Farm Insurance because of its support of Heartland Institute. I have been a loyal customer for over 21 years and currently send almost $4,500 per year to State Farm. I do not wish my money to be sent to Heartland Institute — a group that recently compared climate scientists and those concerned about climate change to “murderers, tyrants, and madmen” such as Ted Kaczynski (Unabomber), Charles Manson, Fidel Castro, and Osama bin Laden. Although Heartland stated that they will remove the public billboards, their official statement offers no apologies. It is obvious that the billboards represent Heartland’s true feelings.
This indefensible and un-American assault on climate science is just the latest attempt by Heartland to discourage action on climate change, but there is a long history. As has been widely reported in mainstream media, Heartland Institute has been leading the charge for years to confuse our policymakers, the general public, and our school children about well-understood climate change science.
The United States National Academy of Sciences tells us that the climate is warming, humans are responsible, and that this behavior is increasing risks across a broad spectrum of society. Every international academy of science agrees and recent studies show that 97-98% of publishing experts concur.
Who else is concerned? Military and intelligence experts warn that climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions and health officials warn us that climate change could be the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. These are experts who are warning us of a serious problem. We need to listen to these experts and not to Heartland Institute.
State Farm states: “We’re working with organizations all across the country — organizations like the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS), Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and Protecting America – to help protect you and your family from the human injuries, property destruction, and financial impact that can result from natural disasters.” Climate change has been shown to have increased the frequency and intensity of droughts, fires, heat waves, and floods. Along with sea level rise, these types of disasters have already cost your industry many billions of dollars according to financial experts. I find it quite disturbing that State Farm would send money to a group that is clearly hurting its bottom line. Would the American Lung Association send money to Philip Morris?
General Motors and AT&T have publicly stated they will no longer fund Heartland Institute. State Farm should immediately do the same. If so, I will remain a loyal customer. Otherwise, I will take my business elsewhere.
Sincerely,
Scott A. Mandia
Mandia is Professor of Physical Sciences at Suffolk County Community College, Long Island, NY, and has been teaching weather and climate course for 25 years. Mandia is a co-founder of the Climate Science Rapid Response Team whose mission is to connect journalists and lawmakers with climate scientists. Mandia also co-founded the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund to protect climate scientists from politically-motivated legal challenges.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
May 8, 2012 at 4:17 am
Well done DB. You managed to get everyone to forget that Heartland is losing sponsors due to an ad campaign that disparaged anyone who disagrees with them as “unabombers, Hitlers, etc.”. You are a troll and not worthy of mention, but I would like to get back to the subject. It is painfully obvious that Heartland has blown it. I believe it would be called “ad hominem” attack. If the facts are so precious to Heartland, it displayed no interest in same when it elected to attack others with an appeal to base emotion rather than reason. Much like some other conservative mouthpieces who have run amuck at the mouth. What it does reveal is Heartland’s bias and its rather hate-filled nature. If you want to appear respectable in your arguments, act like it. Otherwise, its a lot of silly name-calling, or worse.
Going back to the subject, I think Peter properly characterized Heartland as, “anti- science, pro-tobacco, hate group”. The new wrinkle is hate group. Perhaps you would care to comment on why depicting those you disagree with as say “Hitler” or the unabomber is just reasonable and analytical discussion of facts, and to an ad hominem attack with hateful overtones.
May 8, 2012 at 4:31 am
@christopher, exactly…since in order to deflect everything there seems to be a growing list of dangerous types behind the climate alarmist thingy..ranging fro mad scientists to commuinists , satanists , and god knows whatits…the denier camp never seem to agree which..why do you think that is? you dont think its all hogwash do you…:)
May 8, 2012 at 4:32 am
chris i think you deserve your £500 for troll spotting..
May 8, 2012 at 9:15 am
I find it bizarre that insurance companies would be supporting denialist mouthpieces in the first place, because they would be hitching themselves to a wagon that would ultimately prevent them from limiting liability to pay out for damages caused by the kind of recurrent extreme weather events that climate change is likely to produce. Most other insurers are already limiting their lialbilities already. Indeed, I believe Peter covered just such a story some months ago.
May 8, 2012 at 2:33 pm
@daryan do you mean UK ‘oppressive’ gun laws? gun nuts in USA all think we have oppressive gun laws here..silly me, I just thought we didnt bloody want guns..
May 8, 2012 at 3:12 pm
oppressive gun laws here….
While we’re wandering off topic here, a farmer was telling me once about what he has to go thro to own a shotgun, he’s only allowed to own a breach loader (no pump action weapons allowed), limited to what ammo he can buy (literally bullet control), had to fill out a ton of forms and not only is his gun registered with PC plod, but they have his address, fingerprints, DNA, stool sample, etc. ;0
So next time an NRA guy complains, tell em to go to the UK……
May 8, 2012 at 3:15 pm
Oh, and I forgot the best bit…if a burglar breaks in he CAN’T shoot them, against the law, even if they are in the house & coming up the stairs, considered assault with a deadly weapon & the cops have banged up farmers for it before….course he could certainly wave it at them in a threatening manner….
May 8, 2012 at 8:11 pm
Well all the same, my feeling is that f you asked joe bloggs in the street ig he wanted a gun i rather he/she would say no thank you..add to that those terrible drug gang crimes with black kids being shot and the distraught mothers campaining about guns…oh and throw in binge drinkers and fights and the overstretched police imagine binge drinkers going out on the piss ‘tooled up’..
May 8, 2012 at 10:47 pm
i just found this..benefits scroungers and the ‘rise of the green police state’…
http://toryaardvark.com/tag/benefit-scroungers/…
May 8, 2012 at 10:50 pm
http://toryaardvark.com/category/green-lies/anthropogenic-global-warming-green-lies/
May 8, 2012 at 2:42 pm
btw…i’ve found another plotter of AGW ‘scam’…its the occultists..apparently…
May 8, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Wobbling Earth Triggers Climate Change
Regular wobbles in the Earth’s tilt were responsible for the global warming episodes that interspersed prehistoric ice ages, according to new evidence.
May 8, 2012 at 2:56 pm
@peter and all…so, lets see now:
satan worshipping jew communist oocultist rich scientists scamming for funding in league with big green business are wobbling the earth thats affecting the sun..yep that works..
May 9, 2012 at 1:28 am
I think you’re being a bit unfair here, bob. What did the freemasons do wrong to get sacked from all the best conspiracies?
And I notice the Illuminati are still hiding behind all these puppet groups. I reckon there must be some elbowing and jostling behind the scenes for different folks to get to the forefront in the juiciest conspiracies. Making the earth wobble sounds like the very latest thing – it’ll be something else next week. Probably the bilderbergs and the lizards turn then.
May 9, 2012 at 1:52 am
Ok i’ll add them to the list, here we go:
satan worshipping communist freemason jew illuminati who are behind green industrialists aiding mad scientists trying to get funding to profit these companies in league with alien lizard robots who have a machine that uses the sun to make the earth wobble..
that almost makes sense..but then i’m mental..
May 8, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Some other alternative Heartland Posters can be found on my blog;
http://reallysciency.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/hitler-liked-dogs-do-you.html
May 8, 2012 at 8:47 pm
Bobchewie, some time ago you linked to a very anti-Semitic post (presumably to demonstrate how crazy some people’s arguments can get). Just in case anybody visited that site and was in any way tempted to think they might be onto something, I think it may be worth reminding readers that Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitism was based on a 20th Century forgery that claimed to provide evidence for a Jewish plot to achieve global dominance…
To this day, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, is believed by Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood to be genuine; and is one of the main reasons for their continuing anti-Semitism.
See also this post on my old Earthy Issues blog:
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/earthyissues/martin_lack/528/from-hoax-to-hitler-and-on-to-hamas/
May 10, 2012 at 5:30 am
yes martin i am compiling a list of all the supposed plotters of the agw ‘hoax’..i hope no one was offended ..and yes i am aware of the forged document ‘the protocols of the elders of zion’ it gets mentioned everytime a hitler video is posted on youtube..i seem to spend ages arguing with retarded holocaust deniers..some arguments are so stupid its untrue..in fact i had one only a few hours ago
May 9, 2012 at 1:55 am
the bilderbergs all meet up to see how their masterplan is working out….to set up the NWO…I think the CEO behind it all is a Lee Harvey Adolf Oswald…