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Home Front: Politix
General Motors pulls funding from climate sceptic thinktank Heartland
2012-03-31
[Guardian]. General Motors, the world's largest carmaker, has confirmed that it is pulling funding from the Heartland Institute, an ultra-conservative thinktank known for its scepticism about climate change.

The decision by the GM Foundation to halt its support for Heartland after 20 years underlines the new image the carmaker is seeking to project as part of its social responsibility programme.
The fact that the Obama administration controls GM via tax money extorted from you and from me has nothing to do with this, at least in the eyes of the Guardian.
In the past GM has itself been associated with efforts to discredit climate change science, but in recent years it has been investing heavily in green technologies and cars including the electric/petrol hybrid, the Chevy Volt.
Market distortions created by the Obama administration using tax money extorted etc. etc. apparently isn't involved in this shift, either.
In a statement, GM said that it now runs its business "as if climate change is real and believe we have a role to play in developing new cars, trucks and technologies that can make a difference".

The funding cut -- just $15,000 a year -- is small beer for the institute, which has a multi-million dollar turnover, largely from a single anonymous donor. But it is a blow to the standing of the thinktank and to the leading role it plays as an advocate of climate change scepticism.
A blow. A most grievous blow. An entire $15k blow. Take that, deniers!!!!
The thinktank has long been an incubator of ideas casting doubt that the world is warming as a result of man-made pollution.

GM's funding of Heartland was first revealed in a series of internal documents that have themselves become hotly contested as they were obtained under false pretences by prominent climate change scientist Peter Gleick. A specialist in water science who stepped down as president of the Pacific Institute as a result of the controversy, Gleick had persuaded the Heartland to pass him information about its policies and procedures by posing as a board member.

In fact, GM's donation was not related in any way to climate science but to a wholly different area of Heartland activity. Even so, the relationship has become too awkward for the carmaker to sustain.

The Heartland Institute said in a statement that GM's breach with it had been prompted by "false claims contained in a fake memo circulated by disgraced climate scientist Peter Gleick". The comment was a reference to one of the documents obtained by Gleick that appears to have been a forgery.

However, the disclosure of GM's funding was likely to have been contained in a separate document whose authenticity has not been called into question and that clearly contained accurate information about funders.
Posted by:lotp

#12  GM said that it now runs its business "as if climate change is real...

We also run our business as if arithmetic no longer applies and even though we are losing money on every Volt sold, we hope to make it up on volume. We're too big to fail!
Posted by: SteveS   2012-03-31 17:29  

#11  Obama Motors.

They should call it the Solyndra Institute to get funding.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2012-03-31 12:01  

#10  First read of the headline, I saw septic tank. Considering it was GM being talked about, figured a case of 'Redundant Editor Redunancy Insertion'
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2012-03-31 11:48  

#9  I wonder if they do the Two Minute Hate?

Of course it being GM, it probably takes twelve minutes.
Posted by: Pappy   2012-03-31 11:08  

#8  I hope Heartland sues Glieck's butt off. The guy rode the AGW gravy train for well over 20 years.
Posted by: phil_b   2012-03-31 04:38  

#7  From Wik. How times they have changed:

The song "See The U.S.A. In Your Chevrolet" (title as filed for 1950 copyright)[1] is a commercial jingle from circa 1949, with lyrics and music by Leo Corday (ASCAP) and Leon Carr (ASCAP),[2] written for the Chevrolet Division of General Motors Corp.[1] The song was the Chevrolet jingle sung on the show Inside U.S.A. with Chevrolet by Chevrolet's real-life husband-wife duo, Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy,[1] years before it became associated with Dinah Shore through Chevrolet's decade-long sponsorship of her television shows. Dinah Shore sang the song after 1952,[1] and it became something of a signature song for her. Later the song was also sung by male spokesman Pat Boone on his Pat Boone-Chevy Showroom (ABC) from 1957 through 1960. When the games of the Los Angeles Dodgers were televised in the 1960s,
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-03-31 01:56  

#6  Farts? First thing I learned in college was how to light my farts. Does that mean I had a Chevy Volt prototype coming out of my butt?
Posted by: Raj   2012-03-31 01:15  

#5  Unicorn farts...
Posted by: tu3031   2012-03-31 00:38  

#4  What's gonna be in those fire extinguishers? Halon? Carbon Dioxide?

Knowing the left, it'll prolly be silly string
Posted by: badanov   2012-03-31 00:37  

#3  What's gonna be in those fire extinguishers? Halon? Carbon Dioxide?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain   2012-03-31 00:29  

#2  15 grand, huh?
That'll probably pay for an extra fire extinguisher in every Volt that they've sold.
Posted by: tu3031   2012-03-31 00:20  

#1  In a statement, GM said that it now runs its business "as if climate change is real and believe we have a role to play in developing new cars, trucks and technologies that can make a difference".

Oh wow, man.

And here all this time I thought they were in the business of making money selling cars.

Didn't know there was a percentage from saving the planet.

Oh, wait.

There ain't
Posted by: badanov   2012-03-31 00:12  

00:00