<\/a><\/strong>When Unabomber Theodore J. Kaczynski becomes your poster child, you\u2019ve reached a new low. And that\u2019s exactly what happened recently in Chicago, when the Heartland Institute launched an anti-\u201cglobal warming\u201d ad campaign with a billboard on I-290 [Eisenhower Expressway]. The billboard featured a huge picture of the disheveled letter-bomber Kaczynski. The caption, in large maroon letters, said \u201cI still believe in global warming. Do you?\u201d<\/p>\n

The implication, of course, is that only maniacs, murderers and madmen think global warming is real. And the Kaczynski billboard was intended to be just the first in a series that would underscore that point. According to Heartland Institute\u2019s website, subsequent billboards were to have featured Charles Manson, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and Osama bin Laden\u2014all of whom, claims Heartland, have stated their support for the notion of global warming.<\/p>\n

The Heartland Institute is a Chicago-based, libertarian organization that describes itself as seeking \u201cfree- market solutions to economic and social problems.\u201d [Wait\u2026hasn\u2019t the free market created a lot of our economic and social problems? But that\u2019s a different post.]<\/p>\n

Heartland\u2019s website<\/a> also says that the organization chose to feature some of the world\u2019s most notorious killers on the billboards \u201cbecause what these murderers and madmen have said differs very little from what spokespersons for the United Nations, journalists for the mainstream media and liberal politicians say about global warming.\u201d<\/p>\n

But don’t jump in the car to get a first-hand look at the billboard. It’s already gone.\u00a0 Twenty-four hours after it launched the campaign, the Heartland Institute cancelled it. Apparently, the billboard was so extreme that it offended even some global warming skeptics, as well as, of course, people who embrace climate-change science. According to the New York Times, one of its critics was Ross McKitrick, a Canadian global-warming skeptic who was scheduled to speak at a Heartland conference in May. McKitrick said he would not participate in the conference unless the campaign was cancelled.<\/p>\n

Apparently, almost nobody warmed up to this particular anti-global-warming campaign. Heartland says it doesn\u2019t apologize for the idea, and that it was all just an experiment designed to get people\u2019s attention, and that it worked. Bottom line, though, it seems that the murderers-and-maniacs approach tells us more about the Heartland Institute than it does about global climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Unabomber Theodore J. Kaczynski becomes your poster child, you\u2019ve reached a new low. And that\u2019s exactly what happened recently in Chicago, when the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[994,451,715,1061,77,1253],"tags":[1190,1055,1551,1552],"yoast_head":"\n